Manhattan Research Strategic Insight®

Taking the Pulse® Europe 2011 #10

Are online promotion investments meeting demand ?

There is an unmet demand for online promotional programs in the EU. In 2011, 20% of EU physicians participated in an online promotional program, either by conducting a self-guided program, a live one-on-one online presentation or a live/recorded webcast. However, 16% of EU physicians have not participated in an online promotional program but are very interested in doing so.

Unmet demand for online promotional programs is highest in Italy and the United Kingdom. In both of these countries 18% of physicians are currently participating in online promotional programs, while an additional 20% of physicians are not participating but very interested in doing so. This finding suggests that a deficit in the number of campaigns and/or physicians’ inability to find programs when they need them are potential contributing factors to the sub-optimal adoption in these markets.

In order to improve physician participation in online promotional programs, marketers should consider making these programs more accessible through non-pharma properties. Among EU physicians very interested but not currently participating in online promotional programs, 53% of physicians would like to access these programs via a physician portal websites (e.g. Doctors33 and Medscape), while just 24% are interested in accessing them through a product website.