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WEFRA LIFE Readership studies: Performance Booster for your media planning

Individual appeals to target audience segments – like the ones seen in the FMCG sector – are becoming increasingly relevant in healthcare marketing, too, these days. For this reason, WEFRA LIFE had a new reach study conducted for the three major indications of diabetology, cardiology and pulmonology as part of its precision marketing approach. In the future, this will let a gross budget volume of approximately €11.8 million* for print media alone be allocated more effectively and efficiently.

The number of studies done for the pharmaceutical sector has been very good for decades, especially through the work of LA-MED. However, until now, there have been few insights into the media usage patterns of a few, yet very important, target audiences.

For instance, media planning so far has continued to use typical criteria such as the periodicals of various professional associations, publisher reputation, possibilities for editorial collaboration and the cost per thousand prints. Yet none of these are hard facts that are aligned with the media usage patterns of practising doctors. It remains unclear if the selected media categories and media themselves are also generating maximum benefits for the companies placing the advertising. On top of that, it is important to know which touchpoints these target audiences use, how they use them and how extensively they use them. Are they predominantly using print media still? Or has their consumption become more digital now?

Representative, informative and dependable data

To provide answers to these questions, WEFRA LIFE had the market research institute IFAK conduct a study of reach for the major indications of diabetology, cardiology and pulmonology. The institute, which is also involved in the LA-MED specialist doctor study, LA-DENT and LA-PHARM, based its new study on the German Advertising Federation’s framework schema, analogously to the aforementioned established studies, and carried out a detailed examination of twelve industry publications specialising in diabetes, ten in cardiology and nine in pulmonology. A further seven specialist portals were examined on top of that. Because of the study, there is now for the first time representative and dependable data for the specialist target audiences in these three indication fields, and this data provides informative insights into their media usage patterns. Not only the three indications were studied, but also the activity areas of ‘Doctors in Private Practice’ and ‘Consultants and Senior Physicians’. There were also questions to derive insights into digital behaviours.

More cross-media planning certainty

Thanks to the precise differentiation within the three medical specialisations as well as in the distinctions between other doctor specialisations, it was possible to obtain unique findings about the media usage and reading patterns of these target audiences. Using the knowledge of who uses which channels and how extensively they use them, it is now possible to find out what print titles and what online platform suits the target audience best. This is because the new findings from the digital survey are being linked with the digital benchmark database of the planning unit, and that in turn also answers the question of the best value for money in print and online ads.

Efficiency increases of a three-digit percentage

The findings collected in 2017 and 2020 from the first reach study, for the field of oncology, already proved very helpful, with most planning optimisations resulting in efficiency increases of a three-digit percentage for the businesses concerned. The initial results indicate that similarly high efficiency increases should be expected thanks to the new study.

Optimisation of media performance on the same budget

Using the reach study underpinned by market research, WEFRA LIFE has developed an exclusive tool with which pharmaceutical companies can significantly improve their media planning. The previously chosen title frequency is examined, the previous media spending is looked at and the opportunities to see achieved in the previous media mix are counted. The next step is to calculate what the client can achieve on the same budget with the new and improved title/frequency mix according to the study. The result? A performance booster, usually of a three-digit percentage amount, which means significantly increased reach on the same budget. Further efficiency increases are possible by using the WEFRA EHP system.

Summary

Data-based marketing is going to be the future when the task is to appeal to target audience segments more precisely through increased individualisation. With the new reach study, WEFRA LIFE has brought to the market a further instrument for three important target audiences that enables precision marketing in day-to-day media planning. It makes media planning for the three indications significantly more efficient as greater performance can be achieved on the same budget.

* Print revenues in 2021, PharmaMonitor, retrieved on 4 March 2022

A focus on studies:

Insights into the ‘digital revolution’ of the media landscape

To obtain more detailed insights into the media usage patterns of selected doctor specialisations, Wefra Life last year had the market research institute IFAK conduct a study of reach for the three major indications of cardiology, pulmonology and diabetology. Media expert Sabine Richter, member of the Management Board of Wefra Life Media; and IFAK Managing Director Sören Winzer explain here what the objective of the study was, the results that were surprising and how study data like this will influence the future of media work.

Sabine, what was the objective of your reach study in the three indication fields of cardiology, pulmonology and diabetology?

Sabine Richter (WEFRA LIFE MEDIA): A valid data basis is essential for campaign success these days. Without a representative data basis that can be extrapolated to the doctor community, our clients would be making strategically important investment decisions completely blindly. For example, the most important question currently is whether it is still efficient to invest in print or whether advertising spend needs to be progressively switched to digital. We can now answer these key questions and similar ones with the reach study for the three highest-revenue internal medicine indications.

Sören, what were the special requirements for this study?

Sören Winzer (IFAK Institut): The objective of the study was to obtain valid data about information-finding patterns and about the media usage of doctors in private practice, consultants and senior physicians. Using it, current key media figures for industry periodicals – as well as a number of specialist medical websites – of relevance to the market could be provided. For this reason, it was important to choose a methodological approach where the results were representative and could be extrapolated to the population studied. To that end, we aligned ourselves with the German Advertising Federation’s framework schema, which contains the industry-wide accepted methodological standards for performing reach studies.
Moreover, the target audience can be a challenge with studies like these. With things such as more bureaucracy and increased patient numbers, doctors have less and less time for surveys. This meant the study design needed to be directed flexibly to the doctors’ differing time needs. With limited time available, the financial aspect also of course plays a role in a doctor’s consideration of how to invest their free time. It was also essential that we provide the participants with remuneration commensurate to the length of the survey.

Were there findings that you were not expecting?

Sören Winzer: It confirmed the findings that we had already obtained from many other media usage studies involving doctors. Doctors these days use many different sources in parallel with each other when they are looking for professional information. Something that is interesting, for instance, is that none of the respondents listed the internet as their sole source of information. However, it should generally be noted that digital media usage by doctors has risen overall in recent years. This is very likely one of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is said to have further increased doctors’ acceptance of digital information offerings. At the end of the day, it is the usage situation that decides which medium is used and at what time. Digital channels have the advantage of being available more quickly, more up to date and more interactive. Digital media usage is particularly widespread among younger doctors who are more familiar with the new technologies. However, print media is still important, especially in relation to in-depth information or academic studies. Many doctors see print media as more credible, more serious and of higher quality than digital media. For this reason, it is important that media providers offer print formats as well as digital ones to cater for the varying needs and preferences of doctors.

Sabine, what did the study bring you?
Sabine Richter: The study results support and back up our transparent, data-based planning approach which sees representative data as essential. With it, advertising budgets can be allocated to print and digital ads in a manner appropriate for specific media usage and, most importantly, efficiently. We can even estimate the effectiveness contributed by an additional investment in digital ads in relation to the total reach of a campaign.

Are further studies being planned?

Sabine Richter: The latest study data is just a momentary snapshot. It enables us to illustrate an image of the current reality of media usage. Doctors, too, are facing constant change when it comes to technological progress, regulatory updates and so on. The important question is when we will reach the tipping point – away from print and towards digital – in doctors’ media usage. We need to be prepared for this and react accordingly at that time. That is why we will rely on specially initiated studies in cooperation with IFAK in the future, too. Through them, we can establish representative data pools so that reliable and transparent media investment decisions can be made for our clients in our current and future data-driven reality.

Source: Original publication, Pharma Relations, issue 10, 2 October 2023.

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