2021's Pharmaceutical Ad Spend on AM/FM Radio 2.5X 2018

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, June 13, 2022

Cumulus Media

The Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group (AAG) has released an analysis of the pharmaceutical category. This included data from Nielsen Media Impact, Nielsen's media plan optimization tool, a MARU/Matchbox national study conducted over the course of two years from February 2020 through October 2021 and pharmaceutical ad creative testing results from the Advertising Benchmark Index (ABX).

"Pharmaceutical brands have discovered network radio, and it is one of our fastest growing categories," said Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Marketing for Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One. "The big revelation for pharma brand advertising is that audio does all the heavy lifting, and the visuals are secondary. ABX creative testing reveals radio creative performs at 90% of the effectiveness of TV for 25% of the CPM."

The pharmaceutical category analysis reveals insights for marketers, agency media planners and buyers in the space. Some highlights include:

• 2021's pharmaceutical ad spend of $126 million on AM/FM radio was up 2.5X from 2018's $49 million, according to Miller Kaplan network radio ad spend analysis.

• According to Nielsen Media Impact, pharmaceutical/OTC brands see an average incremental reach increase of +38% when including AM/FM radio with TV.

• Shifting 20% of an arthritis medication's TV budget to AM/FM radio afforded the brand a significant reach advantage versus its competition (+29%) and increased its total share of voice from 22% to 39%.

• Listeners who suffered from a digestive ailment and were exposed to the medication's AM/FM radio ads were more likely to research medication information. The campaign also grew ad recall (+41%) and aided awareness (+13%).

• A pharmaceutical brand saw its TV reach drop -33% over a four-year period with the same spend due to the erosion of TV audiences. Shifting 30% of the October 2021 TV budget to AM/FM radio recovered the lost reach, generating a +51% lift in campaign reach.

The complete pharmaceutical category analysis is available at WestwoodOne.com/blog.