Using patient-level data to measure the effectiveness of pharmaceutical online consumer marketing (eMarketing)

Using patient-level data to measure the effectiveness of pharmaceutical online consumer marketing (eMarketing)

By Jim Mansfield, Product Line Director, Consumer Programs, Verispan

Dec/2004

Objectives Every pharmaceutical brand employs online marketing (eMarketing) to advance the message of the brand to consumers. The objective of this study is to use patient-level data to determine the effectiveness of eMarketing in influencing consumers to fill and refill prescriptions.

Research Design and Methods We obtained from ComScore, an Internet market research company, a panel of consumer households that have accessed Nexium.us.com and Purplepill.com. We used Verispan’s patient-centric longitudinal database to match prescription retail and mail-order claims to develop cohorts of patients. Only consumers who were data-eligible were used in this study to control for eligibility and decrease any patient leakage.

Eligible patients totaled 4,200 and were classified as new to therapy, new to brand, or continued based on their claim history for the prior 12 months. A one-to-one matched- pair control group was developed by matching consumers on age (10-year buckets), gender, study brand prescriptions (claim counts), market prescriptions (claim counts), and plan (by last prescription). Conversion to therapy was compared to the control group. Conversion was defined as any consumer who had a prescription claim after accessing Nexium.com or Purplepill.com. Cumulative conversion rates and the time to convert were calculated for all cohorts.

Results

• Consumers who accessed the Web sites were classified as New to Nexium (new to brand), New to Nexium (new to therapy), and Continuing on Nexium cohorts. The percentage of consumers was found to be 26%, 64% and 10% respectively.

• The cumulative conversion rate for the New to Nexium (new to brand) cohort was 5% vs. 3% for the control group. This was statistically significant.

• The average time to convert for the New to Nexium (new to brand) cohort was 66 days vs. 74 days for the control group, which was approximately 11% faster.

Conclusions The findings document and prove pharmaceutical eMarketing increases patient conversion. This suggests an opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to expand online marketing during mass media campaigns. Results from these analyses can easily drive ROI models to determine a positive NPV for expansion or reallocation.

Jim Mansfield is Product Line Director, Consumer Programs at Verispan. He can be reached at Jim.mansfield@verispan.com