Notice to DTC marketers: when fair balance causes more issues than product benefits..Don't advertise !!!!
The fair balance for Byetta is not good...
Call your doctor if you get severe abdominal pain or persistent vomiting, which could be signs of a serious condition. Other common side effects with BYETTA include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, headache, feeling jittery, and acid stomach. Nausea is most common when first starting BYETTA, but decreases over time in most patients.
So Lilly thinks that people who are targets for this spot may be more interested in losing five pounds while possibly throwing up, nauseous and dealing with diarrhea ? This is a perfect example of spending money in the wrong channel to reach people with a message that is going to cause more problems than help diabetics select treatment options. Rather than reach out to these people through CGM on the Web they allocate money to TV to make their agency people happy.
Exubera.com is getting more traffic than
Byetta.com but with the increase in DTC
we'll see who gets more
Some people would argue that TV spots are
essential to increase awareness and I agree with
that philosophy. But numerous studies, including
one from MSN, show that once awareness has
reached a certain level the ROI on TV diminishes
substantially. Byetta, which has already been on
the market for a while, has generated a lot of
awareness among Type 2 diabetics because of the
side effects of weight loss. There have been a
lot of media stories about Byetta as well and a
recent visit to some type 2 diabetes chat rooms
showed me that people are still "buzzing" about
the product with some reporting major weight loss
of 20 pounds or more.
If I know the marketers at Lilly they tested the
message and this spot over and over again and
thus the problem. Take what maybe 15-20 people
say about a TV commercial and apply it to the
whole target market of Type 2 diabetics. Rather
than someone saying "the fair balance is going to
kill us" they go ahead with a campaign that ranks
right up there with Rozerem. If you have to test
and retest messages you don't have your finger on
the pulse of the market. Marketing is not a
science as much as MBA schools would have you
believe it is an art. Apple does not test product
designs with customers first they KNOW what
people want.
The Byetta grass roots events campaign that I
highlighted on this BLOG is a wonderful way to
reach out to patients about diabetes and
treatment options. It's too bad that someone ego
at Lilly thought that DTC advertising was a good
idea. Over time I'll post the increases in
traffic to the Byetta.com site so that we can
determine if the campaign has worked and to what
extent. It will raise awareness but it might wind
up raising awareness of the wrong thing.
People are going to a variety of websites for
information on Diabetes before going to
Byetta.com
Byetta.com right now is not getting that much
traffic but let's take a look back in a month
after the DTC campaign
Right now, according to Quantcast, Byetta.com is
averaging 33,000 monthly unique website visitors
through the end of August. As the click stream
analysis indicates (above) people are going to a
variety of sites to compare medications and
treatments. Byetta would have done a lot better
to reach out to the influencers and keep the buzz
going than to do a DTC campaign with fair balance
that is going to cause confusion and concern.
Lilly is doing everything by the numbers and thus
the problem..the numbers don't always tell a
story.