iPhone Application from Sanofi Aventis maybe just the start of new marketing opportunities in DTC

About the Author

Richard Meyer is a passionate Internet DTC marketer with over 15 years of progressive experience in consumer marketing who`s worked on top pharmaceutical brands like Cialis, Prozac and Sarafem, as well as two years with Medtronic Diabetes. He is currently consulting for his own company, Online Strategic Solutions, and writes a DTC column for PM 360 magazine and blogs for Eye for Pharma in addition to his own blog, World of DTC Marketing.

Stat of the day: Mobile ad spending will grow 42% in 2010, to $593 million. By 2013, it will be a $1.56 billion industry and if pharma doesn’t jump on this than they truly don’t know the meaning of the word opportunity. AT&T and Verizon are in an ad war to promote their 3G coverage and the winners of this war are going to be consumers who are demanding higher access speed to the web from their mobile devices.

Go Meals

Want to check you blood glucose levels? Simply pull up an app on your iPhone that is connected to your glucose monitor. Want to share your glucose trends with your physician? Set up the app to send it to your physician and when you go in for your routine appointment your doctor can see if there are any issues with your blood sugar and diet. This is just the start of great things to come folks. Intel is already working on home medical devices that monitor things like blood pressure and automatically send the results to your computer or your physician via eMail.

In depression an app might ask “how do you feel today?” and track the results day by day so that you can share them with your HCP. In mobile applications the sky is the limit and there are lot of possibilities because right now technology is moving at light speed. This DTC opportunity is not knocking at the door it is pounding demanding to be let in. The key is to combine business objectives with a useful application in an age of people who want to take control of their own health decisions. This means thinking “what is the value to the user” first and then asking “how can we integrate brand objectives without selling?”

Growth = opportunity

If you think mobile applications are just for consumers then take a look at the article in today’s Fast Company about the iPhone apps for physicians. This is one reason why the Apple tablet is going to be huge for HCP’s. Pharma should be preparing for the rapid growth of mobile marketing NOW because we know that they tend to move at the speed of a slug. More importantly they need forward thinking people who can see the big DTC picture and think integration of all consumer touch points.