Television commercials can increase OTC products’ market share the most

In 2017 Atmedia teamed up with Quintiles IMS to analyse how advertising in different media types affects the market shares of different OTC brands in Hungary. The experts found that just like in case of FMCG products, spending more on ads results in a bigger market share for OTC brands. It also turned out that the most efficient tool is television.

László Karácsony
strategic and marketing director
Atmedia

László Karácsony, strategic and marketing director of Atmedia told our magazine that the research approached the topic not from a media perspective, but from a sales viewpoint. Based on actual sales data, they analysed how different media types have affected the sales performance of brands and their market share. Atmedia analysed 15 brand campaigns from 5 therapeutic groups in a 3-year period (2014-2016), on a weekly basis, brand by brand and medium by medium. The research revealed that television is the media type that can result the highest increase in market share of OTC products. Consequently, television should be the most important element of the media mix when communicating brand messages. Mr Karácsony added that the efficiency of the campaign is also influenced by how evenly the money is spent.

It was a very important finding of the study that television commercials increase the market shares of both small and large brands. It also turned out that it is more effective to advertise on television than promoting products with price discounts. Using the TGI database, Atmedia examined those consumers closely who spend more than HUF 5,000 on OTC drugs per month. There are more women among them than men, they are older than 50 years, they live in Budapest and have an income above the average. Those who buy OTC products tend to belong to an age group that watches more television than the average – this also explains why television commercials work so well.

The most important thing to be learned from the study is that besides keeping in mind the peculiar characteristics of various media types, it is also advisable to put greater effort into analysing investments and returns. It is typical that media presence is planned and bought using KPIs that are likely to affect sales and market share, such as effective reach and frequency in case of television and the number of unique visitors with online campaigns. The ROI-based approach should be made as important as planning based on the index numbers of the media plan. In case of online ads the necessary data are available instantly, but with offline activities extra efforts are needed to get the data. However, this is in the interest of advertisers, media agencies and media owners as well. //