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The rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the United States dates back to the mid-1990s when Claritin® began running their "Blue Skies" campaign. The influence of DTC gained even more momentum in 1997 when the FDA released draft guidance enabling the use of broadcast television ads. Since that time, DTC pharmaceutical marketing budgets have soared into billions of dollars per year. We are now at a similar inflection point in pharmaceutical advertising, this time driven by the rise of social media technologies. The age of DTC is drawing to a close, and the age of DWC is here.

I spend a fair amount of time on airplanes for business and some for pleasure and always try to take the nonstop flight to my destination. I find the direct route to be the most efficient, yet, my choice is often determined by carrier and their choice of hub. On a recent trip, I spent several minutes staring at the departure board and had an epiphany—how can pharmaceutical organizations learn from Southwest's model?

How hot is social media right now? You probably are a user of (if not completely addicted to) Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging, and texting, to name the most common that come to mind. And if the latest statistics are any indication, it’s the fastest growing segment of the Internet and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. For example, Facebook alone claims at least 175 million users log in every 24 hours, up from the previous 120 million and has more than 350 million users globally—6 months ago this was 250 million—a 40% increase in half a year.*

As of late, the pharmaceutical industry is increasing their leverage of social platforms. However, pharma remains in a “test and learn” mode, cautiously testing the social waters, particularly in the heavily regulated prescription realm. On the DTC side, there’s more excitement and forward momentum, as evidenced by the recent Nicorette mini Lozenge launch, leveraging a Facebook page to augment the online and offline campaign efforts.

Let’s face it, the traditional pharmaceutical sales model is eroding: gone are the big dinners, “medically relevant gifts,” and brand name reminders that litter the office of many doctors. However, sales targets continue to rise, and it seems like the deck is stacked against rep success—but is it? Or is the problem that reps fail to realize the available assets at their disposal?

Historically, Important Safety Information was that large, unpleasant-to-read block of text at the bottom of every pharmaceutical product Web page. It was clearly separated from the main content and was sometimes presented in a smaller gray-colored font, just because it had to be there. As consumers became more Web savvy, though, the ISI became a more important part of their search for product information.

As user demand for iPhone and iPad applications adds yet another medium for all creative professionals in the interactive industry to concept, execute, and develop, it’s a necessity that they add an arsenal of design tools to their bookmarks. This article on Smashing Magazine provides a lot of great links, information, and comping tools that every Web designer should have:

One of the greatest challenges that all interactive designers must account for is that every user will experience the information on a site uniquely because, well, every person is unique in their background, environment, education, and experiences. It’s a very tall order to make considerations for every user and every possible way that each unique user will interact with a site, but after reading a great article on UX Magazine written by psychologist Susan Weinschenk that order seems more predictable.

Traditional pharmaceutical marketing dictates a quarterly review of market data, strategies, and tactics and implements a ‘reset’ to the field thereafter. But does this make sense in light of customer behavior?

With the influx of real-time data sourced from developing media, combined with new tactics in harnessing existing interaction data, the pharmaceutical organizations still relying on this quarterly method are missing out on many opportunities to better understand their customers.

I admit that I’m a fanboy for Pepsi’s Refresh Project: www.refresheverything.com. I had completely ignored the TV commercials; they didn’t make me want to go to the site at all.