Pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceutical marketing
Someone with a symptom is not choosing a product. They want to feel well today and to be sure they are not harming themselves. So they ask the pharmacist, and the decision is made two metres from the counter.
Before choosing channels we establish what the product is, because prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, supplements and cosmetics each follow different rules.
Where the rules and the sale come apart
Everything sits in one plan
Prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, supplements, cosmetics and medical devices are advertised in different ways. A single plan for all of them is both impossible and risky.
The decision happens at the counter, not at the screen
Search brings people to the pharmacy, but the choice is often made after the question to the pharmacist. When they do not know the product, your advertising pays for someone else's sale.
People search the symptom, the page describes the box
The page covers composition and format, while people search for what to do about a cough at night. The two languages never meet.
Platforms stop the campaign
Ad networks have their own health rules and they are often stricter than the law. A campaign gets rejected although the rules would allow it.
Corrections send everything back to the start
Copy is written, then goes for review, then comes back. When the review is left until last, the season has already passed.
What changes in the order of work in pharmaceuticals
In pharmaceuticals the order of work depends on what the rules allow for the specific product. So the steps of the way we work start from the product and the audience.
Goal
The goal is set separately for each product group and audience, because the rules and the path to purchase differ. For a pharmacy the goal is often a visit rather than an order.
Check
We check what the product allows, what the platform allows, and whether forms collect health data that is not needed. The check runs before the writing, not after it.
Channels
Content on the question people search with, the map listing and the profile of the location, reminders to people who already know you, and advertising only where the rules permit it.
Report
After revenue and cost, the report carries the messages platforms stopped and the reason. We also follow the season, because for most products it explains the change better than the campaign does.
The services that matter in pharmaceuticals
The advertising rules in the sector
Here the first question is not what to say, but who we are allowed to say it to at all. The answer depends on the type of product.
Only medicines that are supplied without a prescription may be advertised to the general public, and advertising prescription medicines on the internet is prohibited. Advertising to the public needs a permit from the Bulgarian Drug Agency before it runs. The content follows the approved summary of product characteristics and only the approved indications, without overstating them, and the advertisement itself carries required elements, among them the reminder to read the leaflet and the permit number. An advertisement may not promise a gift or any other benefit. A medical specialist, or anyone presenting themselves as one, may not advertise medicinal products directly or indirectly in the media or online, which matters for campaigns involving doctors and pharmacists.
Trade catalogues and price lists do not count as advertising as long as they carry nothing promotional. So a pharmacy has more freedom to show stock and price than to praise a product. Prices, discounts and gifts on prescription medicines, however, are not advertised. And the window, the shelf and the pharmacy website, when they feature a specific medicine sold without a prescription, are advertising to the public and follow the same route: the permit is applied for by the marketing authorisation holder, so the campaign is built together with them. Selling prescription medicines online is prohibited, and those without a prescription may be sold online only by a pharmacy or drugstore holding that permission, which publishes the common European Union logo on its site. A purchased medicine cannot be returned, which makes the description and the advice part of the sale rather than an addition to it.
Food supplements follow the rules on nutrition and health claims, cosmetics the rules on claims for cosmetic products, and medical devices the ban on attributing properties the device does not have. What the three have in common is that none of them may be presented as if it treats or prevents a disease.
Every piece of copy, every visual and every post is reviewed against the sector rules before it runs. Copy about a specific product is based only on the information you provide and approve.
Our review is not legal advice and does not replace approval from your responsible specialist or lawyer. Whether a message can run is your decision.
- A symptom getting in the way today: A cough, pain, an allergy. Searched in the evening and on the move, decided at once, and an explanation of what to do is worth more than a description of the product.
- A product taken for months: Vitamins and supplements are abandoned quietly. What works here is the reminder and the explanation of when an effect is expected, not a new campaign.
- The season that comes every year: Colds and flu peak in the winter months. Content is prepared before the peak, because during it people read rather than write.
- Choosing a pharmacy: Proximity, stock and price decide this, not the brand. Opening hours, the map listing and the phone number are part of the marketing.
- The pharmacist behind the counter: Theirs is the recommendation the buyer hears last. Material for them is a separate job from advertising to the public and follows different rules.
- The doctor who prescribes: Communication to healthcare professionals has its own requirements and is not public. It does not mix with the channels aimed at the general public.
Another sector with advertising rules
Advertising has strict rules
How we work when messages are limited by rules.
Finance and insurance
When the rules cover the figures, terms and risks in advertising.