For decades, television has been the undisputed king of pharma direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. It delivers reach, drives awareness, and remains one of the fastest ways to put a brand name into millions of living rooms. The problem? Awareness is no longer the bottleneck. The patient journey has fundamentally changed, but much of pharma’s media strategy has not. Pharma is overinvesting in the least measurable and least actionable part of the patient journey while underinvesting in the moments where patients are actively making decisions.
Patients Don’t Go From TV Commercial to Doctor’s Office
The traditional DTC model assumes a relatively simple path:
- Patient sees a TV ad.
- Patient asks their physician about the drug.
- Prescription gets written.
That’s not how healthcare decisions work anymore. Today’s patient sees a TV commercial and immediately opens a browser.
Research from the CDC shows that more than half of U.S. adults use the internet to search for health and medical information. Among adults ages 30-44, the figure exceeds 67%.
Other research found that 90% of consumers who seek health information online research symptoms and conditions, while 60% specifically search for medication information.
In fact, studies have found that health information discovered online directly influences healthcare behavior, with 45% of online health information seekers reporting that their research prompted them to schedule a physician appointment.
The implication is clear: TV may create awareness, but digital research shapes intent.
Pharma Is Missing the Most Influential Part of the Journey
The critical question is not whether patients see pharma advertising. It’s whether pharma brands show up when patients begin researching. When consumers investigate a condition, treatment options, side effects, patient experiences, insurance coverage, alternatives, and physician recommendations, they often encounter:
- Search results
- Health publishers
- Reddit discussions
- Patient communities
- YouTube videos
- AI-powered search tools
- Healthcare influencers
- Independent medical content
What they often do not encounter is meaningful participation from the pharmaceutical brand itself. This creates a paradox. Pharma companies spend billions generating awareness but frequently disappear during the exact moment patients are actively seeking information.
Every time a pharma company spends $50 million on television and $5 million on content, search, and patient education, they’re paying a premium to create demand and then handing the research phase to everyone else.
The Industry’s Media Mix Doesn’t Match Consumer Behavior
Despite dramatic changes in media consumption, television remains disproportionately important in pharma’s media plans. Industry data shows pharma companies spent roughly $6 billion on TV advertising in 2024 and nearly $6 billion again in 2025. Historically, TV has represented as much as 75% of pharmaceutical advertising spend.
Yet media consumption tells a different story.
Healthcare advertising is rapidly shifting toward digital channels. Industry forecasts suggest digital will account for more than 80% of healthcare and pharma advertising spend by 2027, while linear TV’s share continues to decline.
Why?
Because marketers increasingly recognize that precision matters more than gross reach. A patient researching psoriasis treatments at 10:30 p.m. is infinitely more valuable than a passive television viewer watching a commercial break.
Awareness Is Necessary. It Is No Longer Sufficient.
None of this means TV is dead. Television remains effective at building category awareness, legitimizing brands, and reaching large patient populations.
Research consistently shows traditional advertising improves brand awareness and brand perceptions. But awareness alone is no longer enough. Patients now expect to validate claims independently. They compare treatments. They read reviews. They consume physician-created content. They ask AI assistants. They join patient forums.
By the time they arrive in the physician’s office, many have already formed opinions about treatment options. The consultation is often the final step in a much longer research process.
The Future Belongs to Brands That Own the Conversation
The winning pharmaceutical brands of the next decade will not simply buy more television. They will own more moments of patient discovery.
That means investing in:
- Search visibility
- Educational content
- Patient communities
- Healthcare creator partnerships
- AI-search optimization
- Digital patient experiences
- Real-world evidence storytelling
- Disease-state education
The goal should not be to replace television. The goal should be to ensure that when a patient moves from awareness to research, the brand remains part of the conversation.
Then There Is The Talent Gap
Many pharma organizations are led by highly experienced marketers whose expertise was developed in a media environment that no longer exists. We wouldn’t expect a brilliant newspaper executive from 1998 to automatically become a great social media strategist in 2026. The same principle applies to pharma marketing. The challenge isn’t intelligence; it’s adapting to a fundamentally different way consumers discover and evaluate information.
Many pharma marketers are measured on brand awareness, reach, share of voice, and physician or patient recall. TV excels at those metrics. If your bonus depends on awareness scores, spending on television may seem like the safest decision, even if it isn’t the most efficient way to drive prescriptions.
Today, pharma spends billions to start conversations. The opportunity is to spend more time participating in them. Because in modern healthcare, prescriptions are often influenced long before patients walk into the exam room.
