Captive audience in GP surgery gives potential for advertising

The benefits of advertising are well known to pharmacy managers. Promoting a service in the pharmacy window, in the local paper, or in a leaflet at the local surgery are common tactics for raising public awareness.

In-store TV advertising displays are an emerging resource in community pharmacies for advertising products and promoting good health advice (Retail Round-up, May 2007, p7).

However, similar screens showing health channel broadcasts are appearing in GP surgeries, and this may be an untapped resource for community pharmacy advertising.

The concept has great potential. The audience is captive; patients are likely to spend 10–20 minutes in the waiting room. Patients may also be frustrated with having to wait, and keen to hear about other health providers that offer services that might reduce the time spent sitting in a waiting room.

Furthermore, with the introduction of electronic transfer of prescriptions, a patient may decide which pharmacy to take a prescription to while standing at the surgery reception. Advertising your pharmacy in the surgery could be an influential tool for retaining prescription trade.

Pharmacy managers and owners may wish to investigate whether local surgeries subscribe to a health channel, and approach the channel’s producers about the possibility of advertising.

One such company, Life Channel, broadcasts health promotion video footage and advertisements to approximately 1,300 surgeries in the UK. Content is reviewed and updated monthly.

A number of primary care trusts have used the channel to promote campaigns for community health, on the basis that sufficient local GP surgeries were signed up to receive the service. It is currently used by Tesco Pharmacy to advertise nationally, with local arrangements available for independent pharmacies and small chains.

Advertising costs start at £15 per week, per surgery, for a 30 second advert repeated every 20 minutes.

Life Channel has researched the effect of advertising an individual medicine on the sales for that medicine in the local area. The results suggest that sales were increased by around 40 per cent.

Life Channel will shortly be researching the benefits of advertising for individual pharmacies. Results are expected in summer 2008.

— Gareth Malson (Staff editor, Hospital Pharmacist)