Impotence Drugs Trigger a Marketing Battle

Pharmaceutical-ad watcher John Mack, said he expects Pfizer to change its approach. Given the competitors' increasing sales, "it's hard to stick with the old ways of doing things," he said.

Getting Noticed

TV ads are just the tip of the marketing iceberg, but they attract attention. During the first quarter, IAG, a firm that analyzes and evaluates TV commercials, said impotence-drug ads placed first (Cialis), second (Levitra) and fourth (Cialis) among the top five prescription drug ads for viewers' ability to recall the ads and identify the products.

Of course, there's no guarantee that brand recognition will lead to a purchase. But companies wouldn't be spending so much money on ads if they thought they wouldn't work.

Last year, Pfizer spent $111.6 million promoting Viagra in the United States in print, on TV and radio and via the Internet, says TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, which tracks advertising spending. Levitra's marketers spent $47 million in about four months; and you can bet that Cialis' marketers will spend more than the $9,750 that crossed the media firm's radar last year.

Marketing experts point to the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 as the day when the marketing battle was joined. That's when a Cialis ad included information about the drug's benefits, most notably the FDA-approved claim that the drug provides a 36-hour window of opportunity, as well as the FDA-mandated discussion of possible side effects, including 4-hour erections.

The ad also attracted attention for the theme that even though a man buys the drug, the decision involves a partnership. Women are featured in the TV ads. "We are not marketing the drug as a performance enhancement," said Leonard Blum, vice president for marketing and sales for Icos(ICOS Quote), the drug's developer. "We're saying you can wait to respond to your partner. You can have sex like it was before E.D."