TV in Pharma Marketing: The Missing Piece in Omnichannel Strategy

The global pharmaceutical market is projected to reach $1,864.73 billion in 2025, up from $1,747.07 billion in 2024, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7%. This report from the business research company indicates that competition in this market continues to be tight, so marketers need all existing tools to gain a share.

Send emails with detailed descriptions and pushes, use targeted advertising in Google and Meta, create landing pages, buy slots on local radio stations, and even use offline channels. These tools are usually part of an omnichannel pharma marketing strategy. So why do advertisers also need TV when building strategy, and why could it become a primary channel? We have the answers.

Omnichannel marketing in pharma is a holistic and customer-centric approach that integrates multiple marketing and sales channels to provide a seamless and consistent experience for stakeholders. This approach helps advertisers create a halo effect and maximize audience reach. A TV ad is a good chance to increase touchpoints with existing audiences and reach new audiences that can’t be reached on other channels.

Linear TV remains a good option for pharma marketers, as the main linear audience is individuals aged 50 and over. Despite downtrends, it still attracts viewers. For example, 127.7 million viewers tuned in for Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025. According to The Gauge report, overall broadcast viewing was up 5.1% in January 2025, benefiting from increases in drama series (+15%) and news (+18%).

Linear TV is still a critical driver of brand awareness, complementing digital and streaming strategies to create a cohesive patient journey. While many pharma marketers have shifted investment toward digital and CTV, data consistently shows that linear TV serves as a foundational channel that amplifies the effectiveness of other media. 30 and 60-second TV ads command undivided attention, establishing brand recognition that enhances subsequent interactions across digital, social, and display advertising. Advancements in HIPAA-compliant targeting enable marketers to reach relevant patient audiences on linear TV with greater accuracy, using anonymized data on conditions, medications, and procedural history. Integrating linear TV into an omnichannel strategy helps pharma brands improve audience engagement, reinforce messaging across multiple channels, and drive more effective outcomes throughout the marketing funnel.

Connected TV enables granular audience targeting while complementing the broad reach of linear TV. With audience fragmentation on the rise, CTV enables pharma marketers to reach specific patient segments, ensuring messages connect with those most likely to benefit. Unlike linear TV’s broad reach, CTV’s data-driven approach allows for precise targeting, making it effective for both direct-to-consumer (DTC) and healthcare provider (HCP) campaigns. Since some streaming platforms remain ad-free, pharma brands need a strategy that integrates both CTV and linear TV for seamless reach.

Both linear and connected TV can help create a seamless, data-driven advertising strategy. While marketers often segment budgets between linear, local, and streaming TV, audiences perceive it all as a single TV experience. The most effective strategy for building an audience across both channels involves treating linear and CTV as one holistic ecosystem, ensuring optimal reach and frequency while minimizing wasted impressions. By leveraging cross-channel technology, marketers can deduplicate reach, avoid over-saturation, and strategically allocate investments across both platforms. This approach not only enhances brand awareness but also drives measurable performance by maximizing unique audience engagement and response rates.

This chart shows how using both linear and CTV helps reach more potential customers than using linear or CTV alone. Platforms like Simulmedia TV+ help manage budget allocations that maximize the effectiveness of the campaign.

Image source: TV+ Platform

• Precision and Targeted Messaging. Pharma brands can achieve greater precision in directing their messaging to specific patient populations through audience-based targeting. Using platforms like TV+ to target beyond typical age and gender, brands can gain insights and reach customers with higher accuracy, whether they are 55+ golf players in Florida or 18+ diabetic glucose monitor users.
• Data-Driven Ad Buying. Pharmaceutical brands are heavily embracing data-driven ad buying to increase brand impact.
• Enhanced Engagement and Opt-ins. Omnichannel marketing, including TV, helps pharmaceutical companies engage with audiences by providing highly relevant content and added value, motivating them to opt-in for communication on digital channels.
• Unified Communication and Brand Awareness. TV contributes to a unified image and clear brand message by aligning messaging across different channels. This consistency reinforces brand awareness.
• Increased Touchpoints. Omnichannel marketing, with TV as a component, increases the number and variety of touchpoints with the target audience through digital channels and diverse formats.
• Virtual Care and Medicine. Pharma companies are recognizing the importance of virtual communication and integration across channels, with a focus on new modes of engagement, which include TV.