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Point of Care Advertising: What is it and Why does it Matter?

Author: 2 minute read

Imagine you have a sudden toothache and you plan to visit your nearby doctor. You arrive at the clinic and have a waiting time of 20 minutes. Meanwhile, as you have some time on your hands, you scroll through your internet-enabled smartphone. Suddenly, you receive a pop-up notification which reminds you to talk to your doctor about a recommendation for a new medication. This is exactly what point of care advertising does.

Brands reach out to you not only digitally but traditionally, too, via magazines or other mediums. If not your smartphone, you’ll definitely reach out for a magazine where the cover wrap might convey that your go-to local pharmacy is offering a more comprehensive range of fever drugs than before.

On the other hand, point of care marketing also steps in when you are an HCP (Healthcare Professional). In this case, you’ll witness that you are being targeted with advertisements of pharma products when you’re active on the web researching to gain knowledge or to learn about the latest news in your field.

What is Point of Care (POC) Advertising

This type of advertising, which is generally popular in the healthcare industry, finds customers at the right place and time as it works as an outlet for pharmaceutical companies to share their brand message. The typical targeted healthcare settings are waiting areas, HCPs office or exam rooms. Furthermore, it generates awareness, educates consumers, encourages doctor-patient conversations and, most importantly, influences purchase decisions. Notably, POC advertising has evolved with the integration of geo-targeting and data.

How Does Point of Care Advertising Work?

POC advertising appears across multiple channels, including:

  • Digital POC messaging – Mobile notifications, waiting room screens, and healthcare websites.
  • Traditional advertising – Magazines, billboards, in-office brochures.
  • HCP-focused ads – Pharma ads displayed on medical research platforms and EHR systems.

Why it matters: Point of care advertising strategy ensures that healthcare brands engage patients and HCPs at the right place and time, fostering awareness, education, and informed decision-making.

Advantages of Point of Care Advertising

  • Detailed targeting

    When done right, this type of advertising allows you to target an individual just when they are showing interest in something relevant. So, for example, you are a doctor, and during your leisure time, you make sure that you keep yourself updated with the latest news in your industry. During this, you come across an article about an allergy, and while reading about it, you see an advertisement that shows how a particular medicine helps prevent it. This is what point Of care advertising does.

  • Influenced prescription behaviour

    Another significant benefit of this type of advertising in the healthcare industry is that It majorly impacts the prescription behaviour of the HCPs, as mostly the advertising partners here are chosen based on their ability to provide a high match rate of the brand’s HCP target list. So, basically, this means that at the onset of the campaign, the message of the brand will appear at the targeted HCPs workplace to increase their exposure to the message, ultimately changing their prescribing behaviour.

  • Increase in sales

    When any organization invests in Point of care advertising, they witness a positive increase in sales. With the right marketing strategy and technique, they offer curated content that helps empower and influence HCPs, leading to more impactful discussions that drive new and incremental trips to the store.

If you haven’t invested in POC advertising yet, Now is the time to leverage Point of care marketing to connect patients and HCPs effectively. Explore how Doceree can help!

World’s First Ad exchange for branded Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) advertising, Doceree is powered by ​Espyian, a proprietary HCP validation engine. This identifies and precision targets over 1 million* physicians across the entire U.S.A (United States of America) for non-personal promotion and a personalized experience.