Consumer Healthcare Brands Shift to FMCG Marketing Tactics
Healthcare brands are now applying fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) media tactics to connect with shoppers seeking non-prescription remedies for common ailments. OTC sales climbed to $58.2 billion in 2025, up from $44.3 billion the prior year.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has signaled its willingness to allow more drugs to switch from prescription access to OTC, driving consumer demand and regulatory change. Pharmacies and direct-to-consumer (DTC) firms are playing a greater role in everyday consumers’ health, according to Sandy Weag, client president at CMI Media Group.
“Historically, people relied more on their physicians,” Weag explained. “[Now] people are taking a much more proactive approach to their health, and are making product decisions as a shopper, similar as they would any other consumer product.” That change means that pharma and healthcare companies need to earn and retain the trust of consumers making those decisions via the medium of a strong brand.
Shifting Marketing Strategies
Pharma and healthcare companies need to earn and retain the trust of consumers making those decisions via the medium of a strong brand. To meet that goal, marketers at consumer healthcare firms like Opella have adopted strategies first devised for CPG brands. Albert Hernandez, Opella’s chief growth officer, refers to the company’s category as “fast moving consumer healthcare.”
Opella was spun out of Sanofi over a year ago, creating an €825 million ($927 million) business overnight. The French pharma giant retains a 48% stake. Net sales increased 3.6% in the first half of 2026, fueled by e-commerce growth, according to an Opella spokesperson.
In media terms, Opella is investing more in retail media, creator marketing, paid social, and search as it attempts to grow its DTC business in markets around the world. Hernandez said the company’s e-commerce sales had grown from 4% of its revenue to 12% over the last three years.
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Hernandez stated that the company must operate in a new way. He noted that relying solely on traditional pharma models, such as 30-second TV ads, is not effective.
Investing in Digital Channels
Hernandez said 60% of the company’s media investments now lay in digital channels, with 40% remaining with pharma favorites such as television or out-of-home. To manage that shift, Opella hired more e-commerce talent and senior CPG marketers, including Victoria Tiffin, who was brought over from Procter & Gamble in July.
The company has built up an 85-person in-house team designed to use generative AI tools to swiftly spin up digital creative assets and handle versioning. It’s also brought more of its search and programmatic media investments in-house. “It has made us much faster,” Hernandez said. “It has increased our ROI significantly.”
As Opella shifts towards digital channels, it’s not alone in adopting a CPG-esque approach. Fellow pharma spin-out Kenvue is also competing for market share, while DTC healthcare firm Hims & Hers ran a Super Bowl ad in February. Ad spend forecasts suggest the pharma sector’s digital ad spend is set to reach $26.3 billion this year.
Healthcare brands‘ transition toward social and creator marketing makes sense, as patients increasingly expect the same kind of access, choice, and convenience they have in other parts of their lives. “When people make personal health decisions, they trust peer-to-peer lived experiences more than traditional ads,” said Hyun Lee-Miller, chief media officer at Good Apple. “Patients increasingly expect the same kind of access, choice and convenience they have in other parts of their lives, and go-to-market strategies are adapting to that,” said Lee-Miller. “Digital tools have given people much more autonomy, and as physician access shrinks, brands are also investing more in multichannel patient campaigns that can reach and educate consumers throughout that decision-making process.”
Challenges and Opportunities
Furthermore, the fact that huge CPG brands founded on mass market techniques are not performing well is a cautionary tale for healthcare marketers. NielsenIQ recently found that American grocers and supermarket sales of food and CPG products fell by 9.3 billion units over five years, highlighting the challenges faced by CPG firms.
