“There are a lot more regulations in the [healthcare and pharma] industry,” said Ali Plonchak, managing director of digital strategy and integration at ad agency Crossmedia. She spoke with us for our latest report on US healthcare and pharma ad spending, adding that there are many restrictions on “how granular you can target a user [with healthcare and pharma ads], and even within the messaging, [on] what will and will not be accepted across various inventory partners.”
The continued legalization of cannabis in US states—and many states’ legislatures taking up ballot measures to consider decriminalizing the substance—has boosted spending in the healthcare category. Last year, US cannabis retail ad spending increased 23% to $4.12 million, with most of it coming from out-of-home advertising, per Kantar.