Allergy Medicine Head to Head: Benadryl Versus Alka-Seltzer

With so many choices for allergy medicine shoppers today, brands need every edge they can get to stand out on the digital shelf. 

As part of our OTC Allergy Medicine Visual Content Rankings Report, we analyzed Amazon’s Top 100 search results for allergy medicine. We decided to take a deeper look at how certain brands—in this case, Benadryl and Alka-Seltzer—stack up against each other when it comes to PDP images across two of their top listings. 

Hero Images

For the hero images, Benadryl achieved a Vizit score of 98.0, surpassing Alka-Seltzer Plus, which earned a score of 85.9. Benadryl’s advantage lies in adhering to the category's best practice for boxed medicines, showing a tightly cropped image of the packaging from a front angle with minimal white space. 

Carousel Images 

The Alka-Seltzer Plus carousel earned an average Vizit score of 62.5, blending lifestyle, product, and infographic-style visuals. Among them, lifestyle shots featuring active models and bold, minimal text appeal most to online OTC shoppers. Yet, an outlier emerged: an image set against a dark backdrop featuring a hand holding the medication, which failed to captivate the intended audience.

Additionally, Alka-Seltzer Plus’ infographic and product packaging carousel imagery received only moderate Vizit scores, indicating there’s room for improvement. 

Unlike Alka-Seltzer Plus, Benadryl’s carousel relies solely on stylized infographics in the brand’s color palette, omitting lifestyle images entirely. Although most of the carousels earned moderate to high Vizit scores, one image received a notably low Vizit score of 14.1.

Vizit’s visual appeal detractor map indicates that the large amount of white space on the sides of the image and the small text at the bottom are aspects that do not resonate well visually with the target audience and could benefit from optimization.

The Winner

In our head-to-head showdown, Benadryl takes the prize over Alka-Seltzer Plus, securing a listing score of 97 compared to a 93 for Alka-Seltzer Plus. Benadryl’s superior hero image propelled its listing visual score to success. Despite both brands boasting an equal number of visual assets, Alka-Seltzer Plus’ carousel surpasses Benadryl due to its excellent image diversity—and specifically adherence to the category best practice of incorporating lifestyle images featuring active models.

To elevate its carousel score, Benadryl could integrate more lifestyle images into its carousel assortment. Meanwhile, Alka-Seltzer Plus could enhance its overall listing score by implementing minor adjustments to its hero image to better align with category trends.

Want to see how Benadryl and Alka-Seltzer Plus stack up against even more brands in the allergy medicine space? Access Vizit’s Allergy Medicine Content Effectiveness Rankings Report for a complete roundup of impactful trends, image insights, brand leaderboards, and more.