You’ve heard about it. You’ve seen the results. Maybe you’ve even been part of a rebranding effort. But do you really understand what branding means?

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Pew Research Center says 59% of U.S. adults have looked online for health information in the past year.

We know you. You’re a hospital or a healthcare system looking to increase your brand awareness or service-line volumes in your noisy city. You’re one of many hospitals patients can choose from when they have an emergency, need a doctor or are looking for preventive programs. And you’ve probably noticed that when patients come in for appointments, they’ve done their research — they are informed.Read full post...

We’re proud to be partnering with our friends from MedStar Health and Scripps Health to present an Idea Workshop at SHSMD’s Annual Conference. Our workshop will tackle seven of the most common healthcare marketing challenges faced by our colleagues around the country. We identified these challenges through a brainstorming session with MedStar and Scripps, a poll of all AB&C healthcare partners and a survey of SHSMD Annual Conference attendees. Here’s a quick look at three of the challenges that we’ll be discussing at the conference.

Challenge #1: How do I choose what to market?

Plan, plan and plan some more. Your marketing plan is one element of your organization’s planning cycle, and you should take cues from the other elements: your strategic plan, facilities plan, operating plan, financial plan, business plan and communications plan. From those plans, identify the organization’s priority service lines. Then determine if they’re ready to be marketed:

• Do you have clinical strength in this area?
• Do you have positioning power?
• Is it profitable?
• Is there competitor vulnerability?
• Is there spin-off revenue?
• Is there a product champion?
• Can they deliver on patient experience?

If you plan properly and can answer these questions, you’ll have an easier time prioritizing your marketing efforts.Read full post...

Ecstatic, thrilled and maybe even a little overwhelmed — that pretty much sums up how people are feeling here at AB&C after learning that we won Best in Show, 11 gold, two silvers, one bronze and four merit award at the 30^th Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards. Those numbers alone are pretty impressive, but what’s even more meaningful is that we won more gold awards than any of the other 268 agencies that submitted and that we had 14 different clients win with us.

These numbers validate what we already know: The healthcare marketing industry is just as competitive as healthcare these days. More agencies are entering into this specialty area, but this year’s success shows that we are ahead of the curve. Our healthcare team is steeped in expertise and our partners benefit from the years (even decades — yikes!) that we have been working in the industry.Read full post...

How do marketers make patients “brand” loyal to their PCP?

The days of doctors making house calls may be making a full circle as the new focus for insurance companies is promoting the importance of the primary care physician. In a world where people change doctors like they change their socks, how do marketers make patients “brand” loyal to their PCP?Read full post...

The agency world

After more than a decade as a marketer for major health systems, I crossed over to the dark side: the agency world. The world where you live and die by your client’s needs and deadlines. Where you stress over timesheets and sales reports. Where you become — gasp — a “salesperson.”Read full post...

"Cyberspace Rules of the Road" PSA

OK, I’m not embarrassed to admit it. I enjoy watching Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb with my 7- and 10-year-old. There, I said it. I’m a grown woman and I still like watching cartoons.Read full post...

Hospitals are using Social Media

Some hospitals are early adopters; others are still waiting on the sidelines. Some are high-tech, while others are high-touch. I’m not talking about whether or not a hospital has the latest robot or a brand personality, I’m talking about a social media presence.Read full post...

Lebron's "Decision Show" was a huge PR mistake.

I heard that there’s a LeBron jersey burning party in a small neighborhood in Columbus tonight. If I were a Cavs fan, I’d be the first in line. Not only has the basketball star left his hometown for the sun and sand in Miami, but he broke their hearts during an hour-long nationally televised infomercial.

I understand the business side of his decision and that he wants to win a championship, but his Decision show that aired on ESPN was a huge PR mistake. Filled with commercials from his sponsors, the show exposed him as incredibly vain and self-absorbed. The show didn’t grow his brand, it grew his ego.

The good news? The hype that has exhausted even the most rabid basketball fans is finally over. LeBron will join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, and maybe win a championship, but the damage has been done to his image— and the Cleveland economy.

Creating a customized online risk assessment

So how do you get a cardiovascular campaign to stand out above the clutter when there are more than 50 hospitals flooding the market with similar messages? How do you engage consumers to come to your website and sign up for your marketing materials? How do you get people to realize that they’re at risk for heart disease and proactively seek out a cardiologist in your health system?

These are all questions we were asked by The Chester County Hospital (TCCH) marketing team and questions we asked ourselves as we developed marketing recommendations for their cardiovascular service line.  Our answer was to develop an online risk assessment that would determine an individual’s risk level for heart disease.Read full post...

Tiger should have taken advice from a PR professional.

Everybody’s weighing in on how Tiger Woods should have handled his recent scandal. Public relations professionals argue that he should have gotten ahead of the tabloids and issued a statement right after his accident. Lawyers and agents maintain that the man has the right to keep his personal life private and is not obligated to comment on these issues.

Clearly, Tiger had something to hide. As a PR professional, I knew that if and when he decided to talk, his very personal problems would become very public. And when US Weekly announced that it was releasing voicemail messages that proved his “transgressions,” Tiger finally took advice from PR people and came clean.

In this day of the 24-hour news cycle, Tiger would’ve been better off admitting his “sins” a week ago. The story would be over by now. But because he remained mum, reporters continued to dig and to speculate — and his silence became part of the story. Now that the truth is out, Tiger has taken control of the message and the worst is over for his public image. His sponsors are standing by him and he will still go down in history as the world’s greatest golfer. Let’s see if he can find a PR professional who can help him on the home front.

Let AB&C be your GPS.

After getting hopelessly lost in Washington, DC, a few weeks back, I decided to buy a GPS navigation device to make sure that it never happens again. My new friend “Mindy” now guides me through each turn and makes sure I reach my destination regardless of road closures and detours.

As I was loading Mindy with all of my information and favorite destinations, I thought a good marketing agency is like a GPS. Clients provide their information and objectives, and the agency provides a targeted road map to help them reach their marketing destination.

AB&C is a good example. We provide focus and step-by-step directions on how to reach your target audience with a customized message that won’t get lost in the market. Call us if you need a marketing GPS. Just don’t call us Mindy.

The bi-plane cake for St. Joseph's Children's Hospital

A recent episode of TLC’s The Cake Boss (“Bi-Plane, Bridezilla & Busting Buddy”) featured our client, St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. The reality show follows Buddy Valastro, the master baker of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, NJ, as he and his team create amazing cakes and pastries.

During this episode, Buddy created a completely edible version of the St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital bi-plane logo and unveiled the cake at the hospital’s annual Cooking for Kids event. Although we were fortunate enough to be in attendance at the event, it was great to see how Buddy and his team created the cake and debated how to bring the logo to life. But what was most rewarding was watching the work that the AB&C team did come to life on TV. Our team updated the Children’s Hospital logo last year and also designed the posters that were visible at the end of the episode when the cake was brought to the event. But the real highlight of the show was when “bridezilla” destroyed her wedding cake and insisted on a new one for the next day!

Facebook

In the last couple of years, Facebook has gone from a college photo-sharing site to a business-networking platform for self-promotion, advertising and multimedia interaction.

Official numbers from Facebook indicate that they have 222 million users and are growing at the astounding rate of about five million new users a week. The surprise here isn’t their growth rate, but that baby boomers are the fastest growing demographic for the site.Read full post...

Photo courtesy ABC News.

When you think of US Airways and all the negative press they’ve had in the past year about lost luggage and delays, you would never imagine that a plane crash would finally give them positive exposure.

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