WILMINGTON, DE — Eos Medical Group has chosen AB&C, a full-service marketing communications agency, for its 2013 employment branding campaign. Founded as Pegasus Emergency Medicine, the group underwent a name change in January 2013. The campaign will help Eos gain a better understanding of its employment brand and unique employment value proposition.

“Eos brings the absolute best emergency physicians into its communities,” says John Hawkins, president & CEO of AB&C. “Working with Gina Truhe and her team, we will uncover how the Eos brand resonates with these top-tier candidates.”Read full post...

A case study benefits designers because it highlights their firm and their work.

Much to my wife’s dismay, every time we walk into a building, whether it’s a restaurant, hospital or office, I look up.

The reason: For the past 20 years, I’ve handled public relations for the Ceilings Division of Armstrong, the country’s largest manufacturer of acoustical ceiling systems.

If you’re reading this at work, take a look up. Chances are there’s an acoustical or “drop” ceiling above you. Who would have thought someone could write about drop ceilings for 20 years?

Well, the reason I’ve been able to is that drop ceilings don’t have to be flat, white and full of holes anymore. They can have the warmth of wood or the sophistication of metal. They can be concave, convex or even serpentine. And they don’t have to be continuous, wall-to-wall ceilings to provide their acoustical benefit.  There are plenty of ceiling clouds and canopies that can do that just as well.

As a result, architects and interior designers can now create signature ceilings that make people look up as they enter a space. And that’s the basis for one of the most important, and my favorite, aspect of the Armstrong Ceilings program: case studies. Read full post...

Institutions that exhibit strong compliance with hygiene show strong declines in infections of all types.

In a recent article on FierceHealthcare, the editors compiled four videos from health care providers that encourage staff—everyone from custodians to physicians—to wash their hands. These videos had been posted on YouTube, and one of the points of the article is that hospitals and other institutions are turning to social media to cut down on hospital-acquired infections.

Why is this still a problem? It’s not as if we haven’t been taught from childhood that washing our hands is an important part of staying healthy.

The American Society for Microbiology and the American Cleaning Institute conduct “A Survey of Handwashing Behavior” every few years. The most recent study included a telephone survey, in which 96 percent of people said they always washed their hands after using a public bathroom. But reality tells a different story. In the latest survey, restroom observers reported that 85 percent of men and women observed at public places in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and San Francisco washed their hands after using a public bathroom.Read full post...

It’s time to stop utilizing.

You see them all the time. Predictable, cliché, meaningless words that just fill space. They’re in nine out of ten health care ads. As a writer, they drive me insane. Here’s an irritating eight we can all do without.

State of the art: What exactly does that mean? Whose state are we talking about? And what art is this that has a state?

Utilization: Whatever happened to plain, old-fashioned “use.” Perfectly good word. Three letters. Says the same thing. Think about it.

Innovation: What exactly is the innovation? Why can’t you tell me what it is? Do I have to guess? Are you afraid to let me know because I will be so amazed I will fling my clothes into the wind in wild abandon, run down the street naked, crying tears of joy and amazement?Read full post...

Photo courtesy of Joe del Tufo

This little city has its problems. But the biggest problem is that too many people have given up. Not everyone — there are plenty of people who are committed to making Wilmington vital and vibrant. They open small businesses and restaurants. They bend over backwards to nurture an arts scene. They need your support.

Maybe you go home at the end of the workday and are afraid to come back downtown after dark. “Too much crime.” “Not enough parking.”

What if you changed your mind? What if you decided to get a bunch of friends together and check out the restaurants and enjoy the artistic and cultural events that are available in Wilmington? There are plenty of magazines and websites and Facebook pages where you can find information about all the events. There are plenty of email subscriptions to make getting that information even easier. It’s easy to find a variety of things to do. But for cryin’ out loud, do something.

Explore. A good time to start is the first Friday of every month, when venues all around town participate in the art loop. You might be surprised at the cool little shops and galleries and restaurants buzzing with people.Read full post...

The fate of static outdoor displays may soon be much the same as CDs and VHS tapes.

Digital outdoor displays are quickly becoming one of the best mediums for cost-effective, high-impact advertising.

With the ability to change a client’s creative frequently and immediately, digital outdoor displays allow you to target your consumer with the most time-relevant message.

Another advantage of digital displays over traditional static displays is consumer retention. Research shows that while only 43 percent of respondents have any kind of recall of traditional static displays, more than 94 percent of respondents actually recall the message on a digital display. This is remarkable, given the fact that the message on a digital display is usually shown for only eight seconds at a time as part of a continuous rotation.Read full post...

It would be like arming your company with a state-of-the-art fish finder that not only locates fish, but will lead you to those most likely to bite.

Boosting your success up to 40% via predictive modeling

With traditional and electronic media costs constantly on the rise, casting a wide net to reach B-to-B prospects can become prohibitively expensive. Though these media do reach many people, using them to find the right people — your best prospects — is often inefficient.

But what if you could identify and target only your best prospects — those whose profiles precisely match those of your current best customers? It would be like arming your company with a state-of-the-art fish finder that not only locates fish, but will lead you to those most likely to bite.

That’s what’s behind the concept of predictive modeling. AB&C has successfully used this cutting-edge prospecting tool for clients to deliver 20% to 40% higher response than with traditional media — at a fraction of the cost.Read full post...

This Facebook page of hers will last forever, and we’ll continue to share our thoughts of her by posting on it, making it a living memorial.

Since its inception, I have seen Facebook used in many ways: for self-expression, debating, celebration and, of course, connecting with friends and family. But I never imagined it as a way to remember a lost loved one or cope with death.

I have dealt with a lot of death in my life. I have lost many loved ones — including two sisters and my mom. It’s a very tough thing, and everyone deals with it in his or her own way. A little over a year ago, my cousin lost his daughter to cystic fibrosis. This is a chronic lung disease that is passed through families. Sadly, it severely shortens the life expectancy of the people who have it. The average lifespan of someone with CF is 37 years, but this figure has increased dramatically over the last few decades. My cousin’s daughter’s name was Christina. She made it to 27.

Read full post...

Wilmington, DE — Good Shepherd Penn Partners has selected AB&C, a full-service marketing communications agency, to develop a brand identity and brand strategy for its Philadelphia-area post-acute hospitals and outpatient therapy centers.

Good Shepherd Penn Partners is a joint venture of Allentown, PA-based Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine. The strategic communications effort will identify the differentiating characteristics of the organization both internally and externally, gauge general market awareness and develop a brand platform to be used in the creation of marketing messaging and communications.Read full post...

The next time you want to see what the general public thinks about your new logo…don’t.

The list of brands that have gone through a massive rebranding effort — only to cave into online peer pressure and revert back to their old identities (Tropicana, The Gap, University of California) — continues to grow.

As someone who makes a living rebranding companies, this troubles me.

Foremost, people who comment on Internet threads usually aren’t professional marketers or branding experts. They’re the same people who take half-naked pictures of themselves making duck faces in the mirror, then film a video of their buddy eating a tablespoon of cinnamon.

They don’t understand the hundreds of nuances that go into building a brand.Read full post...

After enough pushing, prodding and hearing the “But everybody’s on Facebook” argument, you finally decided your business needed a page. About 90 percent of small businesses are on it, so welcome to the club. Whether your page is brand-spanking new or a couple of years old, you want to know how you’re doing. As with any other aspect of business, you have to check your figures, right?

Before we get started, make sure your Facebook page represents a business, not a person. If it doesn’t  the Facebook FAQs can take you through the transfer. Once you’re all squared away, you’ll find your business page equipped with free analytics (yes, free) called Facebook Insights. Not only is Insights complimentary, but it’s also fast and relatively painless. Managing your social media pages can be time-consuming, so the last thing you want is to spend more time crunching numbers. No worries. Insights spits out the important information, giving you just enough not to be overwhelming.

Carve out some time to check your figures. It doesn’t have to be every week — maybe the end of every month or quarter.

Read full post...

The Independence School’s new logo and theme line

The Independence School (TIS) is an independent school located in Pike Creek, Delaware, that welcomes students from age 3 through the 8th grade. Looking to keep enrollment strong during a time of economic challenge, with a reduced population of age-appropriate candidates and competition from other independent and public schools, the TIS staff identified the need to review their brand and rediscover what differentiates them.Read full post...

Wilmington, DE – AB&C, a full-service marketing communications firm, took home gold and silver at the 2013 ADDY Awards in Philadelphia. With more than 600 of the region’s top creative professionals on hand, the agency won gold in the public service “non-traditional advertising” category for its My7Minutes unicorn t-shirt. My7Minutes is a youth tobacco prevention campaign conducted for the Delaware Department of Public Health. In the category “fractional page newspaper advertising in color,” the agency hoisted a silver ADDY for its MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital Gilligan colonoscopy print ad.Read full post...

Where are our mobile manners?

I worked in an advertising agency back in the early ‘90s when a new business win mushroomed into half of our agency business—cell phone advertising. I still remember a creative director asking me what it would take to get me to purchase a cell phone. He was looking for ad concept ideas. The big selling point at the time was “safety.” And I recall saying, “Why would I need one? I have AAA.”

It was the “in” thing then to have a cell phone. Now, 20 years later, it has become a necessity. According to a Synovate survey in 2011, “82% of Americans never leave home without their phones.”Read full post...

Hospital food is going gourmet. Yum!

I’ve recently become obsessed with where my food comes from. And I don’t think I’m alone. There are farmers’ markets and Whole Foods popping up all over the place. Whole Foods’ labels don’t just give you the “Best Before” date on your New York strip, they tell you where the cow lived, his name and what he generally liked to do on the weekends. Restaurants are at it, too. I went to my first all-raw vegan organic café the other day. It’s a trend that’s picking up speed. And people are voting at the cash register. I have a friend who likes to call Whole Foods “Whole Paycheck.” But like thousands, I’m willing to pay more for a better product, which is presumably healthier, too.Read full post...