Bringing Health Care Marketing and PR Together

More and more, health care marketing and PR are coming together with a common goal of advancing organizational objectives. Gone are the days when marketing and public relations functions competed for funding, worked in silos, or thought that one side of the house was more creative than the other.

Truth is, there’s plenty of creativity to go around, and the functions are getting along nicely, say the experts. Working in sync on shared organizational goals is effective.

Don Stanziano, chief marketing officer for Geisinger

“There’s a stereotype that the creative side of the house is marketing and communications isn’t creative, when you can be creative in both,” says Don Stanziano, chief marketing officer for Geisinger, from his office in Danville, Pennsylvania.

Stanziano adds: “Putting together a communications plan can be very creative. Our new employee communications plan uses video and photos of employees who are living our mission and values. You can be creative in both.”

While marketing teams were the ones who typically quantified results, when public relations struggled with measurements, that, too, has changed. The experts agree that being data- and metrics-focused isn’t owned by either side of the house.

“At the core, what we do is more the same than different,” says Stanziano. “We’re telling the organization’s story. Whether we’re taking an ad, developing social media channels, or pitching to the media, it’s still the same idea — trying to advance the story of the organization.”

“If we can all get our heads around that, it makes it easy to collaborate and work well together,” he adds.

In our new article, three marketing and PR leaders share their perspectives on how the landscape has evolved to bring these two important functions together.

Read it now: Marketing & Public Relations: Why Reaching Across the Aisle Works

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President