// By Ken Robbins // Much has been written about marketing health care products and services to millennials, and for good reason. Since millennials are coming into disposable income and are extremely health-conscious, it makes good sense to understand how to reach them. But marketers cannot afford to overlook other generations. More focus should be Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // “Health care heresies?” No doubt about it. Since April of this year, a New York advertising agency called Brandfire has been committing the advertising equivalent of heresy on behalf of North Memorial Health, a respected Minneapolis-St. Paul area hospital system with two hospitals, some 650 beds, Read More
“If somebody ever produces a list of the best places in America to get sick, Cleveland will have to be high on the list,” notes copywriter and regular SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “The 1.2 million people of Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County have a choice of three teaching hospitals. One of them, Cleveland Clinic, has Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // If somebody ever produces a list of the best places in America to get sick, Cleveland will have to be high on the list. The 1.2 million people of Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County have a choice of three teaching hospitals. One of them, Cleveland Clinic, Read More
“If you’ve been involved with hospital advertising for a while, you’ve probably seen it all,” observes Peter Hochstein, veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor. “Touching testimonials from patients telling what a hospital’s doctors did for them. Doctors explaining how they collaborated on a medical breakthrough. Pictures galore of high-tech tools, people in surgical masks, MRI images Read More
“Consumer engagement is one of those terms-of-the-moment in marketing to which marketers apply a variety of meanings,” says John Brand, senior director of marketing and public relations at St. Luke’s University Health Network. He says his organization defines “engagement” as “compelling consumers to take action on behalf of our brand, primarily in social spaces.” Brand says Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // If you’ve been involved with hospital advertising for a while, you’ve probably seen it all. Touching testimonials from patients telling what a hospital’s doctors did for them. Doctors explaining how they collaborated on a medical breakthrough. Pictures galore of high-tech tools, people in surgical masks, MRI Read More
// By John Brand // Consumer engagement is one of those terms-of-the-moment in marketing to which marketers apply a variety of meanings. At St. Luke’s University Health Network, a seven-hospital health system spread across northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey, we define it as compelling consumers to take action on behalf of our brand, primarily Read More
“Your health system or hospital story doesn’t matter—until it does,” says Eric Brody. “What matters is simply how your story fits into the lives of your audience.” Brody is president of Trajectory, a national branding and marketing agency. He notes that while this simple concept is tough to deliver on, it’s also critical to your success Read More
// By Eric Brody // Your health system or hospital story doesn’t matter—until it does. What matters is simply how your story fits into the lives of your audience. This simple concept is tough to deliver on, but it’s also critical to your success as a health care marketer. It really comes down to the Read More
Notable Healthcare Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // In the Champlain Valley of upstate New York, where the nearest big city is Plattsburgh, population just short of 20,000, and the prevailing ethos is blue collar, 300-bed Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital had a problem. “ When you think of the kind of male who lives in Read More
Veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein boils down one hospital’s advertising campaign down to one word: wisecracks. The little girl getting wheeled into surgery is about 11 years old—and not at all like any other little girl you’ve seen in TV spots about surgery. She’s a quick-thinking, fast-talking, smart mouth. But then, so is Read More
“Here’s important context for health care marketing in 2017: Attention and trust continue to decline across the country,” says Ryan Hanser, APR, who leads Hanser & Associates, a full-service PR firm based in Des Moines, Iowa. “Sure, we still have knowledgeable specialists—doctors, for starters. The trouble is that people increasingly reject the authority of expertise. Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // The little girl getting wheeled into surgery is about 11 years old—and not at all like any other little girl you’ve seen in TV spots about surgery. She’s a quick-thinking, fast-talking, smart mouth. But then, so is the pediatric surgeon who accompanies her. The girl asks, Read More
Augusta University Health System is no stranger to change. Over the past five years, it has undergone several rebranding campaigns and two consolidations. Yet through all of these fluctuations, one thing has remained the same: the need to find new and more efficient ways to improve its reputation and continue to grow market share. The Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // Augusta University Health System is no stranger to change. Over the past five years, it has undergone several rebranding campaigns and two consolidations. Yet through all of these fluctuations, one thing has remained the same: the need to find new and more efficient ways to improve its reputation and Read More
// By Ryan Hanser // Here’s important context for health care marketing in 2017: Attention and trust continue to decline across the country. Year over year, America appears to be witnessing the collapse of expertise and institutional trust. Sure, we still have knowledgeable specialists—doctors, for starters. The trouble is that people increasingly reject the authority Read More
When its market share began dwindling recently, Tanner Health System turned to micro-targeted data to step up its marketing efforts. Until recently, the system’s main sources of information were limited to the basics such as electronic medical records, census bureau results, and general facts about the service area. “We also had data from the Georgia Read More
“Call centers in health care used to be treated like the ugly stepchild of the health system, banished to the basement of some administrative building and populated with low-performing employees,” says Robin Snow, founder and principal of Aefinity Interactive, LLC. “Because it was seen as a necessary evil, most executives treated the call center as Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // In 2013, three hospitals, along with various satellite practices and facilities in the western suburbs of Chicago, merged. Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, with 309 beds, all in private rooms; Elmhurst Memorial Hospital in Elmhurst, Illinois, with 259 beds, also all in private rooms; and Linden Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // When its market share began dwindling recently, Tanner Health System turned to micro-targeted data to step up its marketing efforts and make them more efficient. Using Data to Hone Marketing Efforts As a nonprofit health system serving nine counties in rural west Georgia and east Alabama, Tanner has more Read More
// By Robin Snow // Call centers in health care used to be treated like the ugly stepchild of the health system, banished to the basement of some administrative building and populated with low-performing employees. Because it was seen as a necessary evil, most executives treated the call center as a cost center. Under this Read More
Who says print is dead? That’s far from the case in the health care field, where “publishing magazines is starting to seem as commonplace in many hospitals as taking patients’ temperatures. Well, almost,” says veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “The data collected over the last ten years shows that approximately 60 to 70 Read More
What if you were in a foreign country and needed emergency medical care but couldn’t communicate effectively with the health care providers there? This could put your life at risk, if you and your provider couldn’t understand each other fully. While this might sound like a nightmare, it’s a scenario that’s also all too common Read More
How to Overcome 5 Common Challenges to Health Care Organizations’ Cultural Outreach Efforts // By Lisa D. Ellis // What if you were in a foreign country and needed emergency medical care but couldn’t communicate effectively with the health care providers there? This could put your life at risk, if you and your provider couldn’t Read More