Interval client launches new online wellness campaign
On August 15, new Interval client Inova Health System (Fairfax, VA) launched “FitFor50,” a new online wellness campaign. The campaign features former Washington Redskins great Darrell Green as a passionate spokesperson, and provides a 50-day wellness program through the FitFor50.org website. The online experience includes videos, tips from Darrell and Inova physicians, wellness content, and an interactive Wellness Playbook, which allows registered users to log their own wellness goals and update their personal progress. Interval designed the FitFor50.org website and Wellness Playbook.
“The concept of creating an online community based on wellness is a natural extension of Inova Health System’s branding promise,” says Chris Boyer, Senior Manager of Digital Communications for Inova Health System. “The FitFor50 site also integrates a number of social media platforms, including blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We’ve made an effort to ensure users of the site can interact with the content in ways they are most comfortable.”
According to Boyer, the FitFor50 website had more than 6,000 unique visitors within the first 10 days of the campaign, and more than 2,000 people had registered for the Wellness Playbook
“This is a terrific example of a health system using health and wellness to engage consumers and build its brand,” said Interval president Chris Bevolo. “Rather than the typical approach of touting specialties or technologies that many consumers don’t need or can’t relate to, wellness is actually relevant to most people, and Inova has done an amazing job of leveraging wellness to connect with those in its market.”
Who should be more offended, branders or SM folk?
In a somewhat disparaging “this can’t really be happening, right?” BusinessWeek article called “Twitter, Twitter, Little Stars,” author Felix Gillette manages to slap two disciplines with one fell swoop. In trying to describe the somewhat chaotic rush by businesses to add social media professionals to their staff, Gillette makes this statement:
“The chief social media officer may be supplanting the chief branding officer as the zaniest human resources innovation in memory.”
Wow. Really? I’m not sure who should be more insulted, brand evangelists or social media zealots. Read More
Ahh, my favorite: a heated rant about billboards
Poor billboards – what did they ever do to hurt anyone? Except for suck it so often. So much money down the tubes. We beat up on “billboards” so often, I’m not sure there’s anything left to say. But here’s a great rant from Steve Davis, whose blog “Health Care Strategist” I follow.
And to answer Steve’s question, “Dumb clients? Clueless agencies?…” I have to say, unfortunately, both.
Can advertising alone change your brand?
For years, we’ve been lamenting the over-reliance on mass consumer advertising in hospital marketing, and with it, the exaggerated expectations many organizations have for such a tactic. At the same time, and in the same vein, we’re imploring hospitals to take brand building seriously, focusing on the idea that hospital brands are built and improved through the patient experience. “Advertising doesn’t build brands,” we’d admonish, “the experience you deliver does.” And we’d often trot out cases like the Mayo Clinic or Starbucks as examples of companies that have built world-renown brands without any advertising.
So what do we make of the Old Spice Guy? Read More
Will you be the first to own wellness in your market?
We continue to push and cajole hospitals to establish a brand positioning in their market around wellness. That is, if your hospital is known for one thing, let it be known as the resource for health and wellness support, resources, content and offerings. Why wellness? Here are three primary reasons: Read More
Gettin’ paid
Here’s the “How to Deal With a Leadership Challenge Tip of the Week.” We’ve heard this one a number of times over the years, but it’s become more frequent recently, and it goes a little something like this:
“Why should we invest in XYZ? We don’t get paid for that.”
This often comes from a CEO or CFO of a hospital, and what they mean is that whatever it is your asking them to invest in, the organization doesn’t get reimbursed for it. For example, we’ve heard this used in regards to investing in a better patient experience. One CFO we know said the following during planning for a major expansion:
“Why do we need to spend so much on patient rooms? We could just stick them in the hall and we’d get paid the same.”
Read More
Apple and Healthcare
Great blog post from Steve Davis, author of the Health Care Strategist, a blog I follow regularly. He’s opining on a Wall Street Journal article from business guru Gary Hamel on Apple, where Hamel lists Apple’s company values and compares them to the typical corporation (e.g. Apple = Lead, don’t follow. Others = Be cautious.) Davis then asks the question: how many healthcare organizations follow Apple’s values, and how many fall into the “Other” category? If you had to put a ratio on it, would you say 1 in 10 follow Apple’s direction? No, maybe 1 in 100, or even 1 in 1,000. Imagine the opportunities that await those healthcare organizations that pursue Apple’s path.
Warning: not all direct-to-consumer advertisers will experience the same results.
Often, those in hospitals and health systems who are looking for a quick fix to a business challenge such as outmigration or dropping market share will call for increased consumer advertising, arguing in part by pointing toward how pharmaceutical companies have gained success over the past decade advertising direct to consumers. The prevailing wisdom has been that given the mass amounts of money spent on this strategy ($4.7 billion in 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence) and the ongoing complaints of physicians dealing with this phenomenon, drug companies must have been wildly successful with this tactic. But a study cited in this week’s BusinessWeek article titled “Ask Your Doctor If This Ad Is Right for You” throws some cold water on the notion that direct-to-consumer advertising has been successful for drug companies. Read More
Hospital awards – the madness continues
For those of you who follow this blog or have heard me speak, this will be a beating of a dead horse. But I can’t help myself, given a conversation I just had with a healthcare marketer who told me of two new hospital awards her organization had received, two of which I had never heard. The question is, will this madness ever end? Read More
Price positioning possibilities
Last week we profiled a new healthcare pricing web site, the Healthcare Blue Book. This week I had a great conversation with the company’s CEO, Dr. Jeffrey Rice. Read More