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.”
What we tell ourselves is hooey
We’ve spent a lot of time in some recent podcasts harping on the idea that many traditional means of research – especially surveys and focus groups – fail to provide true insight into consumer motivations because what people say often doesn’t correlate with what they do. One of our favorite sources for this philosophy is Martin Lindstrom, author of the best-seller “Buyology” and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Lindstrom’s recent work Read More
Two words that often kill great ideas: “prove it”
When it comes to healthcare marketing, one of the most feared comments from executives, physicians and operational leaders is this: “If you can’t prove this will work, then we’re not doing it.”
As we’ve stated many times over the past year in our blog posts, podcasts, and paper, we feel passionately that marketers should strive to measure the success of their efforts whenever possible. Measurement allows you to demonstrate marketing’s value to leadership, and, more importantly, to better understand what works and what doesn’t. That kind of measurement discipline can help marketers answer that dreaded question by allowing them to pull from past experiences and demonstrate that yes, this can work, and this is how it has in the past.
Except in one case: when the idea is brand new and hasn’t been done before, either by you and your organization, or, even worse, by anybody else. Of course, launching a new idea before anyone else can lead to great success (iPod, TiVo, Starbuck’s “third place” experience, etc.) But in a conservative culture, the lack of a proven track record is often what kills an innovative idea. An article in this week’s BusinessWeek titled “Innovation’s Accidental Enemies” does a great job of reminding us why the lack of a proven track record should be considered an opportunity, not a deficit. Read More
Introduce some Paranormal Activity to your marketing
If you haven’t heard of Paranormal Activity, chances are you tripped over your router cable a few months ago and forgot to plug in back it back in. This independent film has made quite a stir through Twitter and other social networking outlets. In fact, this low budget ($11,000) flick has relied almost exclusively on social networking for promotion. And it pulled in over $7 million last weekend.
CNN covered this story today. In it are a number of valuable nuggets for all marketers – healthcare and otherwise.
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Story on Mayo Clinic's social media efforts has quotes from Bevolo
Mayo Clinic’s social media efforts were the focus of a recent newspaper article that included quotes from Interval president Chris Bevolo. The comments covered how Mayo Clinic’s leadership in social media should help pave the way for others in healthcare. The quotes were included in the April 26 Minneapolis Star Tribune story, “Mayo turns to social media to reach out to patients.”
Bevolo weighs in on new Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Interval President Chris Bevolo is quoted in the April 21 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The article, “Mayo opens private medical-data website,” covers the launch of the organization’s new Health Manager offering.
Step right up to get your free colonoscopy…
Across the U.S., companies are finding ways to try to help customers purchase products and services in these tough economic times. Much has been made of some of the offers by car companies, started by Hyundai’s Assurance plan: anyone who buys or leases a vehicle in 2009 can return their car to the dealer and stop making monthly payments without affecting their credit score. According to Consumer Reports, the program isn’t just for consumers who’ve lost their jobs in tough times; it also extends to those who become physically disabled, lose their driver’s license due to medical impairment, are self employed and file for bankruptcy, or get a job transfer overseas. At Interval, we’ve even introduced a new offering to help our clients – hospital and health system marketers – who are having budgets and staffs slashed as the healthcare industry struggles.
This week, Walgreen announced Read More
Carol.com mentioned in White House discussion of healthcare innovation
Our friends at Carol.com received some nice exposure at the recent White House Health Care Summit. The innovative online service that brought “shopping for care” to the Twin Cities and Seattle markets was referenced by Ken Powell, the CEO of General Mills, Read More
Disrupting healthcare
I spent today at a Master’s Forum event in Minneapolis entitled The Innovator’s Prescription. There were great speakers and many insights (Michael Howe, former CEO of MinuteClinic, gave one of my favorite quotes of the day when he said, “When you hear those in healthcare speak of integration, that’s not the same type of integration consumers want.”) Read More
Truth #2: Healthcare marketing needs a serious shake-up
The Truths We Hold Self-Evident: Second in a Series
Recently, we worked on an initiative with a small clinical group, and we were discussing the need to be very clear about our target audience. The group was building a specialized program aimed at a tiny subsegment of cardiac patients, and to emphasize the point, I joked: “At least we don’t have to worry about billboards this time.” Laughs all around. Until the next meeting, when one of the cardiologists spoke up: “I know we were joking about billboards last time, but maybe there’s an intersection in town where the traffic patterns might make a billboard a smart option.” Sigh. Read More