“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.”

Thanks to everyone who came!

Interval owner Chris Bevolo (second from the left) joins friends in celebrating the firm's 15th anniversary.

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We’re still in the “soft launch” phase, so we’ll be adding a number of enhancements shortly. Take a look and let us know what you think!

The consultancy’s main mission is to help healthcare organizations re-envision what their marketing could be, re-energizing management and inspiring staff to think bigger and act differently. The addition of the consultancy will allow Chris to focus on offering organizations advice that will help them better understand key trends in healthcare competition, branding and consumerism and put into practice strategies that will effectively leverage those trends.

Chris will maintain his role as president and lead strategist of Interval, which will continue to provide healthcare organizations with award-wining healthcare marketing campaigns.

As part of the change, expert content and the blog have been moved from thinkinterval.com to chrisbevolo.com. To continue to follow Chris’ blog, please subscribe at http://feeds.feedburner.com/chrisbevolo. To learn more about Chris Bevolo’s consulting services visit chrisbevolo.com.

“Adam is truly one of a kind – a master of new media who’s also able to develop and oversee fully integrated campaigns that truly stand out and drive results,” said Chris Bevolo.

Adam holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota and studied art at Minnesota State University-Moorhead.

To RSVP, please email info@ThinkInterval.com.

Founded in 1995 as GeigerBevolo by Chris Bevolo and Scott Geiger, the firm was renamed Interval in November 2008 after Bevolo assumed full ownership of the firm. Originally the firm served a wide variety of industries, with Fortune 500 clients including Hallmark and State Farm Insurance as well as local companies such as Fredrikson & Byron and Braun Intertec. The firm began to focus exclusively on serving hospitals and healthcare organizations in 2003, and quickly built a national reputation for its award-winning work and thought leadership. Today, Interval counts among its clients Allegiance Health, Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota, Inova Health System, LifeSource, and more. Bevolo has two books on healthcare marketing to his credit, as well as numerous papers and articles, and appears frequently as keynote speaker at healthcare conferences around the country.

There’s the frustrating: The “new front”? Hospitals have been jockeying to position themselves for about two decades now. It seems that whenever a mainstream media source “discovers” hospital marketing, then it must be a new phenomenon. It’s not. (Listen to our podcast on the NPR story a few weeks back on hospital marketing, as the moderator nearly gasps “hospitals compete?!?”).

There’s the obvious: live-tweeting and increased social media use by hospitals have been around for a couple of years now. “Emotional print campaigns” and “reputation ads” focusing on awards and rankings have been around for a lot longer. Which means these strategies can’t possibly stem from healthcare reform. And do we really think that the millions of new people who come onto the insurance doles will have the freedom to travel the country to choose care and still stay “in-network?” (Actually this raises a lot of interesting questions about whether there will be “networks” anymore, or what the true financial opportunity for domestic medical tourism is, but I’m on a roll here.)

There’s the hairpullers: Ned Russell, managing director of Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness states: “They (medical centers) need to attract talent and get funding. How do they do that? By increasing their patient base. How do they lure patients? (wait for it) Their advertising. Doesn’t seem to matter these days how far away a patient is.” Shocking that an ad agency exec would tout advertising to build brand and increase volumes. The Russell quote is immediately followed by this: “Indeed, 25% of the patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., come from 500 miles away or more.” I believe it’s pretty well established that the Mayo Clinic has attracted patients from around the country and the world for decades, and over that time THEY NEVER ADVERTISED. (I suppose I don’t need to repeat that great hospital brands are built by delivering great care and experiences, right? Right?)

And there’s the hilarious: this gem from Mike Guarini, president of Ryan TrueHealth: “I say ‘refreshing soda,’ you think Coca-Cola…I say ‘cancer treatment,’ you think Sloan-Kettering.” There are oh so many ways to go with this one. Suffice it to say I believe in branding, I believe in positioning, I believe in advertising, but healthcare is not a soft drink (or, see “Joe Public Doesn’t Care About Your Hospital.”)

OK, so I’m sure this all sounds catty. There is some good stuff in here. Ed Bennett once again provides some level-headed perspective about social media for hospitals: “I tell hospitals ‘Don’t get into social media because you think you’re going to get more patients. Do it because you’re helping be responsible to people reaching out looking for answers.”

Overall though, this piece will not help hospital marketers who struggle everyday with a lack of internal sophistication when it comes to their trade. I fear this will serve as fodder for chief surgeons, service line directors and other executives, who will point to a leading marketing and advertising pub and say, “See? We’re XYZ Medical Center, and WE need to advertise more to build a national reputation and compete with Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins.” Guess that’s good for ad agencies, and for the one or two dozen leading providers that might actually have a shot at a national reputation. But not good for the 97% of the other organizations who struggle enough with building brands and increasing volumes in their own markets.

Thus end’th the rant. What do you think? I’m I being too critical here? What did you think of the article?

Founded in 1995 as GeigerBevolo by Chris Bevolo and Scott Geiger, the firm was renamed Interval in November 2008 after Bevolo assumed full ownership of the firm.

“It would be great to track down all the people who helped us grow over those 15 years today and bring them in for the party – employees, clients, vendors, partners, friends, associates,” said Bevolo. “I would love to toast each and every one of them.”

Originally the firm served a wide variety of industries, with Fortune 500 clients including Hallmark and State Farm Insurance as well as local companies such as Fredrikson & Byron and Braun Intertec. The firm began to focus exclusively on serving hospitals and healthcare organizations in 2003, and quickly built a national reputation for its award-winning work and thought leadership.

Today, Interval counts among its clients Allegiance Health, Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota, Inova Health System, LifeSource, and more. Bevolo has two books on healthcare marketing to his credit, as well as numerous papers and articles, and appears frequently as keynote speaker at healthcare conferences around the country.

“We’ve come a long way since 1995, and have explored many new frontiers, such as patient experience innovation, branding and marketing measurement. We will continue to evolve and observe trends we see in the market so that we can help our clients tap into those that will help move their organizations forward now and 15 years from now,” said Bevolo.