July 19, 2011
It’s been said that half of the advertising we do is wasted. Research proves that’s true. But which half? 
Research conducted by Gerald Tellis and colleagues, and reported in Advertising Age, attempted to discover how advertising works. And its effectiveness. Their findings are very interesting and provide useful information for healthcare marketers.
- About half of all ads are simply ineffective. This means the ads that are effective are twice as effective.
- Advertising v. Sales. A 10% increase in advertising generally leads to a 1% increase in sales.
- Short-term vs. long-term. There is no need to start a new campaign until the old one has completely run its course. It is also true that advertising is ineffective in the short-term it will be ineffective in the long-term also.
- Advertising is more effective in a recession than in expansions. The likely reason for this is that many advertisers cut back during recessions so therefore there is less noise.
- TV advertising is more effective than print advertising. Television is more visual and outperforms print.
- Advertising remains a powerful means for reaching consumers. Advertising has helped launch new products and services, created new markets and built great brands.
As all healthcare marketers know, advertising is effective but it’s always interesting to examine the findings of advertising research. The strongest testaments to advertising are the times we have effectively used it to accomplish our marketing goals. It is a very dynamic yet imprecise discipline. But when used correctly it can render outstanding results. At least half the time.
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Hospital Advertising | Tagged: Ad Agency Huntsville, Ad Agency Tuscaloosa, Advertising Age, advertising agency in alabama, advertising agency in the south, Gerald Tellis, healthcare marketing, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Nancy Siniard | 
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Posted by Jimmy Warren
May 12, 2011
Success in social media is not necessarily having a complex social media strategy with multiple tactics – but it’s doing ONE thing well.
The pressure is on. Social media is here and here to stay. It is a new way of doing business and if you are not doing it, you are behind. And there are so many things to do. Facebook, Twitter, blogging, YouTube and viral marketing just for starters. And as healthcare marketers we need to be engaged in all of these to be successful. At least that’s what we are led to believe.
But the fact is that each of these social networking options requires time and effort but few of us have a larger staff or more resources. Healthcare marketers still have all the responsibilities they’ve always had…and more – in most cases. And social marketing requires time. So we are left overwhelmed and confused. We feel the pressure to become engaged but how do we get it all done?
A bit of advice is to relax a little. And start small. It’s impossible to do everything at once. Even more impossible to do all of them well. And still keep up with your other important responsibilities. We all have the long list of things to do and the daunting task of getting them accomplished. And that list includes multiple social media tactics. But maybe this is the wrong approach. Perhaps the best thing to do is to start with one thing and do it well.
Brian Sheehan, associate professor of advertising at the Newhouse School Syracuse University gave this advice in a recent article in Ad Age, “since most companies have no new people, just do one thing. And then do it really well. Once you have mastered this, then – and only then—think about doing a second social media program.” Forget about the list of 10 things to do to be successful in social media or the seven steps in mastering social media. For most healthcare organizations that’s totally impractical because it will lead to either paralyzation, because you can’t get it done, or a very weak effort, because you are spread too thin.
Social media is about engaging consumers in meaningful conversations. That’s it! And if you do a really good job of that, social networking can be very effective. And if you don’t do it well, you are better off not doing social media at all. If we are trying to do too much, more than we can handle, it will not be successful.
Choose what you think would work best for your organization. The thing you think would engage your audience and best meets the needs of your organization. The one thing that has the best chance of success. Choose one thing and do it as well as you can. So let’s get started. But keep it simple. Keep it small. Do one thing and do it well. And if you can’t do it well, don’t do it at all.
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4 Comments | Hospital Marketing, Social Media | Tagged: Ad Age, Ad Agency South, Ad Agency Tuscaloosa, Advertising Age, Advertising Agency Alabama, Advertising Agency Huntsville, Brian Sheehan, Hospital Marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, multiple social media strategy, Nancy Siniard, Newhouse School Syracuse University, Social Media, which social media to implement | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
May 11, 2011
Becoming a mom triggers more dependence on smart phones. 
A young woman has a baby. And gets a smartphone. That desk computer or laptop is pretty hard to manage with a baby on your hip. And especially if you have two or three children. But staying connected and having access is even more important. Sharing those pictures and daily baby updates with family and friends is certainly essential. So what do you do? You get an iPhone, Android, Blackberry or other smartphone… Or maybe an iPad.
A recent study by Babycenter cited research that states over half of new moms purchase a smartphone as a direct result of becoming a mom. The camera is a necessity as well as apps for getting things done and staying organized, social sites to stay connected to friends and family, and games to keep the kids entertained. In fact, a study by Morgan Stanley estimates that in 2011 there will be more smartphones and tablets shipped than notebooks and desktops.
So for healthcare marketers, reaching moms should include a mobile strategy. “If you are not reaching them through their mobile device, you have less and less chance to reach them at all,” according to Matt Carmichael in a recent article in Advertising Age. And the study by BabyCenter also indicated there was a sizeable correlation between having a smartphone and moving toward a more digital mix of media consumption. Forty-six percent of moms with smartphones have taken some form of action after seeing an ad on their mobile device. And as reported in the Ad Age article, on average, moms with smartphones spend over 6 hours a day with mobile media, which includes email, mobile, web, apps, SMS and voice messaging.
Few hospitals have a well-defined mobile strategy or have even experimented with mobile marketing. But in the future, it may become necessary for reaching moms. Moms are a key target for hospitals. They are the gatekeeper for their family’s healthcare and control an enormous amount of healthcare dollars. Mobile is where they are. It is the communication device they depend on. It goes with them, stays with them, is the most convenient and fits into their hurried lifestyle. To build a brand and a relationship with them will mean having a mobile strategy. To reach them, we have to get smart too.
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2 Comments | Branding, mobile marketing | Tagged: Ad Age, Ad Agency in Alabama, Ad Agency in Huntsville, Ad Agency in Tuscaloosa, Advertising Age, Advertising Agency in South, Babycenter, Branding, healthcare marketing, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Matt Carmichael, mobile marketing, Morgan Stanley, Nancy Siniard, smartphones for hospitals, time spent with smartphone | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
April 4, 2010
A look at last week’s most tweeted brands shows that Twitter users are all across the board and hard to define. They come in all shapes and sizes. 
Advertising Age and What We Trend have collaborated to list the “Top 10 most Tweeted Brands” each week. One would think reviewing the list would give you some very definitive information about who is tweeting the most. But the list is very confusing and reveals that all types of people, at all ages are active on Twitter. You cannot specifically define the Twitter audience. Sometimes it’s tweens, sometimes baby boomers and sometimes its Gen Xers. It varies and varies widely.
A look at the top ten brands from the week of March 7th proves the point very well. The list was presented by Simon Dumenco in the March 12th issue of Adage . Number one on the list was the Oscars whose Twitter participants was a “grown-up” audience. Number two was Justin Bieber whose new album “My World 2.0” is due out on March 23rd. This was definitely a teenage audience. Number three was “Alice in Wonderland’. Who tweeted about this? Moms of younger children? Number 4 was Notorious B.I.G. (on the 13th anniversary of his death). And number 8 was Corey Haim (who was found dead on March 10). Tweeters for both of these are arguably Gen Xers.
And just to really confuse things, number seven was Chuck Norris who turned 70 on March 10. Definitely a Boomer audience there.
And just to further show the variety of Tweeters, the others in the Top 10 were:
Lady Gaga…. who premiered her new video with Beyonce “Telephone”
Jonas Brothers… who announced an upcoming tour with Demi Lovatos
Demi Lovato… whose fans tweeted why they love her
NBA… as it heads toward the playoffs and Rodney Stuckey of the Pistons was taken to the hospital during a game against the Cavaliers.
Lady Gaga, Jonas Brothers and the NBA, all in the top 10? All very different audiences. And the techno geeks did not break the top 10? Very confusing indeed.
So Twitter has apparently penetrated a very wide and diverse demographic and sociographic audience. Twitterers cannot be pigeonholed. They are not to be stereotyped. We cannot assume they are all a certain type of audience. What it says to hospital marketers is there is an audience on Twitter that can be very worthy of our efforts to reach. We just have to be creative and provide useful and wanted information. Whatever the audience we are seeking, some of them are out there tweeting.
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2 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: Ad Age, Advertising Age, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Most Tweeted Brands, Nancy Siniard, Patients using Twitter, Social Media, TotalCom Marketing, What the Trend, What We Trend, Who is Using Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
March 6, 2010
Television networks are using social media to enhance their audiences. And the ratings prove that it’s working.
Television networks have seen the audiences for their live shows declining over the past several years. In fact, some have suggested that shows like the Grammys, BET Awards, Golden Globe Awards, MTV Video Music Awards and the Oscars were a dying concept. The thought that these shows are tanking was a bit premature. The networks have started using social media to create buzz prior to and during the show to increase their audience. Twitter, Facebook and other online blogs are making a difference.
After a four-year decline, ratings in 2009 have been substantially up. Viewership for the Golden Globes was up 14%, MTV Video Music Awards were up 6% and the Grammy’s were up 35%. Pre-show hype was created for each show and live tweeting and Facebook updates were used to build audience. Andrew Hampp detailed how the networks used social media to successfully increase viewership in an article in Ad Age.
“Last June’s BET Awards became the highest-rated cable show of the year on the strength of an aggressive Twitter integration and fans tweeting about the show’s makeshift tribute to Michael Jackson,” cited Hampp. And Kanye West’s bum-rush of the stage at the Grammy’s to interrupt Taylor Swift’s acceptance as Best Female Performance created an online frenzy that caused many viewers to tune into the last 2 hours of the show to see what would happen next. The result was the show’s highest rating in 5 years.
So what does this have to do with healthcare advertising? The networks effectively used social media to ramp up their audience. Perhaps hospital marketers can use social media to enhance their traditional advertising. It would require a strategic integrated effort across traditional and social mediums. The rewards could be substantial. It could add more glitz, glamour and effectiveness to our efforts.
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3 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: Ad Age, Advertising Age, Andrew Hampp, BET Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Grammy Awards, Hospitals and social media, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, MTV Video Music Awards, Nancy Siniard, networks using social media, Oscars, Social Media, social media to promote traditional media | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
February 24, 2010
Research indicates that up to 25% of web viewers click off of pre-roll video. Consumers do not want to watch a video before they can get to the information they want. 
A recent study by video analytics firm TubeMogel finds that nearly 16% of viewers click away from a pre-roll video ad rather than watch it before getting to the content they are seeking. And on newspaper and magazine sites, where interruptive advertising isn’t the norm, the percentage goes up to 25%, according to an article in Ad Age by Michael Learmonth.
Consumers just don’t want to want to watch a video before they can get to the information they are searching for. They consider it a nuisance and become annoyed by it. Yet the easiest thing for marketers to do is to place a: 30-second TV spot on the web. It’s already produced, it’s available, and it’s easy. But they may be doing more harm than good. Annoying the consumer may be what you’re doing.
“Consumers have so many choices that 16% are going to leave your content just because you put an ad in front of it,” stated Brett Wilson, CEO of the video analytics firm. “That’s a big paradigm shift – people don’t have to watch your ad”
Learmonth also cited research by YuMe that shows a completion rate of only 61% for 30-second video ads on the web. So clearly, using TV spots or videos as an ad, like a pop-up screen, is not highly effective. Most people go online to gather information and do not want to have to watch an unrequested video ad before they can get to the content they are seeking.
Web advertising requires it’s own unique strategy and approach. While the brand must be consistent across all mediums, it’s not effective to just take traditional media and stick it on the web. The audience expectations and tolerance levels are entirely different. When you turn on your online video ad, you may just be turning off the consumer.
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8 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Internet | Tagged: Ad Age, Advertising Age, effectiveness of video preroll, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, hospital tv commercial, Internet, Jimmy Warren, Lori Moore, Marketing Ideas, Michael Learmonth, Nancy Siniard, pre-roll, TotalCom Marketing, Tubemogul, tv ad as preroll, tv commercials as pre rolls, video analytics, video preroll, web advertising strategy, YuMe | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
February 24, 2010
The changes that have occurred during the past 10 years are amazing! The 2000′s have been a remarkable decade for consumers. And the marketing implications are enormous. 
Josh Bernoff of Advertising Age recently wrote an article listing some of the dramatic changes that have occurred since the start of 2000.. It’s interesting to look at the changes he cites and consider the marketing implications of those changes.
In 2001 Bill Gates, referred to the decade as “The Digital Decade”. What a prophet he has proven to be. To prove that he was right, consider some of the numbers:
- When the decade began, there were 2.6 million broadband households in the U.S. – one in 40 homes. Now there are 80 million – two thirds of the population.
- In 2000, there were no DVRs. Today they are in 31 million and 51 million HDTVs.
- There are now 270 million mobile phone subscriptions in the U.S. – out of 307 million adults. In 2000 there were practically no smartphones.
- Portable digital music players now reach 76% of all households. In 2000 the iPod had not been introduced.
- There are now over 350,000,000 active Facebook users. There were none in 2000.
- Google just celebrated its 10th anniversary. Ten years ago, Google wasn’t a noun or a verb.
- Spending on digital marketing has grown from $6.2 billion in 1999 to $25.6 billion or 12% of all marketing expenditures.
- In 2009, consumers spent 34% of their media time online.
To look back at these numbers, it is truly amazing how things have changed. And the next decade will bring other remarkable changes. All of this has certainly changed the nature of marketing. These numbers can’t be ignored. The consumer is very different today than he/she was just 10 years ago. Our marketing strategies, patient service models and communication methods must change to reflect this very different marketplace.
The consumer has more control. The consumer is more active in the marketing process. The consumer is more demanding. Expectations are higher. And the liabilities from not being responsive to the consumer are much greater.
Today is indeed a different world and a different marketplace than it was 10 years ago. We look back at the last decade and realize how dramatically things have changed. And that’s why healthcare marketers must be different and must do things differently.
All the changes create great and exciting opportunities. There is a lot to learn, a lot to explore and a lot to do. Out task is harder in many ways, but the opportunities are greater too. What a decade it’s been! And just as we consider the changes of the 2000s, the next ten years will be yet another decade of change and challenge and excitement.
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2 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: Ad Age, Advertising Age, Bill Gates, changes in healthcare marketing, changes in hospital marketing, decade of change for consumer, decade of change in marketing, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Jimmy Warren, Josh Bernoff, Lori Moore, market differently, marketplace 10 years ago, marketplace now, Nancy Siniard, TotalCom Marketing, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
January 11, 2010
Over half of national retail advertisers embraced social media as part of their media mix for the 2009 holidays.
Just two years ago, only 4% of national retail advertisers utilized social media in their marketing strategies. But in 2009 more than half embraced social media. According to a survey by BDO Seidman, of those retailers using social media, 76% are focusing on Facebook, 50% on Twitter, 14% on MySpace and 14% on YouTube.
Natalie Zmuda and Kunur Patel wrote in the December 7th issue of Advertising Age that Facebook was the second most visited site in the US on Black Friday. And on that day “4.3% of Facebook users and 2.3% Twitter users visited the website of a top 500 retailer immediately after perusing the social-network site.”
Some of the retailers Zmuda and Patel cited as successfully using social network sites were Best Buy, ebay, JC Penney, Toy ‘R ‘Us and Wal-Mart. These retailers used a combination of giveaways, support for traditional advertising, customer service, charitable donations and promotion of online specials. Amazon, Abercrombie and Fitch, Kohl’s, Old Navy and Target were listed as retailers who did not do such a great job utilizing social media. Their various sins were lack of coordination with traditional media, lack of holiday specials, unanswered consumer complaints and unchecked pages.
This gives a microcosm of how extensive social media is used both successfully and poorly by retailers. Lessons are abundant for healthcare marketers:
- Social media is a viable option and should be included in a hospital’s marketing strategy. As can be seen by the dramatic growth in the use of social media, retailers are way ahead in recognizing the value and importance of social networking.
- When done right, social media can be very effective. It can create and enhance relationships with consumers. It can create an ongoing conversation with consumers.
- When done poorly, social media can damage a brand. When a brand isn’t active and engaged and doesn’t respond to consumer comments it sends a message that it’s not consumer-focused.
Social media is growing. Brands are recognizing the value and benefits of engaging in social media. Hospital marketers can learn valuable lessons. Retailers have taught us that indeed the holidays are very social.
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2 Comments | Hospital Marketing, Social Media | Tagged: Abercrombie and Fitch, Ad Age, Advertising Age, Amazon.com, bbdo, Best Buy, Black Friday, eBay, effective social media for hospitals, Facebook, Hospital Marketing, JC Penney, Jimmy Warren, Kohl's, Kunur Patel, Lori Moore, myspace, nancy sinirad, Natalie Zmuda, Old Navy, retailers using social media, Social Media, Target, Toys R Us, Twitter, WalMart, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
November 29, 2009
Social media has leveled the playing field and made it possible for marketers with smaller budgets to compete effectively.
There is a lot of talk these days about brands that have large budgets being threatened by competitors with much smaller budgets. Some believe scale is losing its effectiveness because social media is having a leveling effect. An article in Advertising Age on November 17, 2009 by Jeff Neff outlined the discussion recently held at the Association of National Advertisers in Phoenix. National advertisers, due to their large marketing budgets, who could overwhelm smaller competitors are now taking notice that those competitors are making headway in the battle for consumers.
Brad Casper, CEO of Henkel’s U.S. business stated, “New media, social media, has been the great equalizer”. He cited the successful launches by Purex Natural Elements and Dial Yogurt body wash that have gained significant share despite significantly lower budgets, by using PR, digital and social-media components. Neff also referenced Colgate-Palmolive who has built or maintained market share in categories such as body wash, oral care and laundry against competitors who have spent much larger amounts in measured media.
What does this have to do with healthcare marketing? There are many hospitals that compete against much larger hospitals that overwhelm them with ad spending. What can a hospital do with a much smaller budget? If the packaged goods industry can teach hospital marketers anything, it’s that smaller budgets can be strategically utilized to compete more effectively. Larger hospitals are often very slow to adopt digital and social media strategies. If that is the case, as it is with many large packaged goods brands, hospitals with smaller budgets can begin to penetrate the competitor’s market share.
They can compete by:
- Having a rich, useful and consumer-friendly website
- Advertising on popular local websites
- Concentrating on paid and organic search optimization
- Establishing appropriate Facebook pages
- Advertising on Facebook by matching services with highly targeted audiences
- Using Twitter to communicate with healthcare special interest audiences
It’s a new form of guerilla marketing. Digital and social-media can effectively be used to make a strong impact and create a stronger voice within the market. Measured media is not to be discounted. Some level of traditional media must be used. But it can be supplemented with “new media” strategies that can help level the playing field that has been heavily weighted against the smaller marketer.
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7 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Social Media | Tagged: Adage.com, Advertising Age, Association of National Advertisers, Brad Casper, Henkel, Hospital Advertising, Jeff Neff, Jimmy Warren, Small Budget, Social Media, social media budget | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
October 31, 2009
Some hospitals are using new technology to communicate ER wait times.
In the October 12, 2009 issue of Advertising Age , Abbey Klaassen wrote about HCA hospitals in south Florida using technology to communicate their ER wait times. Current wait times are electronically sent to electronic billboards with a RSS feed and the times are shown on the billboard. They also have an iPhone app that provides the wait times and a texting service. Consumers simple text “ER” to a number, supply their zip code to a text reply and the wait time and a phone number is texted back to their phone.
And Progress West Hospital in O’Fallon, Missouri is using Twitter to communicate ER wait times according to Eric Becker of Suburban Journals.
We must commend these hospitals for embracing new technology and using it to communicate with consumers. Sure, there may be some risks and some pitfalls. Melanie Arnold, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health points out that communicating ER wait times presents all sorts of possibilities of misunderstandings among patients. A patient may show up expecting the communicated wait time and be bumped by more serious injuries or health problems.
Ed Fishbough, a spokesperson for HCA acknowledges that communicating wait times is targeted to less serious walk-in patients, “Obviously, people who have a serious injury or medical condition should call 911 or go to the closest emergency room.”
Despite the concern, and there are legitimate ones, you must applaud those hospitals who are using new technology and channels to communicate with the public. Those who do will reap significant rewards. Fishbough added, the network of 12 emergency departments in south Florida has seen “significant increases in the number of patients visiting its ERs”.
New technology and new media as part of the communication effort of hospitals is something that should not wait.
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3 Comments | Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Internet, Social Media | Tagged: Abbey Klaassen, Ad Age, Advertising Age, Ed Fishbough, HCA, Hospital Advertising, Hospital Marketing, Illinois Department of Public Health, Internet, Jimmy Warren, Marketing Ideas, Progress West Hospital, publish Emergency room times, publish ER times, Social Media, Suburban Journals | Permalink
Posted by Jimmy Warren
