Category Archives: Creative

SHSMD Word Cloud Finds the Focus of Today’s Hospital Strategists and Marketers

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In our last post, we talked about word clouds and their practical uses beyond the blog. This week, we’ll continue that discussion in lieu of our recent discoveries at SHSMD Connections 2011, an annual conference hosted by the Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development. The event was a meeting of the minds from all levels of hospital communications, and the word cloud was our way of learning more about what’s on their minds.

SHSMD attendees participated by entering today’s hot topics into our word cloud app. You can view the results here. But what do the results tell us about the directions and challenges hospital marketers face as we head into 2012?

The most commonly used phrase was “physician strategies,” with “social media” coming in close behind. Many hospital strategists are looking for effective ways to engage with physicians and patients. While social media continues to grow as a cost-effective way to expand reach and frequency, strategists are struggling with how to reconcile professional relationships with online social platforms—and even how to get people to “Like” or “Follow” their hospitals in the first place, let alone leverage that affinity. It’s a challenge many of today’s healthcare marketers must untangle, and clearly engagement is the name of the game.

Other issues taking center stage for healthcare marketers include:

• Direct marketing – promoting what works to grow market share.

• Brand building – on-target messaging in the midst of health reform and ACO debates.

• Market-driven plans (and plans that drives markets) – thinking strategically and delivering creatively.

• Better returns – demonstrating improved ROI and ROE as direct results of marketing efforts.

If your marketing initiatives don’t include solid strategic planning in the areas described above, you’re missing opportunities to enhance relationships, grow in volume, improve your brand and more.

What about you—what’s on your mind in healthcare marketing today? If you didn’t share with us at SHSMD, feel free to do so in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.

Word Clouds Put the “Fun” in Functional for Marketers

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You’ve seen them on blogs as handy visual aids that spotlight keywords from page content. Word clouds make it easy for web surfers to determine if any given blog or post interests them enough to keep reading. But for marketers, word clouds offer communication tools that can be used outside the blog as well.

At their most basic level, word clouds make text on a page look more exciting than, well, text on a page. You can use them to convey data and information in a way that breaks the mold of standard presentation formats like slides, spreadsheets and pie charts.

Looking for a creative way to share marketplace feedback to your executive and board leaders? Instead of a report with lengthy quotes and testimonials, consider presenting a word cloud that displays what consumers are saying in one quick, easily digestible image. Information that’s easy to absorb at a glance resonates more with readers.

Word clouds can also help you take a keen look at the content on your website, particularly if you’re not employing search engine optimization tactics. In seconds you’ll know exactly what words appear most frequently on key pages. You can use the results to assess whether or not you’re communicating what you want—and don’t want—to say. Try the same thing with key pages from your competitors’ sites to compare and contrast key messages.

And speaking of your Internet presence, do you know what’s being said about your organization online? Word clouds are a great way to determine if your online press is positive and aligns with your key messages. Google your organization or a specific topic, then enter text from the search results into a word cloud app. You’ll get an instant visual representation of your online image and what it says about you.

Your consumers and employees have suggestions for improvement – do you know what they are? Word clouds can help you figure it out. Just as they can be used to draw attention to your strengths, they can also uncover weaknesses. Without making it public, try making a word cloud to zero in on specific areas needing improvement.

There’s no shortage of word cloud generators available online. Look around on sites like Wordle, Tagxedo and Word It Out (to name just a few). Pick the app you like the most and discover what it can reveal about your marketing and communication efforts. Why not start right now? It’s easy, it’s creative, and it’s fun.

 

The Science of Creativity

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“Live a creative life!”

This was the challenge proposed to a bewildered group of grad students during my first night of this semester’s class, The Creative Process. I know I am not the only student who arrived that night eager to spend a semester discussing advertising production processes and sharing war stories about creative departments and campaigns. Turns out, the course strategy is ‘to read and discuss leading texts on the theory and practice of creativity in science and business.’

So, here I am in week five, writing a paper in support of the belief that creativity is process-oriented rather than talent-oriented, as exemplified in the book The Double Helix:  A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. Yep, you read that correctly - I’m learning about creativity via bioscience. Yawn. I am an absolute proponent of process and agree with the theory that there are steps we usually take (even if they are not consciously defined) to generate new ideas. I just didn’t know that there are people out there who study creativity so thoroughly. Or that I would ever read a book about DNA.

More interesting are these definitions of ‘creativity,’ from my notes:

The ability to combine old elements in new ways.
It’s about making the familiar strange and the strange familiar.
It’s effective surprise.
When nothing is new except the arrangement.
It’s an anti-probability event.
Whatever makes more out of less.
One word:  Bioassociation

According to my professor, all creative types have something in common: they pay attention and they take notes. That’s exactly what I am trying to do during class this semester – it’s keeping me awake.

Creatively yours,
R~

Stairway to Better Health

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Stairway to Better HealthWhen you see a really good idea, you absolutely have to share it with everyone you know.  It used to be that we’d simply email a cool link to our friends and colleagues, but this one is worth talking about.

My hat is off to Volkswagen and thefuntheory.com.  From pianos to pinball, they have collected some great ideas to inspire healthy behaviors.

For all of my clients with offices on the second floor or higher, let this be an inspiration to you to use the stairs.  At a minimum, consider equipping your stairways to health to help fight obesity by giving it a fresh coat of paint.  Hang some artwork, include an inspirational message or two.  Maybe install Wii Fit stations on a landing, or wire up a video board so employees can compete with one another on the number of trips up the steps.   Please add to the list of possibilities by posting a comment.

Winery’s Uncorked Creativity Generates Social ‘Buzz’

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istock_000009100154small1Several weeks ago I received an email from a friend who recently applied for an amazing job at a California winery.  This innovative winery is looking for a “Social Media Whiz.”  It’s a temporary (6 month) position that calls for wine tasting, exploring vineyards, learning about winemaking and then reporting off on these experiences online.

The vineyard must have known there would be applicants lining up among the grapes, because they added a unique twist to the application process:  instead of sending a resume to apply, every candidate creates a video about why they are the right one for the job. This means every wine-loving ‘twit’ out there is sending their video to everyone in their email, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter contact lists and asking each to vote for them. Out of hundreds of videos that will be submitted, only ten videos will be chosen by the public as the best. The ten candidates will then be interviewed for the job.

At the end of the voting period, potentially thousands of people will be checking the winery Web site to vote for their favorite candidate. Talk about a great marketing strategy! The selection process becomes a promotional vehicle before the real promotion (blogs, etc.) even begins!  I’d like to see their Web stats after this promotion is over! 

It is our job as marketers to find these kinds of ‘guerilla marketing’ opportunities for our clients, especially in a down economy. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive – just creative and memorable.  Before receiving the email from my friend, I had never heard of this winery. But now I find myself researching them online, browsing their Web site and checking out their wine selection. Oh and P.S. I did go back and vote for my friend!

Dobies Helps Launch Online Advertising Campaign for Children’s Hospital Website

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dobies Healthcare Group helped launch an online advertising campaign to raise awareness of iGive4Kids.com, a new donation website for Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn. Using Google AdWords – an ideal tool for driving campaigns on new sites where no organic traffic exists – Dobies helped bring donors to the site to purchase valentines for children hospitalized at Le Bonheur during Valentine’s Day. During the campaign, 4.6 million impressions were generated on sites like Google, the Google Search Network and the Google Content Network.

Muriel I. Kauffman Women’s Heart Center Teams with Dobies Healthcare Group for PSA

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dobies Healthcare Group produced a television spot for the Saint Luke’s Muriel I. Kauffman Women’s Heart Center to raise awareness about women’s heart disease. The public service announcement won numerous awards:

  • A Silver Aster award (TV/video Advertising: Specialty Care category),
  • Three bronze Telly awards (local TV and local cable categories of Health and Wellness, Hospital over 200 beds and Not-for-Profit)
  • A gold Healthcare Advertising award, sponsored by Healthcare Marketing Report (Television Advertising: Specialty Hospital category).