Video Testimonials

This morning in the New York Times I read that doctors negotiating with their patients to post testimonial videos on video-sharing sites like Revver, Yahooo and YouTube. This trend seems to be especially popular for elective cosmetic procedures such as breast augmentation, Botox, and Lasik surgery. The patients are often compensated with a few hundred dollars or something like an “$800 squirt of Juvederm” according to the article.

The article makes it seem like this is a new thing, but to me it is just a cousin to the cable TV shows and patient testimonials found on channels such as discovery health (Note: I’m a little in the dark when it comes to recent TV programming because I haven’t watched TV since October 2006). Medical ethicists and consumer advocates will certainly serve as the token watch dogs and whistle blowers on this, but I don’t think that should stop hospitals from using testimonial video. It will be interesting to watch how video tactics evolve in the health care marketing world. For that matter, I’ll keep a curious eye focused on video use in financial marketing as well.