URL on the side of a bus

This weekend I went to the Minnesota State Fair. Loved the deep fried Snickers bar! Anyway, on my way there I saw this URL on the side of a bus: www.thewarriormovie.com

It was sponsored by a local health system, so naturally, I was intrigued.

As of last weekend, the video posted online was just a trailer. It seems like the movie is going to be a patient testimonial and interview with a physician combo.

Now, maybe it appealed to me because I'm in marketing, but I thought it was a fun way to try and draw people in. I don't know what the ROI on something like this is, but it will be interesting to see if I stumble upon other pieces of their campaign this month.

Check out the URL and let me know what you think: www.thewarriormovie.com

Promoting ER vs. Service Lines

A while back, a director of marketing at a hospital told me that they were spending most of their marketing dollars promoting their Emergency Room services. When they told me this, I was a little confused.

I was confused because I think the number one factor that patients consider when choosing an ER location is the proximity of the ER to the emergency event. Now, perhaps that particular hospital blends ER and Urgent Care services; or perhaps they are located across the street from a competitor. But I don't think it makes sense to devote a ton of marketing dollars here.

Now, I do see the benefit of educating the community about the appropriate usage of Urgent Care services vs. ER, because converting ER abusers to Urgent Care users often saves money.

But it seems to me, that a better use of marketing dollars is to promote service lines that aren't linked to emergencies. Consumers are more likely to shop around for the best facility when considering planned and/or elective procedures. Examples: Eye care, plastic surgery, back surgery, etc.

Personally if I am in a life or death situation where every second counts, I'm not going to select an ER based on a fancy commercial, magazine Ad or the Yellow Pages (LOL). I'm going to the closest one!

I welcome your comments, suggestions, counter points, etc.

Follow up to post August 7th about Tofurkey

Well - here is newsletter I got from Turtle Foods. I thought I would post it for all to read :)

"Thank you for signing up for Tofurky Tuesdays!

Our goal is to encourage meat-free meals once a week. Eating more vegetarian meals each week is simple and easy, and these resources will help you in your endeavors.

The Vegetarian Resource Group’s Vegetarianism in a Nutshell and Vegetarian Nutrition for Teenagers are both excellent sources for vegetarian nutritional information.

The Humane Society of the United States also has an excellent Guide to Vegetarian Eating that is full of information on vegetarian eating, factory farming and great vegetarian recipes.

Here is one final resource for information on healthy eating; they have a great selection of cookbooks.

We have calculated that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reduced by going meatless just one day a week is equal to the amount released when you drive a car that averages 20 mpg 16.5 miles. To track the cumulative effect of our Tofurky Tuesdays project, for each person who signs-up we will move our tricked out “Tofurkymobile” 16.5 miles on a virtual trip to every state in the lower 48. In only six weeks, the Tofurkymobile has traveled 14,817 virtual miles, which equals 898 people pledging to eat meatless one day a week.

Included in your Tofurky Tuesday Care Package are complimentary magazines from the Vegetarian Resource Group, Vegetarian Times and VegNews. If you submitted your mailing address when you signed up, you will receive their publications in four to six weeks. Sorry, magazines cannot be sent to Canada.

Thanks so much for participating. We’d love to hear from you, so drop us a line at support@tofurky.com.

Keep an eye on our virtual journey at www.tofurky.com.

Team Tofurky"

Physician Videos and Marketing

Some healthcare organizations spend a lot of time promoting their technology to avoid the political and legal concerns in promoting their physicians. Those organizations run the risk of fostering a cold and impersonal brand.

Personally, I seek out physicians that have a friendly personality AND the expertise to make me healthy. The machines and robots that physicians have in their "medical toolbox" enter into my decision making process. But at the end of the day, I want to be operated on by a nice person, not a jerk.

Online videos are a great tool to help healthcare organizations establish a personal and human brand online. The flip side is that the use of the wrong online videos can project an "arms length" plastic image of "care". When it comes to online video, I want to see the real doctors and nurses that will have my life in their hands. I don't need to see an online video of the 64 slice CT scanner or the surgical robot they will be using (having the technology in the background of the video would suffice).

Or better yet, here is a potential script for a video to promote the human side of the physician AND his/her expertise and technology:

"Hi I am Doctor Soandsuch. I have lived in Carson City, NV for 25 years. I enjoy bike riding, local theater, and the occasional poker game (grin for effect). I have three kids, and my husband is the head of nursing here at Personal Hospital. I also maintain a blog that is available at this website. My blog discusses my approach to family healthcare and my opinions on how we can create a healthier community in Carson City. You are welcome to read my blog and share your ideas there as well. Anyway, enough about my personal life; you might be watching this video because you want to make sure that you or a family member is in good hands when it comes to operating on your heart (pause, time to be serious). Well, I studied for 15 years at the University of Generic But Awesome Medicine. I did my residency right here in Good Ol' Carson City. I have performed 789 open heart surgeries and nailed them all. To ensure success, the technology here at Personal Hospital is top notch (show clips of technology-10 seconds). Well, thank you for watching our video. If you would like to schedule a screening and health consultation with me or one of our other well qualified physicians please call (trackable phone number)."

Tofurky Tuesdays - Market to me please!

I just visited Turttle Food's online at www.tofurky.com . I made a "Tofurky Tuesday" pledge not to eat meat on Tuesday's. In return, Turtle Foods is sending me a free quarterly e-newsletter about vegetarian eating and then they will be mailing me my very own special package that will educate me about eating nutritious meat free meals!

Do you remember Ralphie from A Christmas Story waiting by the mailbox everyday for his secret decoder ring from the Ovaltine company? Well, that will be me. It is Christmas in August ladies and gentleman. Christmas in August. I just can't wait to open my free gifts from Turtle Foods!

Apparently, I will also be helping to decrease global warming by going meat free on Tuesdays. I pretty much eat a vegan diet anyway (suckers)- but I'm excited to see the zaney marketing materials I get from Turtle Foods. Who knows, maybe they will persuade me to eat Tofurky or try out one of their Tempeh products???

Tofurky.com has calculated that the amount of green house gas emissions reduced by going meatless just one day a week is equal to the amount released when you drive a car that averages 20 mpg 16.5 miles! Well, now I'm even more jazzed about my pledge! Shouldn't this automatically qualify me for some type of "green" merit badge? I feel so saintly about my new Tofurky Tuesday pledge that I am going to get the initials "TT" tattooed on my neck, right over the skin of my Adam's apple. That way, when people ask, "Hey what does TT stand for?", I can sit back and soak in the adulation as they smile and nod at me in approval as I explain to them what this incredible pledge is all about. I can even imagine my friends and family chanting my name to cheer me on, "JD!. . .JD!. . . JD!!"

As sarcastic as this little post seems, I really did sign up for the e-mail newsletter and took the Tofurky Tuesday pledge. You can read about it for yourself at http://www.tofurky.com/funstuff/contest_TT.htm

While I can make fun of their marketing tactics a little, I can't deny these important facts:
They got me to stop what I was doing, visit their website, and sign up to be marketed to because they were effective in grabbing my attention. They also got extra mileage from the campaign from this blog post. And, the next time I am in the "not so natural" Tofurky isle, I'll probably think about buying a Tofurky even thought it isn't Thanksgiving yet. I am willing to wager, that there will be a coupon enclosed in the little "care package" they are sending me to help me purchase their products. How thoughtful of them :).

Lesson of the day for me: Try new and fun ways of cutting through the clutter.

Using Video Games to Teach Kids How To Fight Cancer

In general, I think healthcare organizations that create fun and effective ways to inspire kids to be healthy will win the loyalties of parents.

This week, I read in USA Today about a video game that helps to improve patient compliance among teens battling cancer.

In the game, teens try to annihilate cancer sales using a microscopic “nanobot” inspired by the character from Tomb Raider, Lara Croft.

From what I gather, players can travel around the insides of a human body and can win the video game by effectively destroying cancer cells, taking proper medications, etc.

I think this is a great way to teach kids about the importance of following the doctor’s orders.

Use this link to see the article and see a sample video of the game: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-08-03-re-mission_N.htm

Should We Rely Solely on Digital Media Outlets?

Should We Rely Solely on Digital Media Outlets?

As a musician, I sometimes wonder if I should give up on making another CD and just focus on writing and recording songs for digital download only. But, I read a good blog post by Derek Sivers, the founder of cdbaby.com. Reading his post reminded me of a very important aspect of using new media outlets; Don't neglect the slow adopters!

In the post, Derek Sivers poses a question and answers it with a better question.

Question: Should you go digital-only, and skip the CD?
Answer: The real question is: How much of your potential audience are you willing to exclude?

The fact of the matter is that while many people use MP3 downloading as their primary source of music, there are still many late adopters who will continue to use CD's for years to come. If I only make my music available to downloaders, I exclude a big segment of my potential audience.

Looking back of the evolution of video tapes to DVDs, it took a while for DVDs to become mainstream. Furthermore, I can still go to my local video store in Minneapolis (As of August 2nd, 2008) and rent a movie on VHS!

Some marketers are beginning to "drink the Kool-Aid" and are throwing out the use of direct mail and print advertising to rely solely on Web based marketing. Much of time, this is a HUGE mistake.

*The companies that use a smart blend of print and online media outlets to carry their message will triumph over companies who are slow to adopt new media or rely too heavily on it.

*This doesn't necessarily apply to web based companies, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if MySpace was to launch a postcard series to people ages 60+ to get them to join. I wonder what percentage of people would join MySpace as a result of a postcard blast? I wonder how many users on MySpace are age 60+ currently? MySpace for seniors. . . wouldn't that be interesting? Well, perhaps we'll have to wait 20 more years for current MySpace users to grow up before we see that. But maybe not. More and more people ages 60+ are joining MySpace and similar sites every day.

On a similar note, I read a blog post that claims 40% of moms in the USA are MySpace users. I don't know if that is true or not, but it is interesting to think about (My own mother is actually on MySpace). Here is a link to that post: http://social-media-optimization.com/2008/07/myspace-numbers-look-strange/

I'm done ramble posting for the day. . .