Adapted from Franklin Street's Healthcare Marketing Trends Report Where's your smart phone right now? Chances are good that it's within arm's reach. According to a Morgan Stanley study, 91% of smartphone owners keep their phones beside them 24 hours a day. (An interesting office poll: ask your colleagues how many sleep with their phones. The number who do will surprise you.) Read more »

Adapted from Franklin Street's Healthcare Marketing Trends Report According to Ford's Trends report, 60 is the new 50 is the new 40. Thanks to medical innovations and prolonged life expectancy, consumers are staying young mentally as well as physically. In other words, we're living longer, and we're feeling younger. Consider: Many Baby Boomers with good health habits and good genes can expect to live past 90 years. Read more »

Adapted from Franklin Street's Healthcare Marketing Trends Report. A new form of self-help in healthcare and health and wellness is emerging. Brands like Nike are embedding "feedback loops" into their products, allowing people to get real-time reactions on their activities – while reaping brand loyalty and profits in the process. Call it Do It Yourself (DIY) Healthcare or "Help Me Help Myself." Read more »

One of our clients reminded us recently that healthcare is a two-sided coin of Life and Death. Unlike any other business category, healthcare marketing and branding requires engaging prospective patients who would rather avoid the conversation altogether. We are starting to see the trend of audiences becoming increasingly engaged in proactive healthcare lifestyles. Read more »

In the 2012 Presidential Election, the Democrats taught the Republicans the value of a good Ground Game, or, in marketing terms, grassroots marketing. The Democrats got their base out to vote by spending millions and committed even more in man hours to ensure people made it to the polls on Election Day. Wisely, the Democrats saw grassroots marketing as an important element in their overall approach to winning the election.But, if you're told Read more »

Our experience in healthcare marketing tells us that health audiences are generally open and willing to embrace conversations about heart care and joint care. Cancer services, however, is still a taboo topic, which means health audiences are more likely to close the door on the conversation before our advertising and other communications strategies can break through. In "Buyology" Martin Lindstrom, explains that "...emotions are the way in which Read more »

The New Year means the chance to embrace change, and to grow. Here are our resolutions for the healthcare marketing community, which we are grateful to be part of. We wish you a bright and prosperous New Year.Resolution No. 1: We will do less and accomplish more.We will say no to those activities that do not solve our organization's business challenges. As Lisa McCluskey, VP of Marketing Communications at Memorial Health Care System says, Read more »

All marketers (healthcare and non-healthcare) say they measure their campaigns, and almost all feel they lack the  tools to connect the ROI dots.Information, we've got. We're drowning in data. Google Analytics can tell us everything about our web traffic, except how much revenue we're delivering our health systems with each new visitor.Klout scores (does anyone follow these anymore?) can tell us how cool our social online presence is, except Read more »

Being in the healthcare communications and marketing industry means constantly staying current with trends, legal changes and best practices. The irony is that communicators are often too busy doing the work to read up and get ahead of the curve.Hence this post.Here are a few of our favorite conferences, publications, and blogs to stay current on where healthcare communications, branding and marketing is heading.National ConferencesSHSMD (Society Read more »

Your smart phone can do amazing things: video chat with friends, check the latest scores for your favorite Indian cricket team, or play Scrabble with your co-worker. But your smart phone more than fun and games. The latest additions to the smartphone app market may just end up saving your life.Your smartphone can become  a head-to-toe health care tool. From monitoring your ears with CellScope, your sleep habits with Zeo Sleep Manger or Sleep Read more »