May28

How to Sip From an Information Fire Hose: Taking Stock of the Therapeutic Marketplace

Posted by Brad Imwalle, PhD, MBA from OCH Medical Education, Parsippany - North America

By Brad Imwalle, PhD, MBA from OCH Medical Education, Parsippany - North America | Published: May 28, 2013

Fire Hose ThumbnailIn an effort to describe the intellectual environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), former MIT President Jerome Wiesner once remarked that “getting an education at MIT is like taking a sip from a fire hose.”

For those of us working in the field of medicine, this perspective is far from a pithy witticism. The scope of the informational fire hose in science is truly staggering. For example, according to summaries posted by the National Library of Medicine, new “In Progress” records expand daily by 3,000 to 12,000 citations. While not broken down by scientific discipline, these data underscore the scope of the challenge to understand a rapidly changing clinical marketplace. Additionally, these data don’t begin to address the broad expanse of observations by the media, blogosphere, and social media.

So how do we at Ogilvy CommonHealth Medical Education (OCHME) sip from an informational fire hose? Our scientific team takes a multidisciplinary approach:

  • Manage the scientific literature – The National Library of Medicine’s search engine allows a user to program keywords into daily automated searches that are emailed to us each morning
  • Leverage capabilities of Internet search engines – Many search engines will alert a user to a particular word string “as it happens.” So the moment a keyword is used on the Internet, we are made aware and can act on it
  • Build close intellectual relationships with clients and clinicians – At every opportunity, OCHME shares our perspectives on recent developments in a therapeutic area with our clients and clinicians. As the relationship matures, the exchange of information becomes a two-way street. Before long, this becomes a key source of new information for us
  • Embrace nontraditional sources – We routinely monitor blogs and conduct Twitter searches for perspectives that support our projects
  • Continue to rely on traditional information channels: Sources such as eMarketer, Forrester, or Kantar Sources & Interactions continue to offer high intrinsic value, allowing OCHME to construct insightful snapshots of a therapeutic marketplace

Using the above techniques, OCHME is frequently the first source of timely strategic information that is shared with our clients. In addition, this comprehensive approach allows OCHME to identify novel data and cutting-edge perspectives that keep our medical content topical, insightful, and exciting.

Still thirsty? The next round is on OCHME. Cheers!

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

 

Also posted in Content Strategy, Data, Medical Education, Strategy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
May16

Client Banner Days That Click

Posted by Gary Duffy from Ogilvy CommonHealth Medical Marketing - Parsippany, NJ

By Gary Duffy from Ogilvy CommonHealth Medical Marketing - Parsippany, NJ | Published: May 16, 2013

banner-day-1This past Saturday, the Mets held their annual Banner Day at Citi Field—a one-day event that gives baseball fans a chance to express their loyalty, appreciation and creativity to their beloved ball club using homemade banners. Fortuitous for the Mets’ brass that the banner parade was held on the field before the game, as the Mets were mercilessly plundered by the Pirates 11-2.  I can only imagine what season ticket holder “Vinny from Queens” would have expressed with a bed sheet and some spray paint after the less than amazin’ performance.

In our business, and unlike the Mets’ fan base, we have the good fortune of being able to celebrate and show appreciation for our clients’ performance beyond just one banner day a year. In fact we have many.

As their partners, we help our clients thrive amidst the daily pressures and demands of making a brand meaningful, and we contribute to those amazing banner day moments. A successful product launch, an engaging and effective RM program, a new brand campaign and website, a motivating and memorable workshop  or convention, a positive sales quarter, or a brand team member promotion are all opportunities to keep our creative juices flowing and to let our client appreciation banner fly.

Rather than judiciously yet unceremoniously checking the “job well done” box then moving on to the next task, is there an opportunity to turn each milestone into a celebratory and defining moment for you and the client? And why do it at all?

Many of our clients have joined the marketing ranks after a successful stint in sales, where they were driven by incentives while showered with frequent tokens of appreciation and recognition, including for some, President’s Club, honoring the uber-performers with VIP getaways to sun-splashed resorts.

What’s the motivation and where is the recognition once they get into marketing? We can do our part and partially fill that void with client banner days. Each time the client achieves something special, there’s an opportunity to recognize and celebrate it with an agency-made token of appreciation. Let them know how much you care about them and their accomplishments. It gives us a chance to prove that our creativity extends beyond what’s stated in the brief to something more personable. It’s an endearing touch point that can enhance a relationship. And unlike the Mets, it only takes a little effort to get amazin’ results.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we have celebrated client banner days, please contact me at gary.duffy@ogilvy.com.

Also posted in agency life, Branding, Creativity, Great Ideas | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
Apr9

Painting by Numbers: Using Enterprise-wide Analytics to Guide Marketing Strategy

Posted by Christina Connor from Ogilvy Healthworld - New York, North America

By Christina Connor from Ogilvy Healthworld - New York, North America | Published: April 9, 2013

Paint Brush Man_Thumbnail

Today, analytics is playing an ever-expanding role in developing marketing strategy as clients have become aware of the importance of data in guiding campaign decisions. Like the Paint by Numbers crafts of our childhood, marketers can use stats and data points to guide the creative marketing process, resulting in a more predictable end-product.

However, according to a recent Accenture study, the same brand managers who understand the importance of analytics tend to rely on gut instinct instead of logical recommendations, preferring to paint outside the lines rather than follow the data.

The reason for this departure is that analytics is still typically brought in on a project-by-project basis.  While a team of expert analysts may provide insight on one particular channel or campaign, they do not have a panoramic view of the overarching strategy or history of the brand. The brand manager’s gut, on the other hand, has years of experience in overall performance, customer relations, and sales. This often results in a strategy that conforms to a “more of the same” mentality.

Within the Ogilvy Healthworld Marketing Analytics & Consulting team, we have found that insights and recommendations  can be more impactful when done at a portfolio or enterprise level. For example, we had been performing analytics for a particular brand, observing that over time, the paid search costs were increasing for unbranded terms. Over the next year, we grew our analytics practice across this pharma company’s entire therapeutic department. When the data started to pour in, our analysis uncovered that two brands were competing against each another for the same unbranded terms, artificially driving the costs up. By taking an above-brand look at the data, we were able to identify an issue and resolve it in a way that benefited both brands and became a best practice across the therapeutic area.

While this example looks at a very specific issue, enterprise analytics has a number of strategic benefits:

  • First, it sets a tone of accountability across brands, defining a standard of data quality that can be enforced in measurement and optimization. Not only does this ensure that different groups are using the same metrics to define success, but also it makes it easier to compare performance across brands and categories. Over time, this organized collection of data can serve as a starting point for performing more advanced modeling and predictive analytics.
  • Second, strategic data collection and analyses can offer dramatic cost-savings as each brand does not have to finance its own projects and can anticipate a more organized array of reporting and analysis options.
  • Third, enterprise-wide analytics enables across-the-board education in reporting and data. At this time, many brand managers are in the habit of glancing at a report for information, but not yet using it as a compass by which to navigate. With an enterprise-wide analytics presence, these brand managers are forced to embrace the numbers and start making more strategic brand recommendations. The result is a more consistent and strategic step forward in marketing growth and optimization.

Ultimately, analytics and reliance on predictive modeling are here to stay. As marketing partners, it is our responsibility to make our clients as agile as possible and ensure they have the most accurate information in their toolbox while making decisions. So the next time your clients go to the easel and begin painting their strategic plan, make sure they have numbers to guide their work of art.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

Also posted in Analytics, Data, Healthcare Communications, Planning, Statistics, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
Apr4

Positioning: Impossible!

Posted by Terrence Rouse from Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide - Parsippany, NJ

By Terrence Rouse from Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide - Parsippany, NJ | Published: April 4, 2013

Circle in SquareFor most of us, working in pharmaceutical marketing is a joy. We are challenged to use our brains daily and we find the marriage of science and creativity a fulfilling career path. But there are at least two aspects of mainstream advertising where I become jealous of our consumer packaged goods brethren: 1) when they get to make beer commercials, and 2) when they are developing new positioning concepts.

I’m quite sure I would struggle writing a creative brief targeted at 24-year-old men who drink beer, and I probably would find trying to differentiate soap or toilet paper equally frustrating. But it has to be easier than positioning new pharmaceutical brands, doesn’t it? So I ask, “What makes positioning pharmaceutical brands now so especially difficult?”

There are at least two major challenges to landing on a strong positioning statement for many of our clients.

1)      Few chronic and serious diseases can be radically altered by the introduction of a new drug.  Instead, there tends to be a first-in-class innovator followed by a series of subsequent launches that offer incremental improvements. Being a little bit more efficacious, being a little bit safer, or hitting a new endpoint in a clinical trial are highly valuable improvements, but are not always linchpins for dynamic positioning.

2)      The ubiquitous positioning template that most pharma clients use can make it hard to focus.  Even when a brand team is committed to focusing on a single core differentiated benefit (CDB), we are too often caught loading the reason-to-believe (RTB) section with handfuls of secondary product  features and scores of emotional benefits.

Remember your first positioning workstream when you came up with empowerment, confidence, and liberation? They are great words, but they have been considered by every product launched in recent memory.

Can’t decide between efficacy and tolerability—why not check the thesaurus to see if there is a synonym for quality of life? (Hint: one doesn’t exist.)

But picking on the process is the easy part; coming up with dynamic positioning is more difficult. The good positioning checklist often wants to know if we are credible, sustainable, compelling, differentiating, etc. But we need more than that. For many of our oncology and specialty products, where differentiation has to be more than just your Kaplan-Meier curve, we are starting to challenge our clients to ask the following questions:

  • Is there a space “above the brand” where we can take a position? Instead of trying to meet an unmet need, is there a cultural trend that can be addressed by our brand’s best self?
    • We often look to our Ogilvy & Mather consumer clients for inspiration. How did IBM convert information overload into a smarter planet campaign? How did Dove transcend a cultural obsession with perfection into the campaign for real beauty? How did environmental awareness and activism change BP into Beyond Petroleum?
  • What can we do to change the rules?
    • Can your product be the advanced practitioner brand, the tele-medicine brand, or the unique offering that can help navigate the evolving environment of the accountable care organization?
    • Can you, gasp, ditch the template? Explore different “concepts” to show your positioning. Maybe prose, maybe some pictures, perhaps a video. If you are committed to testing your positioning concepts (and I say hats off to those who have the conviction NOT to test), give the respondent something interesting to noodle over.
  • Are you aligned?
    • Marketing may want to push clinical data that may or may not be superior to the competition, but are your investigators talking up your safety profile on the podium? If your primary customers balk when your reps present efficacy, are they going to retreat directly to the comfort of your AE profile? The position has to work for everybody.
  • Can you have fun doing it?
    • Take a chance, be crazy, challenge yourselves!

What do you find most nerve-wracking about positioning biopharma brands? I’d love to hear your war stories, and better yet, I would love to hear how you made it work!

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

Also posted in advertising, Branding, Healthcare Communications, Marketing, Planning, positioning | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Response
Feb26

Sleuthing for Clues: A Planner’s Story

Posted by Natasha Sinha from Ogilvy Healthworld - New York, North America

By Natasha Sinha from Ogilvy Healthworld - New York, North America | Published: February 26, 2013

SleuthingI am currently an associate rotating through Ogilvy Healthworld’s planning department. This month I have been tasked with working on an oncology brand in its mission to become the drug of choice for HCPs when prescribing patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) a first- or second-line treatment. As an agency, we must develop a bold new campaign that will differentiate the brand from its largest competitors.

But how do you even begin the process of developing a creative campaign? The answer starts with a key insight, and it’s the planner’s job to provide it.

During my rotation, I have learned that it is the planner’s responsibility to uncover key insights and turn them into a story that inspires, provokes, and connects. To find these insights, planners must look at factual research through the eyes of a storyteller. Can we find a fresh new perspective to highlight? Have we overlooked a key pain point or desire of HCPs that no one else is addressing? Is there a better way to tell the story? These are the kind of questions that planners need to ask themselves as they sift through pages and pages of data.

During my own search for insights, I teamed up with another planner to scour many reports and decks. Our intent was not only to learn more about the brand’s competitors, but also to strategize a way to differentiate it from the others. Through co-collaboration, the two of us turned stats and quotes into ideas. We then took these ideas and boiled them down in simplicity. From there, we were able to come up with 6 distinct insights that we felt were ready to inspire the creative team.

Here is a list of our initial rough ideas:

  • · Brand X gives you the power to put your best foot forward when treating CML.
  • · Brand X: confidence that you are setting a higher standard.
  • · Brand X provides confidence/certainty regardless of the scenario.
  • · Brand X: satisfaction/confidence that you are not settling for less.
  • · Brand X gets you to where you need to be faster.
  • · Brand X allows you to start strong for the best chance at success.

During our meeting, we deliberated on which ideas were best, and how to repurpose what survived. Planners must work in unison with creatives to develop a strong idea for the campaign. If a concept requires too much explanation, it is often eliminated. Keeping it simple is key, as it arms the creative team with a higher degree of clarity when developing an image.

At the end of our first meeting with one member of the creative team, we had one solid idea:

       Different patients, different risks, different challenges, one solution.

At the end of our second meeting with the creative and account teams, we had an additional idea we thought was executable:

       A faster response for a more positive conversation.

Before we can hand over the reins to the creative team, we need our client to pick between the two strategies. But before we can send the ideas to the clients, the planners have to provide the rationale—the why—behind the campaign strategy.

My fellow planner and I are currently back again in the decks and reports, pulling insights that support why these two ideas are valid for the brand as a basis for its new campaign. We will build a deck in the next 24 hours and send it off to the client by the end of the week.

Which campaign do you think they will choose?

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

Also posted in advertising, agency life, Healthcare Communications, Planning, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
Feb5

Analytics Drives the Contact Center

Posted by Angelo Campano from Ogilvy Healthworld - NY, North America

By Angelo Campano from Ogilvy Healthworld - NY, North America | Published: February 5, 2013

Call-Centers

“This call may be monitored and recorded for training purposes.”That’s a familiar refrain to all of us who’ve called into a call center in the last 15 years or so. In the past, these recordings were used for exactly what the recordings stated—company supervisors would listen to them to perform employee evaluations. Recently, however, companies are driving a change from this traditional tactical approach, moving toward a more strategic focus by mining this mostly untapped goldmine of data coming from the voices of their customers.

Most companies are now changing their focus and targeting the untapped opportunity in the recordings of their customer interactions. We need to do the same, and as we do, we are learning more and more.

Identifying opportunity in contact center communications with analytics

The call center (which should be referred to as a “contact center” because it does a lot more than just handle phone calls) is a place that more people interact with on a daily basis than see the average advertisement. It is also where customers and prospects provide priceless feedback on the products and services (including customer service) that our clients offer. The continued reduction in the cost of data, salesforce.com products, and voice-identification cloud-based software now allows us to identify important trends, opportunities and risks in the conversations our clients have with their most important constituents.

Companies should record 100% of their calls. If they do, by using call analytics, we can identify potential issues before they negatively impact the company. For example, not long ago we were able to identify a trending problem and take steps to address it before it resulted in a huge issue. The issue was with direct mail, but it was found at the contact center level with the advanced methodologies we used in our contact center analytics. Our client believed (and we validated and proved) that call analytics helped proactively save them thousands of dollars while gaining thousands of incremental Rx’s (think Rx lift).

Get rid of the contact center silo

As the new insights from customer interactions become available, the traditional silos between the contact center and other marketing areas are coming down. The untouched data mined from contact centers can be used as essential building blocks to inform multiple aspect of the business. We need to push our clients to eliminate the informational silos and share data, especially within the contact center. It can, has, and will result in tremendous new opportunities.

More than anything, gaining real-world customer feedback can help us fine-tune what and whom to target, understand how targets respond to information, and determine how they should receive information. Using the insights of this “big data,” we can transform how our customers think. Using the contact center to find and deliver what we all already know we must deliver—the right message to the right person in the right way at the right time—can help produce a guaranteed ROI.

Optimizing ROI with contact center analytics

The No. 1 thing teams, clients, us, the President, and probably God want to see from any new campaign or program is a positive return on investment (ROI). Contact center recordings and analytics will provide a measurable ROI to our clients and customers—all by using the voice of the contact center to find gaps and make needed changes as they are found.

And given the cost savings, improved efficiency, customer retention and new opportunities identified by the campaign, companies are able to see ROI timelines that are measured in weeks, not months or years.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

Also posted in Analytics, Customer Relationship Marketing, Data, Healthcare Communications, Marketing, Research | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment
Jan3

A Day in the Life of a Media Professional…

Posted by Jackie Singley from OCH Medical Media, Parsippany - North America

By Jackie Singley from OCH Medical Media, Parsippany - North America | Published: January 3, 2013

Day-In-the-LifeTo be successful in media one must have an eye for detail, possess excellent organizational skills, demonstrate flexibility and work well in a team. It takes an army to accomplish our goals and ensure our clients are ahead of the trends. No two days are the same. As the day evolves, you will find it harder and harder to stay true to the planned agenda as new projects arise (like writing a blog entry). You work with teams across multiple markets on a daily basis. Processes for evaluating and selecting the media vehicles that best achieve campaign objectives are constantly evolving as new platforms and opportunities emerge. It’s an art form in many respects—half data-driven and half intuitive.

8:00 AM:

You roll in with an extra-large coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts and find a client approved an increase to the scope to investigate on-site promotional opportunities at an upcoming scientific meeting for the American Diabetes Association (ADA). You take a few minutes to update the job budget in Dashboard and get the ball rolling by requesting the exhibitors prospectus and sponsorship guide. You remember to ask for the list of programs already spoken for so you don’t include them in the consideration set. You make one more call to the outdoor media company to inquire about airport advertising and other out-of-home opportunities in the host city but must remember to check the society guidelines around the minimum required distance from the conference hall.  You also recall some organizations forbid taxi-top advertising, so you want to make sure you are following the guidelines for the ADA.

Turning back to your inbox, you see another new request. This one, from a sister agency in the network located in Australia, requires a brief presentation outlining the current spending trends across professional media channels in the U.S. They are specifically interested in the shift from medical journal advertising to e-detailing and other digital forms of promotion. It’s time to scour the trade publications for articles and pull some reports from the department’s third-party market research. You grab the data points and pull together a few slides.

 9:00 AM:

Time for the weekly team status for your global oncology account. The team has just learned the client is ready to plan their paid advertising schedule in Germany based on imminent country approval. They are interested in all promotional channels, so you need to prepare a publisher Request for Proposal (RFP) in order to understand reach to oncologists in Germany and geo-targeting opportunities. If the publisher has a print journal, can they geo-target offline advertising to a specific country or do they accept promotional pieces for poly-bag targeting?  What is the online site traffic for German physicians? Do they register to use the site and validate their specialty to ensure media dollars are being spent against the most relevant prescribers? What are the specs, timing and costs associated with offered programs? You work internally with the team to check on country-specific regulations to ensure all planned promotion is compliant.

10:00 AM:

Your 10 o’clock appointment just arrived. The publisher of a leading online physician medical portal is rolling out a new program with enhanced targeting and measurement capabilities, and they want to share the details. You’ll need to ask questions around cost, reach, timing, guarantees, editorial environment, etc., that will help you evaluate the opportunity for your current campaigns. You may find the program offers significant benefits over current programs and make recommendations to revise media schedules. The sales representative brings you muffins, which go nicely with the cold coffee you haven’t finished.

10:30 AM:

There is a pitch under way at the agency. You’ve been assigned the media lead to assist the pitch team and they need a market assessment covering competitor activity and the media consumption habits of the target audience. You’ll need to find a few hours somewhere to search the advertising audit service sorting copies of journal ads and online banners, pulling spend reports, and listing the media vehicles where the competitive set has appeared. Are there any insights in the data?

You’ll go back to the research subscriptions and pull the survey results for cardiologists to understand their adoption of mobile technology, what type of apps they use most often and what professional purposes drive their use of digital platforms. You’ll go one step further and compare the habits of these specialists to the physician norm.

11:00 AM:

Fire drill! No, not the real kind. There’s a problem with the banner ads for one of your campaigns—the kind where the FDA will hunt you down until it is fixed. You need to disable the tags (third-party ad serving codes) in DoubleClick immediately and contact all publisher partners to ensure the creative is completely out of their advertising rotation.

11:30 AM:

The creative team pulls through and immediately provides replacement files for the ads you just disabled. So, what does this mean? You’re going back into DoubleClick, uploading the new creative and reversing all the work you just completed. There are URL changes with different tracking codes added to the end of each one, so this time around it takes time to match and assign the correct ad to the correct placement to the correct URL. You blast out a mass BCC email asking all your publisher partners to send along screenshots of the new creative so that you can deliver the slide deck to your client team as proof of flighting.

12:57 PM:

Your first break of the day. You volunteer someone to swing by Dunkin’ Donuts, hit the bathroom and jog back to your desk just in time to make your 1:00 PM call.

1:00 PM:

You’re jumping on a tactical planning call to discuss branded launch plans for an upcoming blockbuster in the rheumatology market. You find out they need some slides from you to include in the master deck outlining a recommended advertising budget by channel—print, online, mobile, email, convention, search.

You’ve already completed the market analysis, so you’re a step ahead. Based on the maximum potential exposure to the universe of rheumatologists by channel, you were able to show that the competition has oversaturated the market. You learned that rheumatologists are the highest adopters of EMR/EHR platforms and mobile technology among all physicians. Considering the point of diminishing return, audience behavior and the attributes of the new compound (will introduce a novel MOA to the market), you recommend a highly focused mobile and EMR/EHR dominance strategy. Blocking the competition from these channels will offer a competitive advantage and provide the right environment for messaging around the patient support program and billing and reimbursement tools that will be offered.

3:00 PM:

Someone on the team hosted a lunch ’n’ learn today, so you get to eat. You grab a sandwich and head to your next meeting—which, of course, is on the other end of the building and down two floors.

Arriving at the meeting, you present your media plan for a new medical device to the agency team. You walk them through each recommended vehicle, placement and creative type. The conversation appropriately turns to defining success. It’s time to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) and arrive at a measurement plan, including an understanding on how monthly metrics will be analyzed and how your plan will contribute to the overall campaign objectives, in this case driving enrollment in the new CRM program.

4:00 PM:

Finally back at your desk with no calls or meetings for the rest of the day. You realize you have a voicemail and after a quick peek at your missed calls, it looks like it was one of your other brands in the dermatology market. You listen to the message and find out that they have approved your multichannel media schedule for the upcoming year. This is great news—but now you need to contract for all the media space by the next day in order to lock in rates and hold the online inventory.

Buckling down, you gain client approval in writing and prepare the 50 contracts, one for each publisher. You begin development of the traffic workbook—the master placement breakdown grid providing digital specs, ad sizes and pricing. You’ll have to sit with the analyst tomorrow to review all the details.

6:00 PM:

Stir crazy and in need of a break, you decide to grab your mail and engage in a quick conversation with colleagues over the latest trends in the industry. Then it dawns on you.  You’ve promised your client a Point of View (POV) on the newest social network for physicians and haven’t started. This unfortunately won’t do, since you are meeting with the client tomorrow.  Heading back to your desk, you read through past email chains including concerns and questions along with what the team would like to better understand, and prepare a guide as to how you’re going to present the opportunity.

9:00 PM:

You finish the POV and are surprisingly happy with the finished product. After a few tweaks to the work and a 15-minute fight with the printer (which never works when you need it to), you sit down to read and respond to a few emails before heading home for the night.

9:30 PM:

As you prepare to shut down your computer, you see one last email come in and decide to check it before departing. Upon reading, you sigh heavily. The client meeting scheduled for tomorrow…was just cancelled.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

Also posted in advertising, agency life, Healthcare Communications, Media | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment
Oct9

Reflecting on Young Executives’ Night Out

Posted by Jamie Fishman from OHW Payer Marketing - Parsippany, North America

By Jamie Fishman from OHW Payer Marketing - Parsippany, North America | Published: October 9, 2012

I recently had the honor of attending Young Executives’ Night Out, an industry-wide event hosted by the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame. It was an evening of true inspiration, where the most influential giants of our industry shared knowledge and experience with the future stars.

As a panel of CEOs discussed their career experiences, challenges and highlights, I listened closely for pieces of advice I could take back and apply to my work and relationships. It was humbling to hear them speak of issues they had encountered as leaders, and solutions they developed to fix them. During the next portion of the evening, which offered workshops on a variety of topics, I attended two sessions which focused on evaluating creative, and client problem solving. At the close of the evening, I left with a lot to think about.

Since the event, I have been reflecting on what I learned, and have developed four rules for myself to follow moving forward as a rising professional in this industry.

- Be curious. Be hungry.

Next time I am struck with a 3 pm hunger spell and I feel the urge to run to the nearest vending machine for something sweet, I will think again. Instead of seeking junk food to satisfy my craving, I am going to take a moment and read something. Google something. Read an article. Ask a question. Learn something new that I can apply to my work and share with my clients. I will tell my clients something they didn’t know and think on their behalf before they have time to blink. Satisfying this type of hunger is pretty sweet, and doesn’t come with the guilt.

 - Be proactive.

When approaching someone with a problem, I will always present a potential solution. A logical and strategic thought process impresses people, even if the proposed solution isn’t what actually happens in the end.

 - Be passionate.

To put it simply—I want to do what I love, and support what I believe in.

 - Be nice.

I want to always act with kindness and integrity, and for my colleagues and clients to trust me. At the end of the day, we are all people, and it is important to remember the true value of relationships.

It is no coincidence that these key points have surfaced before, as our industry leaders are well aware of the value held by each. I hope the guiding principles I have set for myself are valuable to you and can be applied to your work. I encourage you to share your thoughts on other helpful guidelines that you follow, so we can all learn from each other and continue to grow.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:
Questions? Comments? You can contact the author directly at blog@ochww.com.
Please allow 24 hours for response.

Also posted in agency life, behavior change, Great Ideas, Healthcare Communications, Learning, Networking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Response
Aug7

Have You Geo-Fenced Your Healthcare Provider Today?

Posted by Denise Rivera from OCH Medical Media - NJ, North America

By Denise Rivera from OCH Medical Media - NJ, North America | Published: August 7, 2012

What is a geo-fence?

A geo-fence is a dynamically generated, predefined set of boundaries—as in a radius around a store or other location—similar to school attendance zones or neighborhood boundaries.

Why use it in physician-targeted marketing plans?

The latest data (source: Kantar Media) shows that 68% of healthcare professionals (HCPs) surveyed use smartphones for professional purposes on a daily basis.



Over the past year, HCPs have increased their usage by 77%, and usage continues to grow rapidly.


Geo-fencing allows marketers to message physicians by specialty and location, using a combination of GPS and wireless technology (mobile or Wi-Fi). Strategically selecting a geographical point of interest creates a virtual zone (aka, a geo-fence) to deliver a brand message or initiate an action.

A fantastic application of this medium would be at medical conferences. The technology also allows for creating a zone around hospitals or medical centers such as the Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic. Multiple geo-circles can be created and varying messaging served depending on campaign goals. Once a physician/allied healthcare professional enter the geo-fence, relevant ads (eg, brand awareness, clinical information, or a coupon/voucher) are delivered to that individual based on his or her preferences and other targeting attributes. Think of it as virtual geo-targeting—creating a more targeted communication to a specific subset of HCPs within a very specific demographic location.

Not receiving the results you want?  Then expand the radius of your parameters.


IAB mobile banner ad sizes can be utilized to target based on location of their users. This will enable higher conversions assisting with better brand ROI.

It is known that the mobile market still remains highly fragmented.



One vendor offering a solution is Tomorrow Networks (TN). TN has partnered with Physicians Interactive and Remedy Systems to connect brands with their HCPs and consumers via online/mobile applications solutions. Their network consists of HCPs in all specialties, and they have the ability to geo-fence, which can be an added feature to an existing campaign.


Mobile is the fastest growing segment in the advertising industry—don’t miss the boat.

Whether you are optimizing your campaign by state, mobile device, apps, specialty, uniques, or even impressions—do it in real time. Consider geo-fencing for your next mobile campaign.

Please contact your Ogilvy CommonHealth Medical Media account manager for more information.

Also posted in Access, advertising, Branding, geo-fencing, Great Ideas, Healthcare Communications, Marketing, Physician Communications, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment