There is nothing like waking up to the smell of change.  And today all of us at Brogan & Partners got a snootful.

We have a new managing partner:  Ellyn Davidson.  She replaces Deidre Bounds who is moving to our sister company, Ignite Social Media, as its COO.  Ellyn started as an intern at Brogan 16 years ago.  She quickly proved indispensable, ambitious and immoderately capable.  She first tackled media and rose to media director, then turned her attention to client service and was soon heading our most important accounts–Michigan Department of Community Health, Travel Michigan, MEDC.  She became an agency partner in 1998 and stockholder in 2004.

In 2007 she faced her biggest opponent–breast cancer–and won, becoming an activist, blogger and fundraiser for a cure.

Her next business issue was to learn social media.  She has spent the past year working with Ignite Social Media on strategy and business development, as well as conducting a social media boot camp and weekly lunch & learns for all B&Pers.

Today she brings all this experience, energy and brainpower to her new post.

Ellyn will team with a brand new CEO–Maria Marcotte.  Maria is our senior partner, second largest shareholder, COO.  She joined the agency as business manager in 1990 and  soon formed a corporate support team to handle all non-advertising stuff.  Money.  Legalities.  Benefits.  Buildings in Detroit and Research Triangle.  Interns.  Technology. And our most important issue: Morale.  She has been part of ensuring that B & P is a place our staff wants to come to every day… that while we have abnormally high productivity, we also make sure every staffer feels loved and valued.  Through regular thank yous, Hero of the Month awards, our annual out-of-town Mystery Trips, free Monday Morning manicures and more.

Somehow Maria also finds time to exercise her creativity.  As cartoonist for B & P’s annual booklet spoofing politics, as an award-winning oil painter, and as a scarily realistic duck carver.

Maria was named COO of the Year by Crain’s Detroit Business and has won national Sloan award for innovations in Human Resources.

More soon about Maria and Ellyn’s new vision for the agency!

What about me–the agency’s former CEO/managing partner?   I remain chair and stockholder of Brogan & Partners (as well as co-owner/COO of Ignite Social Media), work for both businesses part-time, and am on the lam the rest of the time.  This month, for example, I am in Carmel as a temp nanny to my two-year-old granddaughter Brogan.  In March I spent two weeks in Morocco with the SheMachine. I continue to work for boards/orgs who do good deeds.   Next spring I plan to intern in DC for a Michigan Senator or Representative.  See?  Life can be good even when you shake it up and turn over your beloved businesses to others.

If you want to know where the future of marketing is headed, all you have to do is look at the item that probably stays attached to you as long as your hand does–your mobile phone. Mobile applications are designed to provide accessibility to features and programs we would normally enjoy on PCs or laptops and they are used not only to entertain but to inform and educate as well. 

Healthcare marketing is increasing its usage of mobile applications. For example, Bayer HealthCare just launched their FactorTrack™ mobile application to assist Hemophilia A patients with managing their treatments. According to a June 28th Bayer HealthCare news release, FactorTrack™ is designed to “illustrate (our) ongoing commitment to helping enhance the lives of people who live with bleeding disorders.” Some of its features include capturing dosing history and frequency and customizing their infusion schedule based on their prescribed regimen.

Blackberry’s Blood Sugar Diary is another example of an application to help make lives that much easier for those affected by health-related issues. This app allows users to track their blood sugar readings and can be saved in chart form to show to their doc at future visits.

I think it’s safe to say that this is just the tip of the iceberg, people. There are life-saving apps out there!

In a market saturated with conventional modes of advertising, mobile applications will be an effective way to add depth to a company’s marketing arsenal.  To all those affected by healthcare issues, do yourself a favor–educate yourself, use your phone to its highest potential and make the app world work for you!

Earlier last week I was driving into work listening to a local morning show talking about the phenomenon of “Bros Icing Bros”.  I sat and listened to what people were doing to one another and was mildly amused at the thought of this.  The rules of the game are as follows: Buy Smirnoff Ice and present it to one of your bros in any manner.  Your bro must instantly get on one knee and chug the Smirnoff Ice on the spot regardless of setting. However, a bro can “ice block.” If a bro is presented with a Smirnoff Ice but came “packin’ with his own ice,” then the initial bro must drink both Smirnoff Ices. 

So after hearing about this story last week I had forgotten about it until I open up today’s edition of Ad Age and one of the stories is about the “Icing” game.  Much of the discussion surrounding this story was the question if Smirnoff was responsible for creating this viral phenomenon.  Smirnoff has stated that they had nothing to do with this, but what a great ride it must have been for them.  All of this PR and added desire to purchase this malt beverage just so you can play a joke on a friend has created quite the buzz.  I think this has been a positive development for the Smirnoff brand.  What do you think?

I had visions of sharing with you some of the best nursing home and eldercare ads out there in this post today. Problem is, I can’t find them - that wouldn’t surprise me too much except that fabulous Brogan intern, Morgan, couldn’t find them either - and she can find anything.

But it looks like healthcare marketers in this realm have identified interactive as a great space to be in (I agree - I’m there, and I’m the target), and there is some fierce competition in paid search - check out the the Google Adwords results for “Long term care insurance.”In fact, using spyfu.com, it looks like an average cost per click could be around $12!

And in somewhat unrelated news, I thought I’d share this terrific blog for those of you who find yourselves in my shoes. Thanks to the New York Times for filling this need.

By now, we’ve all seen a lot of H1N1 ads. But are they working? Our client, Michigan Department of Community Health, decided to go straight to the target audience - minority populations of African Americans, Arab Americans and Hispanics who have NOT received the vaccine - with focus groups to understand WHY NOT. 

The problem? They simply don’t trust it.  Respondents said it was “rushed into circulation”, “pushed by the government”, and is “unsafe”, “untested and experimental,” and “unproven.” Of course, all misperceptions and untruths, as the vaccine is the safest, most effective way to prevent the flu.

We know that trust is a critical component of the healthcare marketing equation — and that we had to overcome this basic feeling of mistrust. Since the majority of respondents said their doctor would be the single person they would trust the most about whether or not to get the H1N1 vaccine, we encouraged action through this open door. Even though we know 61% if adults search online for health information and 81% of Internet users search online for health information (Pew Research Center), we bravely persevered with what research told us is the most effective call to action: TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR.

The print ad is straightforward. Designed to help people make a list of questions to ask their doctor about seasonal flu and H1N1. I think its simplicity and utilize are unexpected — and will break through the clutter.

This past Monday Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, announced the new iPhone 4, which is said to be the “biggest leap forward” for the iPhone since 2007. After reading this statement I had to take another glance at the date. The iPhone was only released 3 years ago?!

With the release of the IOS4 there are a handful of new features to gawk at. For instance, real time chatting will allow you to no longer meet for client luncheons. You can bring the client with you in your pocket then set them in between your water glass and soup bowl to chat it up.  One catch is that this feature is only available on Wi-Fi, and the presence of good Wi-Fi connection is slim, thus preventing our need to have actual human to human contact. On a positive note the introduction of multitasking now allows one to switch between apps, the internet, and music without any disconnect.

The IOS4 will also have the iAd mobile advertising platform which utilizes the multitasking feature. “The iAd system allows third party developers to include advertising in their apps to earn more money or subsidize free apps.” Apple will sell the advertising and supply the ads from their servers. The advantage to the iAd system is if the user clicks on an iAd banner, a full screen advertisement will appear within the application instead of being redirected to the Safari web browser. Apple will sell and host the ads, giving 60% revenue to the developers. According to Jobs, “People aren’t searching their phones. People are spending time in their apps.” Do you think that with the introduction of iAd there will be in an increase in mobile ad sales?

We always say, there is no better advertising then word-of-mouth, especially when it comes from a celebrity.  And the Lupus Foundation just hit the jackpot.  A phenom right now, Lady Gaga, has recently opened up about a health scare, saying she tested “borderline positive for lupus.”  It now has many of her millions of fans asking “what is lupus?”

Thank goodness.  For a disease that affects over 1.5 million people, the medical research is seriously under-funded, and awareness of the overall disease is extremely low.

Up until 5 years ago, I also had no clue what lupus was either.  Which is odd, being in healthcare marketing, I am engrossed in the medical world everyday.   I only became educated after my dearest friend, my sister, was diagnosed with the disease.  And while my sister has become an advocate for educating people on the disease, she is no Lady Gaga (no offense Nikki)!

Here’s hoping that her lupus scare will raise awareness, and ultimately funds for research so that people with lupus can have a greater chance to live a long and healthy life!

I hope that the foundation is in talks to have her become a spokesperson, even if she doesn’t have the actual disease.  We’ve seen first hand how much a celebrity spokesperson can bring to a cause.  Just look at what Michael J. Fox has done for Parkinson’s awareness.  Prior to him being diagnosed, it was another “secret” disease that only those affected knew about.

What do you think?  Would Lady GaGa make a good spokesperson for the Lupus Foundation?  Or is there a better way to gain awareness that you can think of?

Amongst all of the discussion about the BP oil spill, there has been plenty of speculation about the way it was handled in social media.  With what seems to be a lack of effort and a disregard for their users, BP has remained mum on the topic except for a few PR statements, prompting a backlash in the social media community.

Well that seems to have been the wrong way to handle the situation because now instead of just boycotting the gas stations as a means of protest, you can black out BP across the web. A Firefox plugin has been created to place oil splotches over anything BP related. This includes photos and words such as BP oil, BP gas or BP worldwide.

Do you think social media has gone too far with the Black Oil Firefox plugin or is it our right to determine what we do and do not want to see across the web? Either way, I hope this widely publicized incident will prove as a warning of what not to do when a company makes a mistake.

Well, it won’t be long until boomers out there enter the riches of retirement.  Life on a golden pond.  RV’ing.  Fishing.  Quilting.  Soap Operas.  Fabulous group tours on one of those fancy buses with dark windows and rainbow speckled seating.  Medicare coverage.  Of course I’m kidding (well not the part about boomers becoming eligible for Medicare), but the whole group tour thing, now that was a joke.  Kind of.  You see, the boomer group is going to be large but it isn’t going to be homogeneous.  Yes, some will be on group tours but others will want to stay close to home.  Many will enjoy watching daytime television shows while others will be connecting with friends on Facebook.  You may find some sitting down with a good book - either on paper or an e-reader.  This group needs to be segmented so that they can be targeted with the right Medicare product, right creative message, and at the right place.  I was pleased to read this blog by Robin Raff in MediaPost which emphasizes the importance of avoiding generalizations about this sought-after group.   

Forget the sandwich, in the words of our illustrious COO, Maria Marcotte, I am a full-fledged member of the “four course meal generation.” I won’t mention my three children whose ages span 21 years, my full time career, or volunteering (although after 6 years of Lost, my schedule has now cleared for an hour a week), I’ll just focus on an ever-so-gracefully aging mother who is halfway through a rehab stint at a very good convalescent home in North Carolina.

I’ve spent the last three weeks dashing around between home, work, hospital, and convalescent care, since my mother had knee replacement surgery. And would you like to guess how many elder-care marketing messages I’ve encountered? None.

What a missed opportunity. Do I want the best ongoing care for my mother? Yes. Do I have time to figure out what that really means? No. In the hours I have spent with her at the hospital and in the nursing home (sorry Mom, I know you like to call it re-hab), have I been a captive audience with a Blackberry and a penchant for searching health tips for older folks? You betcha. But not one relevant ad has crossed my path. In fact, kudos go to Johns Hopkins for being the ONLY organization to remotely recognize my situation, but that is only through opt-in health alerts.

So where are the marketers? I’m not that hard to find. Why not serve me up something on Facebook (since my life story is now ever-so-public)? As I dig around online why am I not targeted contextually? Why aren’t those ads hitting me on my phone during those endless bedside hours?

Long-term care insurers? Long-term care providers? Home health organizations? Home medical equipment retailers? Hello? Anybody out there? Help me and the millions of people like me figure this elder care mystery out - we certainly don’t have the luxury of time to do it ourselves.

So there I am sitting at lunch today talking about current events and one of my reps, Scott Kunnath from Radio One, grabs his iPhone and says “I could launch a rocket from my phone”.  I laughed at his comment, but he proceeded to tell me about how the iPhone is so much more sophisticated then the actual computers that launched the first rocket ship into space.  Then I come back to my desk and read an article putting the iPhone in a list of the World’s best inventions.  It was 8th on the list, right in-between penicillin and a flushing toilet.  I think that is a pretty impressive ranking considering all the things that have been created.  Where would you rank it?

I wrote about HealthCamp RDU a couple of weeks ago, and really looked forward to the event. Unfortunately, I had to leave after the keynote  (such is the life of an account person). But wow, what a great lesson from speaker Nick Augustinos of Cisco on the direction of health information technologies and trends in health information sharing. Be sure to check the homepage soon to see videos of the conference.

I can’t recap everything Nick said here, but one thing I wanted to pass along is the idea that we are moving from a “Culture of Pathology” to a “Culture of Wellness”- the basic concept isn’t new, but hearing it spelled out in terms of technology was enlightening, so thanks Nick. I want us all to consider how healthcare marketing shifts as a result of this cultural transformation. How do we as marketers move consumers away from a diagnose/fix mentality to a prevention mentality? It has been the mission of public health officials for years, and it is clearly becoming an important direction on which providers and managed care companies should focus. The technology available today makes this the opportunistic time - so what would you do first?