When I started my personal journey with breast cancer, I knew I had to do something to help other people someday. It wasn’t clear to me how I would help but I would figure that out in time. I was blissfully unaware that breast cancer could touch me at that—or frankly—any point in my life. I had briefly heard about a breast cancer gene but I had no cause or reason to dig deeper. Up to this point, every one of my close female relatives had thankfully avoided the big “c”.
My thoughts quickly shifted to marketing—after all it’s what I’ve spent the past 15 years doing every day. How I could I personally use marketing to bring awareness to the breast cancer gene (BRCA)? As the Account Director for the Michigan Department of Community Health for the past 13 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work on many great social marketing programs including breast cancer advertising. I know our work has continuously impacted and likely saved lives—we’ve seen results in decreased smoking rates, increased immunization rates, increased awareness in risks of cardiovascular disease among others. I’ve seen the power of social marketing first hand. And I know the difference it can make and the awareness it can generate. I had no idea how profoundly social marketing and advertising would impact my life. But I found my lump as a result of our award-winning breast cancer television spot for St. John Health. And I’m certain that television spot saved my life.
But what about the breast cancer gene and the risk it poses to so many women? If I had no idea I was at risk then certainly there were so many others out there in my position. That’s why my involvement with FORCE is so critical.
I was deeply energized and excited when I saw the Detroit Jewish News yesterday and the awareness of BRCA right smack on the cover. I couldn’t ask for more. I am so happy that a Previvor (a person at high risk who’s chosen surgery to avoid cancer) was willing to share her story. And the story worked well with my story (on the inside) as the person with the same risk factors that did not have enough awareness to avoid a cancer journey.I know that my personal blog, my speaking engagements and my open door policy have helped to increase awareness. But there is nothing like mass media—through advertising, social marketing, PR or a social media program to really drive awareness of risk factors we all face.
Do you have any personal stories of how social marketing or advertising has impacted your life? Would love to hear them.
The creative gang bang. Don’t fret, it is nothing that would land me in a sexual harassment lawsuit. It is a Darwinian approach, common at most agencies, where the best work rises to the top through creative team (writer/art director) competition. Only now, with the proliferation of the internet, the concept is going global. Clients can post their creative brief and creatives do the assignment pro bono hoping they can win a grand or so for their time and effort. Is this a good idea? For a one-off, perhaps. Or for clients who have no relative brand identity. Or for clients that burn through agencies because they hate trusting anyone besides themselves. But while a former art director partner of mine is worried about the ramifications of such trends, this creative director is not. Great work comes from great relationships. Shared passion for the brand. Greater insight working together from strategy to focus groups to production. I would think clients would want an agency who was 100% invested and cared about the work working, the phone ringing, the web hits rising. And I’m glad I work at that kind of agency. So if you want to work with us, we’ll pitch you some great ideas. But we won’t pitch them through the internet.
I was inducted as a board member for the Rainbow Connection this month. This is a wonderful nonprofit that grants special wishes to Michigan kids with life-threatening illnesses. Family trips to Disney World, meeting sports heroes, even a recording studio set-up for one aspiring musician. I knew this was a great cause, which is why I thought it would be a good place to share my healthcare and cause marketing expertise. But I didn’t expect to feel the passion so quickly.
I learned in a 1-hour board meeting that it’s not the material things that make the Rainbow Connection so precious. It’s the connections it creates. A place for kids dealing with really tough problems to be with other kids just like themselves. Hanging out. Going to Tiger games. A recent group even got limoed to Kid Rock’s pad for pizza and some jamming. But more importantly, they got a chance to just be. And to see that they are not alone, and that maybe it’s ok to talk about this thing that has rocked their lives.
A “wish kid” mom shared her daughter’s experience. Her beautiful 16-year old has an inoperable brain tumor and refused to talk about it. To anyone. Period. Until she went on a Rainbow Connection event with others just like herself and was able to open up and connect with kids her own age, experiencing her own pain. And see with her own eyes that they were finding joy and rainbows anyway.
Even with this economy, the Rainbow Connection is holding on, fulfilling more wishes and sponsoring more college scholarships for wish kids than ever before. Maybe, hopefully, because people realize that a lower paycheck is less important than the health of our kids.
See the video below and share with anyone you think could use a rainbow of hope and gratefulness today.
You can find this and other nonprofit, cause-related videos on our new psastation.com website.
Here’s a site that does a world of good. You’ll see. I get daily reminders to click to fund free mammograms for women who can’t afford to get them. I do. And then I stay to click a few more boxes.
A friend just sent me this address to fund free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It’s the same site. Different cause. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com
You’ll see there are lots of advertisers on the page. That’s how come your ‘donation’ is free when you click on the purple box.
You’ll also see along the top of the page tabs and a chance to click on the free mammogram site, a rainforest site, a literacy site, children’s health and a hunger site. Each page has many advertisers that support these efforts. There’s also information about how the funds get used, how the site works, so on. All they ask of you is that you click on the box so your view is counted. All it costs is a few seconds of your time.
It’s simple, fast, great. This makes it easy to give and give every day.
When I got this, my friend asked me to pass it along to some friends. I just did. Will you? Include me too.
As you know, there are several hundred different iPhone applications available. You can do anything from managing your expenses to drinking a pretend beer and swinging around a light saber. With all of the fun new ways to engage the population, it was only a matter of time until advertisers decided to capitalize on the craze.
The latest brand to hop on the iPhone app bandwagon is Baskin Robbins. In an attempt to launch their soft ice cream nationally they have decided to create a ‘Yay Button’ app in addition to their TV campaign. It is designed to help consumers find the nearest Baskin Robbins location using the GPS in their phone.
Other brand apps have already proved to be very successful. The Kraft ‘iFood Assistant’ made the Top 100 Apps list and gets to not only market itself in the app, but also the many other brands under that name such as Oreo, DiGiorno, Planters and Miracle Whip by incorporating those products into the included recipes.
With other brands such as Budweiser, Ralph Lauren, Weight Watchers and Chanel paving the way, it seems that we may have effectively found a new way of advertising that is not only innovative and cost efficient for the advertiser, but the consumer enjoys it enough to actually pay for it! The success of these campaigns begs the question… is this a smarter way rather than the traditional banner and pop-up ads we currently see during the application runtime?
Every now and then you see a tv commercial that just makes you smile and sometimes even participate in the commercial. In Europe, T-Mobile took the line “Life’s for sharing” and translated that into a commercial that takes thousands of people, a very famous song and joins them together in one memorable moment which I’m sure these people will remember for the rest of their lives. T-Mobile put up a hefty amount of money with the hopes that you remember them when picking a wireless carrier.
What other commericals can you think of that probably cost an arm and a few legs to produce? Can you remember who the commercial was for?
Brogan and Partners is in the business of producing award-winning, memorable and even affordable tv commercials for over 20 years. If you have a message you want people to remember – but don’t have the budget for 2000 extras and the rights to a Beatles song, give us a call at 248-341-8200 or visit our web site. I’m sure we can accommodate you.
A recent New York Times article describes Starbucks’ efforts to recruit online fans and encourage them to tell their loyal coffee drinker stories online. They’re going to test in six markets with a photo contest that has Starbucks fans hunt for posters and race to post photos of the posters and themselves online. (I don’t know what you win if you’re first, second, third…lattes? Espresso shots? Fame?)
It’s a pretty interesting thought. Can they corral the power of social media to counter McDonald’s multi-million dollar McCafés? As a person who has thought for many years that if it isn’t Starbucks, it isn’t coffee, I’m betting “Yes”. Starbucks is an experience and a brand and a very distinctive tasting coffee. And if you like it, you really like it. And if it’s true that the Generation Y people enjoy gathering for internet and lattes at the corner Starbucks, then it doesn’t take much to think they’ll participate in a contest. They’re online anyway. They’re on Facebook, Twitter and all sorts of social media sites. The pressure is on to be witty, terse, interesting, (read a few Tweets) in the moment. This online chat could enhance the brand experience. Bond the Starbucks fans to their coffee and each other. Like Mac people. We’re fun. Smart. Cool.
Drive thru and grab some McCoffee? Uh. No.
There is a component to the campaign that seems off in many ways. Long copy newspaper ads. Hmm. Which papers? Generation Y is thought not to read them. And they’re dying off city-by-city. That being said, the thought was that the impression of long copy and everything you could ever possibly want to know about Starbucks coffee and the processes involved in getting it to you in various flavors, roasts, zzzzzzzz. Yeah. Thanks. It does, as the NYTimes article says, tell you that Starbucks sure knows its beans. What they don’t say is that kind of info blitz gives you a lot of justification for why you’ve just paid $4 plus for a grande, mocha latte, skim, please.
Starbucks knows its beans. And its audience.
What do you think? A cuppa’ joe is a cuppa’ joe? Tweets are for twits? Its Starbucks or its nothing?
All hospitals want to be innovative. Pioneering new technologies, treatments, and research is very important to them. But when it comes to innovative marketing strategies, hospitals are usually very conservative. They tend to play it safe and create ads that are category similar with either doctors, happy healthy people or tired testimonials. Our client Covenant Healthcare did something different. They said “yes” to a campaign that is truly a first in healthcare. Covenant’s differentiator is that they give extraordinary care to all generations from babies to grandparents. So one of the brand campaign concepts we created was to have kids deliver the message and talk about how Covenant will be there for them in the future like they are now. They loved it. Never in my 20 year career have I seen the agency, marketing client team, hospital executive leadership team, and every focus group all choose the same campaign as their favorite. There must be something special that connects emotionally across all these groups and all generations…and that’s exactly what we were shooting for. Here’s the spot, what do you think?
The social network site is blowing up.I feel like I don’t go a day without hearing the word Twitter.
I am sure you all read the news about Ashton Kutcher and CNN racing to see who could get 1 million followers first. Of course, Ashton won - he’s much cuter. But now, even without the support of a billboard campaign – Oprah has hit the mark. She joined twitter exactly one month ago. At first, I was hesitant to follow her – thinking I would get a million tweets with shameless self promotion, but it hasn’t been the case. What is Oprah doing right?
She’s being herself
She’s listening, not just talking
She isn’t bombarding people with tweets
She is plugging herself (and her brand) – moderately
A few weeks ago I posted “Pepsi and Coke are Still at War? Really??”…well I read an article this week that reminded me of my post…is it me or does it seem as if these battles are popping up more and more everyday?
This week TelevisionWeek’s headline was “ABC-Hulu Deal a Blow to YouTube.” Once again, I believe there’s room for both contenders. These two products are similar but different.
Youtube was launched 4 years ago by a few former PayPal employees and Hulu launched just 2 years ago by a few big television networks. Youtube.com is considered a video hosting service and Hulu is considered video on demand site.
Advertisers don’t have to contemplate over which sites to use in their media campaigns; they just have to be strategic about their target audience. It comes down to whoever delivers the best numbers that coincide with your demo and advertising objectives. Do your research and meet with both to see what kind of value you can get for your budget. If you haven’t been to both sites, check them out (www.Hulu.com and www.YouTube.com). What do you think?
As a healthcare marketer for 20 plus years, I thought I’d seen or marketed just about every healthcare specialty. Not so. I just came across a new one called “wilderness medicine“. Think wild animal attacks, dive accidents, altitude sickness, heat and cold related illnesses. Think mountains, jungles, deserts, caves, marine environments. Think risk-taking, outdoorsy docs who blend their passion for outdoor hobbies with medicine. While relatively new, they have a Society with a Fellow credential, CMEs and 800 members. No surprise the Wilderness Medical Society roots are in CA with a Utah HQ.
Always on the lookout for new healthcare marketing ideas, I love the clear differentiation of wilderness medicine. I’d love to do their marketing campaign. Maybe we’d use Dr. McDreamy as the spokesperson straight from his mountainside Airstream trailer. Or perhaps you have a better campaign concept? Or another wild healthcare specialty we haven’t heard of? Please share with us.
