Just when you thought you’d seen it all for breast health awareness, here’s a video that takes a different twist and is sure to make you smile. Or maybe dance in your seat. It’s employee engagement at its finest. Social media to the max - with close to 600,000 YouTube views. Talk about the power of brand ambassadors! Kudos to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center for this piece of refreshing, innovative healthcare marketing.
Homophobics are still in the closet. Even though most of us have gay friends, relatives, co-workers or at the very least have watched “Will & Grace”, homophobia is still hiding out there. And sometimes, it comes out, passive-aggressively, like when teenagers say phrases like “That’s so gay.” This is a noteworthy campaign by the AdCouncil to encourage people to thinkb4youspeak. While the TV featured Wanda Sykes and Hillary Duff, strange bedfellows for this in my opinion, my favorite is the one with the non-celeb below. The website also has many different features like e-card sharing, a pledge, a word origin game, how to get involved and ways to share your stories and videos. But I am hoping they add more depth as the e-card and games are pretty simplistic and could be more interesting.
Are you guilty of ever saying “That’s so gay?” If so, out yourself here. Do you think that makes you homophobic or just plain careless and prone to cheesy pop vernacular?
I just read a post from WeeklyProbe and thought it was a notable example of what not to develop with your hospital marketing dollars or for any hospital related clients.
It serves a good reminder that while the voices internally may be saying – promote our awards, promote our doctors (even though they may be the most awesome and gorgeous group of doctors you have ever met), they really should be saying – what is going to emotionally connect with our consumer? What is going to affect their decision in the end?
Saturday I participated in the Detroit Adcraft’s 2009 AdCon event that saw a turnout of over 200 college students who were interested in finding out more about the advertising business. I served on a panel of 6 people which consisted of an account supervisor, a media planner, a strategic planner, and 2 creative directors (including myself). First, It was our job to explain to this group of students and advertising hopefuls who we are, how we got to where we are and what we like about the business.
Then, as we do every year at AdCon, we went through a marketing brief for a particular national brand — this year being Wendy’s. The media and account people walked the students through the brief which consisted of company research, annual advertising dollars spent and facts about target audiences. It was then my job (and the other creative director) to initiate a creative brainstorming session for Wendy’s. It was fun seeing how some of the ideas just flowed out of their brains, without any regard for what something may cost or how the idea would extend into other mediums. I was impressed by some of the quick and witty thinking by these young hopefuls. It was obvious that their minds weren’t yet tarnished by years of client changes and budget concerns.
At the end of the session, the students were given the opportunity to ask questions to the panel. One question a student asked was, “What department of the ad agency is the funnest?” I, of course, spoke up and said that creative was the most fun (the other creative director said that creative people get to drink lots of beer and come up with fun ideas). Another question posed to the creative panel asked what interviewers look for in a portfolio and a person. I stated that, for an art director, ideas were number one, followed by computer skills. Another question asked whether a student should finish school and pass up a job, or go for the job and get the experience rather than finish one or two more classes. I told this student (on the side) that you can only get so much “experience” in a classroom and that real experience happens at a job (where you have deadlines and budgets – something that I believe art school still hasn’t taught much about). One student asked whether he should stay in Michigan or if he should look in other states for a career. A media panelist spoke up and said that the “D” was the place to be and that we’d love to retain the most creative people in Michigan, specifically the Detroit area.
The very end of the session we were asked by the moderator to sum up why we do what we do in one sentence. I thought about it for the 3 seconds I had to prepare my answer and summed it all up with this thought about my career at Brogan and Partners: “I get paid to draw pictures”.
This PSA is so powerful, I am going to let it speak for itself.Maybe we all would care more about the land mine problems in other countries, if it were in our backyard.
Michigan docs breathed a sigh of relief with the recent defeat of a proposed 3% physician tax. This was largely due to the advocacy efforts of our client, Oakland County Medical Society (OCMS) and affiliated Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS). Lobbying, rallying at the Capitol and medical resident testimony worked to convince legislators that younger docs would have exited the state in droves, decreasing access to quality healthcare.
We and OCMS put on our healthcare marketing hats to capitalize on this Capitol activity. Within a day of the win, we developed an eblast proclaiming the good news and showcasing a key OCMS “intangible” benefit (physician advocacy) that had just become marvelously tangible.
The eblast has the same brand identity as the recently launched OCMS recruitment micro-site, interactive ads and other eblasts. Great product + smart healthcare marketing results in a great campaign. And more docs aware of the indisputable value of OCMS membership.
I’m ecstatic about the physician tax defeat as I found it ridiculously unfair. How about you?
Back in August, I posted on our blog about floor cling mall advertising and in September, Courtney Walker posted on our blog about video kiosk mall advertising. Well you can never have enough mall advertising especially if a) you are trying to reach people who are ready to shop and b) if the client is retail.
Like the floor cling, there are lots of other ways to cut through the clutter – such as stair wrap advertising.
Imagine Lady GaGa has a clothing line coming out soon and a staircase was wrapped with this picture of Ms. GaGa. That would certainly grab anyone’s attention, especially her fans.
If there is a staircase in a mall it’s usually in plain view of all mall patrons. So if it’s wrapped with a retail advertisement it’s a possibility that most, if not all, mall goers will see your ad.
About eighty percent of mall visitors actually make a purchase. You also have approximately 80 minutes to capture their attention – as that’s about how long they are spending in the mall. So hitting them when they are in that state of mind is perfect timing.
Despite the 40 billion dollars poured into the diet industry, 2 out of 3 Americans are clinically obese. I, myself, have poured a big chunk of change into this industry. And while I adore my nutritionist, Gail Posner, and the progress we’ve made over the years, it is a daily battle of wills. Like “Will I put myself first and walk today?” or “Will I love myself enough to say no to that cookie calling my name?” Which is why I love some of the work the AdCouncil has done for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Obesity Prevention Campaign. While creative like “Love Handles” and “Double Chin” are very funny and attention-getting, they don’t really inspire me as much as the posters like the one below. I can relate to these people with spare tires and the copy that follows their curves to demonstrate how by taking small steps you can become smaller. These give me hope. These encourage me to keep trying. I just joined my old gym again this weekend. Here’s hoping I will use it and lose it. If you have any small steps to get healthier that have worked for you, please share them…
Since college, I’ve wanted to work for Brogan & Partners. I heard great things about both their award-winning creative and warm, friendly work culture. Sadly, it seemed as though I had graduated at the worst possible time in our ad community’s history. Then, the clouds opened up and finally shed a bit of light when I was presented with an opportunity for an internship here!
Over the 3 months working here I got back a lot of what I had lost. At the College for Creative Studies ad department, there aren’t many boundaries to what you can do creatively. Then, the diploma is accepted and you’re spit out into the real world (which does not always involve the mind-blasting creative projects you dreamed of). Things tend to get watered down, over-analyzed and put through the appropriate systems.
But, it’s different at Brogan. And working here has reminded me why I enjoy advertising so much and why I wanted to go into this field in the first place. They strive to produce breakthrough, award winning advertising while still meeting the satisfaction of their clients. I’ve never worked at an agency that was able to find a happy medium between the two.
It’s also been fun and educational getting the chance to develop creative for non-automotive accounts. There’s a satisfaction that comes from working on creative healthcare accounts, because you really feel like your helping market something that helps so many people.
I’ve always seen advertising as smart art. It’s not just a place to showcase your creative abilities, but it also needs to be smart, intuitive and effective. This is something that Brogan & Partners helped teach me. I will take many good memories and new insights away from my time here. More importantly though, the experience has gotten me excited about advertising again. And at this point in my career I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Interested in an internship at Brogan? Let me know if I can give you any pointers!
“This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.” Was there even anti-drug advertising before this memorable spot hit our TV sets in the 80’s? The mother to all PSA’s, this spot has been quoted, copied, spoofed, and lives on in our pop culture. To replay in our social consciousness without paid media, now that is effective social marketing. My favorite of the original versions was the heroine spot below from 1988. And also another classic spot is the one where the dad confronts his son in his bedroom about his weed. “Who taught you how to do this stuff?”, the dad asks. The son screams, “You alright! I learned it by watching you!” Talk about a parental guilt trip. And now a new generation is watching these psa’s on youtube. Decades ago the partnership laid the foundation for the future of social marketing and they are still going strong.
Reading through the winners of this year’s Healthcare Media Marketing Awards, I noticed that some of the winners really just didn’t get healthcare marketing. They of course included the standard patient testimonial and the typical doctor campaigns. I breezed through a lot of them since they didn’t really emotionally connect to me (which is weird, being that I am the key target for most healthcare marketers). But, there were a few campaigns that broke the mold and not just stood out to me, but shouted at me.
One of which was the hospital identity campaign for St. Joseph’s hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. Talk about being different. I applaud their agency for even having the guts to present the concept to their client. And I give St. Joseph’s a standing ovation for taking the risk of running it.
It’s always scary to be different. To break the mold. To do the unexpected. But, as this campaign proved – the risk is well worth the results.
What do you think? Were there other campaigns that deserve a shout out?
Media is not something we spent a lot of time learning about in college, so when I came to Brogan & Partners I had no idea what I was in for. From day one, I realized what my future would hold… invoices, lots and lots of invoices!
After learning the daily operations and being able to input five invoices per minute (I wish), the fun began. I have found that there is nothing more exciting than being given the opportunity to pick and choose what TV or radio stations should run our spots. And can you believe we should watch TV for research?! No mom, I can’t help you clean now, I am doing research!!!
Being in the media department has not only educated me on the business of buying, selling and placing but it has also allowed me to be more creative, thinking with a non-traditional mindset. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that media is ever changing and those that can think outside of the box will pave the way for the future.
As I move on in my media career, I will remember what I learned here at Brogan… to be smart, creative and successful at all costs. And I can thank the wonderful media team for beating (no, not literally) those attributes into me!
