One area of great potential for the iPad would be during patient-clinician communication and interaction. Imagine a doctor conferring with the patient to explain a surgical procedure. Instead of a long, hard-to-follow lecture, the physician could just get out his or her iPad. With rich graphics and the ability to show video, the doctor can give the patient an excellent idea of what’s going to happen. And if the patient didn’t absorb it all, or wanted to share that info with loved ones, no problem. It’s easy to envision a digital repository of prepackaged, multimedia presentation links for various procedures, diseases, conditions, and other medical information that could be emailed to the patient–right then and there from the iPad—or further review.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Will the iPad be a big contributor to HIT adoption? What impact will it have on the HITECH Act—and on medical education? How will it interact with EMR/EHR systems? How will pharmaceutical companies use the iPad? What a great opportunity for e-detailing–now doctors can study information about new drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies about their new drugs.

The possibilities are nearly endless, limited only by one’s imagination–and economics. One thing is for certain; thousands of health care apps have been created—with many more to come. More and more, the health care sector will be able to say, “Oh yeah, there’s an app for that.”

Just as we look online for recommendations on consumer products and services, we look online for information about health topics ranging from information about a specific disease, treatments, alternative medicine, health insurance, health care providers, doctors, medical facilities, and ways to stay healthy. The study also reports that 41 percent of patients have read about someone’s experience regarding a health issue or procedure via an online blog, forum, or website.

However, with the magnitude of health information available on the Web—both accurate and inaccurate—it’s likely that these patients can easily be misinformed. More than ever, it’s essential for hospitals and health providers to rethink their health care marketing mix to include a valid and reliable online presence, which includes social media, blogs, and videos. That’s where your audience is spending its time in research and self-education.

By integrating social media into the health care marketing mix, organizations can share accurate and timely information. The benefits of integrating social media into health care marketing efforts are priceless–from improving patient care and education to attracting new patients and staff.

Among patients who researched health information online, the majority of respondents said that the Internet had an impact on their own health or the way they care for someone else. Sixty percent said it affected their decision about how to treat an illness or condition. Fifty six percent said it changed their overall approach to maintaining their own health or the health of someone they care for. And, 53 percent said it led them to ask their doctor new questions, or to get a second opinion.

While the Internet is not a substitute for health care professionals and the care they provide, it can help hospitals and health care providers reach patients who are deepening their engagement with the online world.

Your consumer health brand doesn’t have to be a household name or the largest OTC brand in the world, but causal marketing and social responsibility are still important to your customers and affect how they view your brand.

Now is the time for your health care brand to launch a cause marketing campaign. Performance Research found that 41 percent of U.S. consumers believe that companies can best improve brand perceptions by increasing their cause sponsorships. And, predictions by the IEG Sponsorship Report states that cause marketing will be the fastest-growing category of sponsorship spending in 2010.  According to its forecast, corporate cause sponsorship will rise 6.1 percent to hit $1.61 billion this year.

With the current economy far from rebounding, consumers expect the brands they purchase to give back. They expect corporations to support those being hit the hardest by the dire economy.

Although supporting a cause or launching a sponsorship program may appear to be an easy task, be careful to protect your reputation in the process. Self magazine’s most recent “Good” survey uncovered skepticism among female consumers about brands that practice cause-related marketing. Of those surveyed, 39 percent feel that companies are only doing good things to get individuals to buy their products, and 32 percent feel like companies are trying to distract individuals from the bad things that they are doing.

Finding the right way to launch a cause-marketing campaign can be confusing, but the “Good” survey offers the following suggestions to conducting a successful campaign:

* Prove that the initiative is not a one-off.  Provide a timeline of the commitment to the project.  Extend it into the future and help consumers look ahead with it.

* Expand the campaign to include adherence to a code of behavior that applies to all aspects of business.  It’s not about doing good on one side to hide the bad on the other.  It does matter how employees are treated, how products are manufactured, and how the company interacts with other companies in its industry.

* Be sure to respond proactively to any negative press, comments, or buzz. Don’t wait for it to become a huge issue.  And, “respond” doesn’t necessarily mean “refute.” Explain the situation the best way possible and discuss the company’s plans moving forward.

The stage is set, and this is the year to get involved in a cause that is important to your brand or organization. Avoid the skeptics and be sure to develop a campaign that you can back up and thoroughly complete.

Yes, a pet hamster. ROI (pronounced “Roy”) came to Martino Flynn in the winter of 2009 to star in one of our brand-oriented videos. He ended up becoming sort of a mascot.

Since then, life for ROI has been pretty great: a nice cage to live in, three square meals a day, and an occasional trip around the office in his hamster ball.

Last week, though, we noticed that he just wasn’t his usual active self. After examining ROI, the vet told us he had an injured eye. We were given three choices: apply eye drops three times a day, remove the eye, or have him put to sleep. We tried the eye drops, but ROI didn’t want any part of them. (And we could never even consider the last option—ROI is family!) So ROI ended up having surgery.

Happily, ROI is back at the office now and doing great! He looks a little different, but don’t we all change over the years?

ROI still needs a lot of love and support from his family (that’s us) and his friends (hopefully that’s you). Please join us in wishing ROI a full recovery.

So here’s a fun lens to peep through for better perspective on older Boomers and their genesis as renegades. The “lens?” Fashion.

According to some fashion historians, young adults in the 50s chose fashion to illustrate their rebellion of the uptight societal norms. The anarchic attitude toward society created a generation gap that has yet to be filled. Nothing better illustrates the paradox between social mores and the new social awareness of young people like the rock n‘ roll attitude in fashion that burst onto the runways in the 1950s. The provocative styles of rock stars like Elvis Presley and film stars like James Dean directly conflicted with the conservative sexual attitudes of the era. (Don’t forget, at the time it was illegal to sell, let alone use, birth control in most states). As Denise Meechan says online at Rewind the Fifties: “No other decade has captured such a wide divide of class and social structure on the catwalks or of the social oxymoron America has copyrighted into its national structure”.

By coming of age during this dichotomy, older Boomers learned to thrive in states of change and contradiction. Perhaps this adaptive/endurance quality will help them thrive throughout old age, too? I’m betting it will.

So for marketers wanting to better understand older audiences, the idea is not to view them as one-dimensional (old), but from as many perspectives as possible. An afternoon of James Dean or Sandra Dee movies is just one way to experience what older Boomers’ formative influences were all about. Hey,whatever it takes! But, really, weren’t their clothes pretty cool?

Polite? What does that mean in the context of email marketing? Because of the abuse of email by spammers, legitimate marketers need to be sensitive to how protective people are of their email inboxes. This most often means either making it really easy for someone to unsubscribe from email communications, or asking explicit permission before sending emails in the first place. I recently saw an excellent example of this: a small software company from which I purchased a product asked my permission before adding me to their e-newsletter. Here’s essentially the message they sent me:

This company would have been perfectly CAN-SPAM compliant to simply add me to their email list. But, instead, they did a few key things that demonstrated great courtesy and good use of the one-to-one communication that email should be. This message:

• explains why I’m receiving it.
• requires that I take a simple action to join the list, assuring that I truly want to be on this mailing list.
• explains what information the messages I’m signing up for will contain, and how often I’ll receive them.
• doesn’t require me to do anything if I don’t want to be added to the list.
• acknowledges that this message was sent automatically, but also manages to express a little humor and personality.

Follow these guidelines, and think of your subscribers as friends (yes, actual people), and you’ll find that your list is made up of not just subscribers, but people you’ve actually made a connection with as well.

There are more than 130 million blogs on the Internet. And although there are many useful online tools for practitioners to use to track online conversations, there is not a single source to create the ultimate blog list. What it takes is people willing to dig in and go through a process to identify and vet potential blogs.

It will take time. And it will require regular monitoring and attention. But the rewards of creating peer-to-peer and WOM influence are worth it and necessary.

So roll up your sleeves, because your journey to building better blog lists starts here:

Step 1: Search
Develop a list of key words you can search for based on your audience, industry, products, services, or expertise. Make sure those list of terms includes a generic search for “Best blogs for ABC” or “Top blogs for XYZ.” Many times, fellow industry bloggers or the media have already tracked down some of the top, most authoritative blogs, and that can be a great spring board to building a better list.

Further, take these terms to blog search engines, such as Google Blogs or Technorati (always a good spot to start because it has a growing index of more than 133 million blogs and ranks overall influence). Blog platforms, such as WordPress, TypePad, and tumblr can also be searched especially if you’re looking for local or niche markets, while tools like Alltop can be used to uncover popular topics being discussed and Regator and BlogPulse can also help you identify blogs with the most authority.

Step 2: Listen
Chances are you’re already monitoring reactive opportunities for your organization through Google Alerts (if you’re not, start now!), but there are also a number of services that are either free or charge a monthly fee that can help you keep a pulse on current online conversations about or related to your brand and competitors. Try paid services such as Alterian SM2 to help you identify who is talking about things that are important to you, as well as to measure tonality of posts and generate reports to show general ROI of blogger relations.

Monitoring Twitter directories through WeFollow and Twellow will also help you connect with the right bloggers (because a majority are on Twitter, too) and following them on Facebook or LinkedIn will provide additional insight into what they write and care about. There are also ways you can track specific hashtags on Twitter in real-time (e.g., hashtags.org or Twemes), which can lead you to good bloggers to add to your list.

Step 3: Trail Blaze
Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it will be the best fit for you or your brand. Think of some of your best vacation memories and I bet they were from an undiscovered gem. Blogs can surprise in that same way. Make sure to explore blogrolls and see where they take you. Maybe the diamond in the rough is a blog your industry influencer is reading. This is a time- consuming process, but well worth the return, as you’ll likely discover blogs that, although they may not be the most popular, are still very relevant to you.

Also take note if certain blogs are consistently listed on blog rolls because that’s another indicator into their authority and influence.

Step 4: Evaluate & Plan
When it comes to blogger relations, make sure to be realistic and tier your targets just as you would your media list. Often, how big a list you start with depends on the budget you have to allocate to support blogger relations efforts.

After you’ve collected the laundry list of potential candidates, evaluate each to make sure you’re including the most relevant ones on your list.  Also, include a mix of tier 1, 2, and 3 blogs based on authority, readership, and relevancy.

Bloggers are inundated with pitches, and PR and marketing professionals have to work smartly and genuinely to attract their attention. It will increase your chances of success and add to the overall variety of coverage if you make sure to have a mix of “musts” with “nice to haves.”  This will also allow you flexibility to be more strategic when offering exclusives to bloggers or pitching different perspectives.

Step 5: Keep Exploring
A blog list is not static and should be a dynamic document that reflects the current online conversations.  Daily monitoring will help you grow your list of relevant bloggers. But you should also make sure to build in checkpoints at least every six months to review your contacts and make sure you have a clean, up-to-date list.

There are many possibilities of what blogger relations can do for you. If you’re weary of getting lost in the millions of blogs available, start small. Work to make genuine connections with a handful of bloggers, and then you can grow from there.

An agency partner can also help you with your social media strategy and be your arms and legs to get things done.

I can still hear those words echoing in my ears, years after my journalism professors at St. Bonaventure University delivered them in lecture. Pulled from the “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, these are the rules to which we all learned to write.

I wonder what they’d think of writing today? On one hand, maybe they’d be excited about how the digital age has opened up so many new doors and platforms for people to express them selves through writing. On the other hand, maybe they’d think we’ve all gotten a little too carried away?

Tweet, tweeple, dweet. Is this jargon-packed silliness or just the next evolution in language for which style laws should apply? Would they consider these terms the “fancy” words the little book states we’re all supposed to avoid? The New York Times seems to think so, and is asking its writers to avoid the term tweet, yet the Associated Press now includes it in its own style guide.

Strunk and White warn us all to “Not affect a breezy manner” in our writing. But, should that rule still hold water when it comes to the conversational style of blogs, Twitter, and Facebook? After all, the personalization these communications afford can in many ways be considered a positive. Nowadays many companies and organizations are talking with people instead of at them. Can we embrace these tools and “write in a way that comes naturally” while still honoring the classic elements of style? In this evolution, is there room for compromise?

Recently, my brother visited us from Minneapolis. On his way out the door, my dad stopped him and said, “tweet” me when you get in.  At that moment so many things crossed my mind:

• “My brother is so cool; he’s on Twitter;”
• “If my brother Pete tweets, then is that called a ‘Pweet;’” and
• “Oh man, even my dad has been affected!”

As it turns out my brother is not on Twitter (yet…) and my dad actually meant to say “ping”, but “tweet” was the most natural thing to say given Twitter seems to be everywhere.  And while many are working hard to keep up, for others 10, 20 years down the road, it will be something they just know.

So, what would Strunk and White do?

They’d remind us all that good writing is good writing. Whether you’re writing a blog post, annual report, or letter to your aunt, clear, concise communication is the key. Maybe now more than ever as attention spans get shorter, news cycles get faster, and millions of people share their views, experiences, and opinions for public consumption, we all need reminding that there is no substitute for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity.

P.S. I’m re-reading my copy of “The Elements of Style” starting now and encourage all of you to do the same.

Using a state-of-the-art 3D computer simulation and deductive reasoning, the research study came to the conclusion that despite their seemingly odd and deceptively awkward outward appearance giraffes can, in fact, swim.

So, what does the aquatic prowess of a giraffe have to do with marketing? On occasion a product’s brand has an outward appearance that does not always reflect its true nature or function. Our job is to make sure we expose those hidden attributes in a way that is relevant for the consumer. Sometimes that means changing predetermined perceptions about a brand or product.

For example, what comes to mind when you hear the brand name, ACE^®? Elastic bandages, right? ACE^® is synonymous with the beige colored bandage gym teachers and athletic trainers wrap around sprained ankles, knees, and wrists. However, when ACE^® wanted to launch a new disposable heat therapy patch, that perception potentially works against them. This new product needed to be positioned with both the retailer and the consumer outside of the elastic aisle and with the pain relievers.  In other words, it was a giraffe you thought you were familiar with, but it had a capability that was unknown to you.

Some of the trade and consumer tactics used to launch the ACE^® Heat Therapy Patch can be seen on our web site. But the point is, it is never easy—and not always wise—to go against the preconceived perception of what your brand stands for. But sometimes it is necessary. Done carefully and done well, it can reveal an aspect of the brand that broadens its appeal.

So, the next time a giraffe invites you to a pool party, keep an open mind.

So how do you make sure your package has the shelf presence to motivate a purchase decision? It comes down to two things: eye-catching design and innovative use of promotion.

Ideally, packaging design solutions should be part of an integrated strategic plan or product launch. Too often, new product package designs are created prior to the development of a marketing strategy—without any thought or connection to how the brand will be positioned in the market. And in the case of existing products, packaging design is frequently at odds with a potential repositioning of the brand.

While every brand has its own unique challenges and opportunities, here are just a few trends worth noting.

1. Stand out by being simple. Sometimes when everyone else is shouting, the person who stands out is the one who whispers. Think about tapping into the new “cool minimal”. Check out this example: Currenna shampoo.



2. Unique on-pack promotions. Typically, when you think of an on-pack or in-pack promotion, there is some sort of price action coupon or rebate. Well don’t be afraid to expand your thinking—like this free USB memory stick promotion for Sunshine Enema. Free giveaways work if they are unique and functional.



3. Personalize. Okay, variable information printing isn’t practical for everyone, and, technically, this contact lens package for indivisual (great name) is not an OTC on-shelf product, but the idea of using digital printing technology to personalize a package was just too cool to pass up.



4. Show me the product! The use of transparent substrates allows consumers to have a clear look at what they are buying. Incorporate a design that integrates the product with the graphics, and you have visual stopping power in the aisle. earBudeez is a great example of this technique.

These are just a few examples of packages that work hard to attract more sales. The point is, the next time you have the opportunity, think about your packaging as an extremely effective way to market to consumers when they are making a purchase decision: in the store.