“Send Pizza” and Other Medical Marketing Notes You Missed
As inspirational fuel for your medical marketing idea book, here’s a brief roundup of interesting items that popped up on our radar recently. Each has a “take-away” concept that a professional practice, hospital or medical group might adapt for local use.
And please tell us about the creative ideas or success stories from your marketing, advertising or public relations.
THE WONDER OF ACCIDENTAL PR: Sometimes human-interest stories seem to emerge on their own, often with the help of social media. In this one, someone spotted a handmade sign on a window of Lost Angeles Children’s Hospital. It's hard to read in the photo, but it says: SEND PIZZA RM 4112. Not surprisingly, the room of a two-year old cancer patient was soon flooded with enough pizza to share with the entire floor. And the spontaneous media coverage is stuff you can’t buy. The pictures tell the story.
SEND PIZZA RM 4112
Pizza Party
A DOC-IN-A-BOX FOR RX: It’s probably too soon to tell how much traction will come from this idea, but doctor’s offices, hospitals and pharmacies will want to watch what MedAvail is doing with MedCenter Remote Dispensing. The robotic idea (of sorts) is to dispense prescription drugs via a vending machine or kiosk.
Not all drugs are available, of course. But unlike Redbox DVD dispensing, a real (live, but remote) pharmacist participates via two-way video. Stay tuned…but think ATM machines, self-checkout grocery lines, and as MotleyFool observed, consider the demise of Blockbuster video stores.
NEMOURS DITCHES DOCTOR’S WHITE COAT: Not your typical hospital ads. As the Orlando Sentinel reports, “What distinguishes the two 15-second TV spots featuring Nemours Children's Hospital is not what they show, but what they don't. Gone are the white lab coats, the cliché stethoscopes and the high-tech imaging machines with their colorful jagged lines—images that are going the way of the mercury thermometer.”
Watch these fast-paced video clips. They go past quickly, but you’ll notice they are decidedly people-centered, interesting and not a single white coat in these spots. We should note, however, that the Nemours 2014 Advertising page includes several examples both with and without doctors, nurses and clinical settings.
