7 Absolute Musts for Hospitals in the Age of Consumerism

June 4, 2019Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

two nurses pushing patients in wheelchairs in hospital hallway

Many private practices have embraced the rise of healthcare consumerism trends, providing ways to create an experience that puts the patient’s needs first. In hospitals, though, changes have been slow-going. This is due in part to longstanding structuring, pricing, and patient care protocols that are tough (and costly) to get around. But these changes are […]

The Painful Question is: Should Hospitals Advertise?

March 2, 2017Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

group of people attending "Building for Iowa kids" children's hospital event

Not long ago, The Des Moines Register published an interesting opinion piece about hospitals that advertise. We’d like to know what you think about their coverage titled: Hospitals spend millions luring patients away from each other. Please take a minute to review their editorial handiwork and register your own opinion in the space below. Curiously, […]

Hospital Advertising: Obscenely Effective Video Boosts Organ Donors

January 23, 2017Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

Coleman Sweeney hospital advertising image

This is not your typical video role model. You may not like it at all. But hospital advertising can steal strategy and creative ideas from this unorthodox (and somewhat rude) marketing gem. This little film blasts through clutter and makes an overly-familiar message standout in an entirely new way. The visual story of Coleman […]

Really Bad Billboards: Six Classic Outdoor Advertising Mistakes

March 2, 2016Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

Outdoor advertising—billboards in particular—seem to be more popular than ever in many hospital marketing and advertising plans. You don’t have to drive far to survey the crop of ads for hospitals (brand and ED wait times), service lines (specialists and clinics), and individual doctors or groups with hospital-connected practices. Admittedly, billboard advertising is a creative […]

Five Critical Questions in Creating Direct Response Advertising

November 4, 2015Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

In my advertising industry career, I’ve tended to resonate to the strength of direct response advertising. It’s not appropriate for every situation, of course. But where and when there’s a good fit, it’s one of the most powerful and effective tools. The reason: Direct response is advertising that gets results. And when it’s done properly […]

Should Hospital Websites be Labeled for Consumers as Advertising?

March 5, 2015Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

Hospital advertising is in the spotlight, and we wonder how your facility would stand-up to the challenging ideas we found in the news recently. The first is about price transparency and publishing cost information in ads for patients. The second notion proposes that hospital websites should be labeled as advertising—with the implication that if it’s […]

Will Your Budget or Stock Photos Fuel a Marketing Scandal?

January 27, 2015Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

People don’t associate the All-American image of Columbus, Ohio, with marketing controversy. It’s just too wholesome for that sort of thing. Right? Having completed my undergraduate studies at Ohio State University, I’m practically a native. The public impression of this heartland state capital includes visions of fresh corn-on-the-cob at the Ohio State Fair, or live […]

Inbound Marketing Isn’t All that It’s Cracked Up to Be

May 30, 2019Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

Inbound Marketing is flying so high and so loud these days that it seems to dominate the marketing landscape like a super storm. Some folks might be dazzled by all the ballyhoo and think that Inbound (also called Content Marketing) is the one and only—virtually compulsory—basis for a contemporary marketing plan. And worse, it’s troubling […]

Hospital Price Transparency is Here to Stay

August 2, 2013Last Updated on by Stewart Gandolf

[Second of two articles.] Read our previous post on the topic of transparent prices among hospitals, How to be Named the Costliest Hospital in the Nation. When the federal government opened the books to the public on hospital prices, the unprecedented transparency came as a shock to many facilities and industry executives. And this visibility […]

Tag: hospital advertising