by admin | Aug 29, 2017 | News
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Aug. 29, 2017 Amendola Communications, an award-winning healthcare marketing and public relations agency, announced today that It’s Never 2 Late (iN2L), the leader in providing person-centered engagement, content and technology solutions for seniors, has selected Amendola Communications as its agency of record. Amendola will provide a range of public relations and content services that promote iN2L as a pioneer and innovator whose mission is to make life worth living for older adults by enabling them to connect, engage and enjoy life leveraging technology.
Previously, iN2L engaged Amendola to elevate its social media presence. The firm successfully executed a program that generated the following results for iN2L in the first six months: 28% new page likes on Facebook; 17% new Twitter followers and 30% new LinkedIn connections.
“I have always been impressed with the Amendola team’s in-depth knowledge of the healthcare IT, long-term care and resident/patient engagement space, as well as their strong commitment to results-oriented client service,” said Tom Bang, chief executive officer of iN2L. “They proactively hit the ground running with several earned article placements in tier one press, multiple media interviews, and strategic guidance from a team of six senior level executives. We’re delighted to be working with them again.”
iN2L works with over 2,000 senior living communities including independent living, assisted living, nursing homes and adult day programs in all 50 states and three countries. iN2L integrates the hardware, software and media with personalized educational and therapeutic content necessary to allow virtually any person with any interest in using a computer, regardless of background, physical or intellectual abilities, to do so pleasurably, engagingly and without frustration.
“A repeat client is a testament to the value we bring to our partnerships,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “We look forward to advancing iN2L’s mission in the marketplace and to working once again with industry leaders, Tom Bang and Jack York.”
Amendola Communications will provide public relations and marketing communications services, including social media programming, strategic counsel and media relations. The agency will also be responsible for delivering a range of content demonstrating the thought leadership and expertise of iN2L’s subject matter experts, including bylined articles, blog posts, press releases and other communication materials.
About It’s Never 2 Late
It’s Never 2 Late (iN2L) develops digital engagement technology for senior living community residents, with over 2,500 installations in the United States and Canada. The company’s picture-based, touchscreen interface provides easy connectivity to the Internet, regardless of users’ physical and cognitive abilities. iN2L’s media library offers 4,000 social, educational, spiritual and gaming content options. For more information, visit www.in2l.com.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team”, visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes, Amendola Communications, mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
by admin | Aug 9, 2017 | News
Agency honored in Content Marketing category for its work on Health Catalyst success story program
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., August 9, 2017 Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare technology public relations and marketing agency, announced today that it has been named a finalist for a PR News Platinum Award in the category of Content Marketing. This distinction is one of several awards the agency has earned in recent years for its ability to develop high-value content for health IT (HIT) organizations that speaks to market needs.
The agency’s entry, “He Said/She Said: Clients Create Credibility for the Health Catalyst Story,” focused on how Amendola Communications worked with client Health Catalyst to build a library of proof points to demonstrate how the client’s solutions resolved issues for other healthcare organizations. Client success stories are highly sought-after in any industry, but especially in healthcare where risk-averse organizations are reluctant to be early adopters of innovation. By developing an extensive library of in-depth success stories, Amendola Communications has been able to help Health Catalyst overcome objections and drive both leads and sales.
“We are thrilled to be named a finalist for a content marketing award beside such great brand names as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Southwest Airlines, and J&J,” said Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications. “Both our team here and the team at Health Catalyst have put a tremendous amount of effort into making sure we had great success stories to tell and that they were told well. Most clients and agencies are happy if they can pull together three or four of these stories. To develop more than 100 of them since the beginning of 2016 is an amazing accomplishment, and one we are all justifiably proud of. Most important, however, is that the program is accomplishing Health Catalyst’s goal of being a catalyst for massive, sustained improvements in healthcare outcomes.”
The PR News Platinum Awards celebrate the ingenuity and leadership behind the year’s most outstanding communications initiatives. Platinum PR Award winners set industry benchmarks for excellence across all areas of PR. Winners and honorable mentions will be celebrated at an awards luncheon on Thursday, September 14, 2017 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.
Tweet this: .@AmendolaComm named finalist in @PRNews Platinum Awards | #HIT #ContentMarketing http://bit.ly/2w7D6vM
by admin | Jul 19, 2017 | News
Philip Anast Named Senior Account Director
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 19, 2017 Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare technology public relations and marketing agency, announced today that Philip Anast has joined the agency as Senior Account Director. Anast will create and manage client programs, provide strategic counsel and positioning, and pitch media and other digital influencers for the agency’s healthcare/healthcare IT clients.
To download a picture of Anast, click here.
Anast brings 22 years of experience building, managing and executing PR programs for technology providers. He most recently served as vice president of client services for Tech Image, a digital PR agency and subsidiary of SmithBucklin, the world’s largest association management company. As executive team member at Tech Image, Anast was responsible for administering best practices, managing finances and overseeing client relationships in the agency’s hardware-software practice.
During his almost 16 years at the firm, he served supply chain, data integration and digital display clients targeting the HIT vertical and was a regular attendee of RSNA in Chicago since 2008, positioning client diagnostic monitors and other technologies with radiology and other imaging publications. He also served the telecommunications and unified communications sectors, working with providers and equipment manufacturers.
Agency CEO Jodi Amendola said: “Philip brings a deep set of skills and experience launching companies, brands and products across a broad spectrum of technologies, so we look forward to his delivering value to our healthcare/HIT clients. His knowledge positioning technology clients targeting the HIT vertical will bring new perspectives to our already strong Amendola PR and marketing teams.”
“Over the years, I gained familiarity with the work of Jodi and her team, and am grateful for the opportunity now to contribute to Amendola’s growth,” Anast said. “The pace of change affecting today’s businesses is unprecedented, especially in the healthcare sector. New technologies and advances in medicine and approaches to healthcare are disrupting the status quo. I look forward to working with our clients to use the power of storytelling to ensure their unique capabilities and ingenuity reach the right influencers.”
Anast holds M.S. and B.S degrees in Journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Media Contact: Jodi Amendola | jamendola@ACmarketingPR.com
by admin | Jul 5, 2017 | Blog
Thought leadership is arguably one of the most powerful assets in an organization’s or individual’s public relations strategy. Yet relatively few companies go after the thought leader mantle, even if they have articulate, charismatic, true believers leading their organizations.
Often these potential thought leaders are kept preoccupied managing the present or near-future, while others who have an eye on the longer-term are hesitant to put their true thoughts out there, especially in the buttoned up world of business. And so, intriguing perspectives never see the light of day, including those that could establish a company or person as an industry player to watch.
By contrast, if you do a fair amount of thinking about the future, are amenable to investing time and effort into building your thought leadership profile and you’re willing to shake things up in your industry–then yes, you have the makings of a thought leader.
So where do you go from here? First, decide on what you want to be known for. Then decide on a correlating cause to champion. Let’s look at a well-known role model who has this approach down cold.
Thought leadership, Elon Musk-style
He’s extraordinarily rich, has a tempestuous romantic life and an unusual name. But above all, Elon Musk is an entrepreneurial futurist. That’s what people think first about Elon Musk, and that’s no accident.
I’ve long studied Musk’s thought leadership mode of operation and have distilled it to a simple pattern. First, he warns of a dire likelihood if humanity doesn’t get its act together. This generates significant buzz and fear. After a suitable amount of time has passed, Musk then follows up with a proposed solution.
Example: society will collapse when we run out of fossil fuels. Solution: Hyperloops that transport us at 700+ miles per hour.
Another example: society will collapse if artificial intelligence takes over the earth. Solution: merge human brains with artificial intelligence.
It’s all very calculated and strategic, and potential thought leaders should take note. Because it’s also undeniably effective. (By the way, Musk’s ideas have actual potential, fantastical as they seem. Take note of that, as well.)
How to find your thought leadership mojo
Here at Amendola I’ve developed a list of questions to provoke thought leadership thinking. I’ll share some of them here; for the full list, and more info about how Amendola builds and promotes thought leadership profiles; email me.
Question #1: If you could sound one alarm in your industry, what would it be?
Question #2: Do you have a minority and under-reported view of an industry topic that is significantly at odds with the widely held and established view?
Question #3: If you could rally your industry with one inspiring message or goal, what would it be?
These questions will likely prompt some interesting thinking, which leads to the next step what to do with these profound thoughts. In brief, you should put them into blog posts, articles, interviews, presentations and more, with a solid PR strategy to help promote your thought leadership message.
Thought leader-in-training
Another piece of advice: if you have the makings of a thought leader, start building your profile now. It’s not an overnight process, at all. In fact, it takes time to nail down your message in quote-friendly language, and to cultivate a media-favorite persona. My colleague Marcia Rhodes gives some good tips on the latter in her post “Be a Media Darling.”
Consider investing in media training, as well. In addition to our writing and PR services for thought leaders, Amendola offers in-depth media training, facilitated by experts with years of media experience in television, radio, newspapers and the internet.
It covers a lot, including:
- Body language and verbal best practices
- Tips for devising a memorable interview message
- Tips for assuring your quote gets published
- How to steer the interview back to your core messages when the interview meanders
And much more. The media training can be as short as one hour to longer, depending on your needs. We typically offer this training as a core component of our PR programs.
Don’t forget another time-tested public speaking strategy: joining Toastmasters.
In her post “Public Speaking Tips for the Timid and the Talented,” my colleague Michelle Noteboom details how participation in Toastmasters has upped her speaking game and given her newfound confidence.
Here is how Michelle recounts it: “Almost a year ago, one of my Amendola mentors encouraged me to join Toastmasters to further hone my speaking skills. While I was initially skeptical would everyone be a nerd? Or shy introverts with no personality? Perhaps retirees with nothing better to do? I have been pleasantly surprised by the mix of people in my club. It includes a variety of professionals in diverse careers, all of whom are fun and dedicated to self-improvement.”
She adds, “Toastmasters has given me the opportunity to deliver prepared speeches once or twice a month, as well as speak extemporaneously on random subjects. It’s provided an excellent forum for practicing speech organization and delivery, and for receiving feedback that pushes me to strive for continuous improvement.”
So there you have it a formula for success as a thought leader: an interest in the longer term, a willingness to shake things up in your industry, a solid PR plan, and a plan to practice until you’re close to perfect in your message delivery.
That’s really what it takes to be a thought leader. All that’s left is for you to take the leap and start becoming one.
by admin | Jun 13, 2017 | News
Former bureau chief at MedCity News and senior editor at Medical Economics to direct client accounts at healthcare IT public relations agency
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 13, 2017 Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and healthcare technology public relations and marketing agency, welcomes Brandon Glenn to the “A-Team.” In his role of account director, Glenn will obtain media coverage and produce top-tier content for the agency’s healthcare and health IT clients. Glenn’s hire signals the agency’s continued commitment to build a roster of talent with deep ties to healthcare IT and business media.
For a headshot of Brandon Glenn, click here.
Amendola Communications CEO Jodi Amendola said, “We’re delighted to have Brandon join us. We expect his industry familiarity and keen reporting skills will quickly result in meaningful media coverage for our clients and heightened awareness of their brands.”
She added, “As a versatile and skilled writer, Brandon will also help us fulfill our clients increasing requests for quality content that differentiates them in a crowded healthcare IT market.”
Glenn brings nearly a decade-and-a-half of journalism and marketing communications experience to his role at Amendola. He gained knowledge and experience in the healthcare industry as Ohio bureau chief at MedCity News, which covers the business of innovation in healthcare, and as a senior editor with Medical Economics, a publication that focuses on issues of importance to primary care physicians. Most recently, he worked in communications with a publicly traded company, handling media relations, content marketing, social media and internal communications.
Glenn began his journalism career as a reporter with Crain’s Cleveland Business and, later, Crain’s Chicago Business. Previously, he worked as an analyst with global consulting firm Accenture. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Purdue University.
“I’m excited to join the accomplished team of public relations and marketing experts at Amendola Communications, which I can personally attest is one of the most respected public relations agencies among healthcare IT media professionals,” Glenn said. “I look forward to helping our clients connect with leading healthcare IT journalists and publications to share their stories and advance their businesses.”
About Amendola Communications
Amendola Communications is an award-winning national public relations, marketing communications, social media and content marketing firm. Named one of the best information technology (IT) PR firms in the nation by PRSourceCode for four years running, Amendola represents some of the best-known brands and groundbreaking startups in the healthcare and healthcare IT industries. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros delivers strategic guidance and effective solutions to help organizations boost their reputation and drive market share. For more information about the PR industry’s “A Team”, visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow Amendola on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Marcia Rhodes | mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
