Should You Bet It All on a Trade Show Launch?

When it comes to product launches, many companies hang their hat on making a big splash at the biggest trade show in their industry. And then they are disappointed. For those targeting the healthcare IT market, that usually means HIMSS. For those targeting providers,...

The Dog Eat Dog Days of PR in the Internet Age: Part One

Who watches the watchdogs? It's a phrase that conjures the creation of police commissions or intelligence oversight committees. But if you're a believer in the sanctity of the Fourth Estate (and God knows we need them now more than ever), then the watchdogs who need...

Fostering A Culture of Transparency

On the night of November 2, 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, ending the longest drought in the history of American sports OK, before I continue a caveat. This isn't going to be another metaphorical sports-as-insert-unrelated-industry-here blog post. I'm...

What Can We Learn From United Airlines Flight 3411

If you had a goal of demonstrating how NOT to handle crisis communications, you couldn't find a better template than the actions of United Airlines after a flight crew forcibly removed Dr. David Dao from Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville to accommodate its own...

The Press Release: Marketing’s Swiss Army Knife

Swiss Army knives are generally thought of as the go-to multi-tool, capable of performing all sorts of handy functions in one neat little package. Marketers have their own version of the Swiss Army knife: the press release. It has the versatility to advance a variety...

Industry Analysts Predictions for 2017

HIMSS is now a distant memory and you're struggling to remember what happened last week, let alone the show's key takeaways. Never fear, I've got you covered! I reached out to several top industry analysts with whom I've worked for years, as well a Health 2.0...

Why I (Still) Hate the Term “Content Marketing”

A few years back, I made a minor ripple on the internet okay, make that a very minor ripple when I dashed off a plaintive lament about the use of the word "content" in content marketing. As I noted at the time, the industry couldn't have picked a more lifeless word to...

Musically Infused Management. (Headphones On, Please.)

Want a Rockin Team? Many think that putting together a great team means being clear about roles, setting expectations and providing appropriate incentives. While all that MBA mumbo jumbo is true, it's not how you get teams to purr like a Lotus and move like Greased...

HIMSS Is Over. Now What?

At our agency we think of HIMSS as our "Christmas." We face similar time pressures and high expectations as those in retail leading up to the holiday, but as one team member says, "HIMSS is the "Happiest Time of Year." Like the annual family gatherings, we see...

To the media Thank you for being our friends

"The light which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing has eminently changed the condition of the world." Thomas Jefferson, writing to John Adams, 1823 There has been a lot of attention paid lately to the rise of "fake" news, alternative facts, and the role...

Content Marketing: Remember to Ask “And Then?”

One of the most important questions a content marketing team can ask when charged with developing a new press release/blog post/case study/white paper/video/etc. doesn't come from a marketing textbook or TED talk. It actually comes from the lowbrow movie "Dude,...

Catching a Buzz: Trends to watch at HIMSS17

Health IT insiders, journalists share what topics they'll be tracking at HIMSS17. HIMSS17, the juggernaut of all healthcare technology conferences (a.k.a. #HIMSSanity) is just weeks away, and soon we'll all be high on interoperability, blockchain, burnout and whatever...

Why PR Will Be Your Sales Team’s Best Friend in 2017

I always get excited about the first month of a new year. January is like back-to-school season for grown-ups. It's the ideal time to rethink your current way of doing things and to consider abandoning the status-quo for a fresh, new approach. Especially when it comes...

How your PR team can play winning ball like the Cubs

The Associated Press named the Cubs winning the World Series as the top sports story of 2016. Aside from the fact that Captain Obvious must have been moonlighting for the AP sports department this year, there are two critical lessons that PR strategists can take from...

The 4 P’s to Think Like a Marketer

You may have heard of the 4 P's of marketing: price, product, place, promotion. It's a broad view to the marketing puzzle of taking a product or service from concept to consumer. Sometimes, businesses gain ground without thinking through these 4 Ps. Rapid growth is...

5 Keys to Building a Brand

Clients have high hopes when they first engage a public relations firm. Building a brand will mean interviews with the Wall Street Journal! Blogs that go viral on Facebook and Twitter! Appearances on CNN! And well they should. After all, clients are paying good money...

A Case Study on How to Get More Case Studies

They're effective, trustworthy, and prospects actually read them--but marketers can encounter surprising resistance in securing case studies from their customers. Here's how to overcome the three most common challenges standing in the way of compiling a great...

Getting the Picture: 5 Reasons to Use Infographics

Effective storytelling has always been an integral strategy of PR and marketing. But in today's digital world, where online users are flooded with information, sometimes "showing," rather than "telling" your story can be an effective approach for communicating your...

More than One Way to Milk the PR Machine

After 14 months, dozens of emails, numerous brainstorming sessions not to mention several bottles of Tums my PR team was excited to have our client profiled by Forbes. And then, just like the careful-what-you-wish-for dot-com Super Bowl ad, very quickly the number of...