by admin | Oct 14, 2021 | News
Award-winning Healthcare IT PR agency and healthcare technology platform partner to amplify client successes and industry best practices
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 14, 2021 – Amendola Communications, a nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare and technology public relations and marketing firm, announced that Vim, a leading technology company building digital infrastructure for health plans, care providers, and the members they mutually serve, has selected the firm to amplify client successes and industry best practices after a competitive review of agencies.
Vim uses technology to seamlessly connect payers to providers at healthcare’s last mile: clinical workflow at the point of care. The healthcare technology company’s product capabilities address critical cost, quality, and experience to improve healthcare and drive accelerated provider performance and enhanced member experience at a fraction of the effort or cost of existing approaches.
“After thoughtful consideration, we chose Amendola as our public relations firm of record,” said Oron Afek, CEO and co-founder of Vim. “We were impressed by their team’s deep knowledge of the healthcare and health tech space, connections within the industry, and proven track record of successful representation. We’re excited to collaborate with them and share our unique value with the market.”
“This is an important time in healthcare as the industry reexamines its traditional reimbursement structures and looks for opportunities to make long-term improvements that benefit patients,” said agency CEO Jodi Amendola. “By interfacing with both payers and providers, Vim offers services that can affect change in a meaningful way. We are eager to assist Vim in their ambitious efforts to better align the American healthcare system towards value-based care models.”
Amendola is implementing a comprehensive media and communications plan for Vim that will showcase the company’s current technology and services, new offerings, accomplishments, customer wins, and industry partnerships.
About Amendola Communications
Amendola is an award-winning, insights-driven public relations and marketing firm that integrates media relations, social media, content and lead gen programs to move healthcare, life sciences/pharma and healthcare IT decision-makers to action. The agency represents some of the industry’s best-known brands as well as groundbreaking startups that are disrupting the status quo. Nearly 90% of its client base represents multi-year clients and/or repeat client executives. Amendola’s seasoned team of PR and marketing pros understand the ongoing complexities of the healthcare ecosystem and provide strategic guidance and creative direction to drive positive ROI, boost reputation and increase market share. Making an impact since 2003, Amendola combines traditional and digital media to fuel meaningful and measurable growth. For more information about the industry’s “A-Team,” visit www.acmarketingpr.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Vim
Founded in 2015, Vim connects data to workflow at healthcare’s “last mile”: within clinical operations at the point of patient care. Health plans, patients, and medical providers of every size – from independent practitioners to integrated delivery systems – use Vim software to connect data and care across the health system. Vim’s mission is to power affordable, high quality health care through seamless connectivity. For more information, please visit getvim.com.
Media Contact: Marcia Rhodes, Amendola Communications, mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com
by Jodi Amendola | Apr 28, 2021 | Blog
As many readers of the Amendola blog are probably aware, I lost my mother, who was my inspiration and guiding light, to COVID-19 the night before Thanksgiving last year. It was difficult for my family as well as me, especially because I believe it was unnecessary.
She should have been there to celebrate the holidays with us and would have been in my opinion had it not been for some missteps in her care.
As part of my process of dealing with this unexpected loss, I wrote a story about her that appeared in the Arizona Republic. If you’d like to know more about the details, along with my thoughts about what you should do to advocate for your loved ones should they be in the same unfortunate circumstances, it’s all contained in that article.
It’s what happened next, however, that I want to address today.
Shortly after that article appeared (and was re-posted on Facebook), I began to receive the most touching and beautiful comments, messages, and emails. And I’m still receiving them.
Some were from friends, of course, expressing their sympathy for my loss. Many, however, were from strangers who had gone through a similar experience and found a sense of kinship in sharing their grief as I had shared mine.
It was a stark reminder of a basic principle we, as marketing and PR professionals, should keep in mind: PR in general, and thought leadership in particular, works better when you make it personal. A topic, incidentally, I also explored in my latest Forbes Agency Council article.
The most effective thought leadership comes when the person behind it is passionate about the subject matter. Yes, you can write in a detached away about something technical, conveying information and/or data that is worth sharing. But while it informs, it usually doesn’t move people to action.
For that you need a human element. And nothing is more human than sharing something personal.
It can be a story from your childhood, your teen years, or your time as an adult. It can be about something funny that happened to you, or something sad, or something that contains a mix of emotions you can’t even sort out yourself.
Or it can be about a person who means a lot to you. Like my mom did to me.
The important thing is that it is a little glimpse behind the façade we all tend to put up in our business encounters to cover our true selves. In other words, it’s real.
Organizations often talk about creating an emotional connection to their brand during branding meetings. But then they’ll do everything they can to hide anything that seems remotely raw or real.
To me, that approach makes no sense. Sure, you don’t want to air all of the organization’s dirty laundry in your marketing and PR efforts. But what’s wrong with showing your human side?
The point is a person or a company can be open and honest about their feelings and reactions to events without falling into the rabbit hole of controversy. The key is to focus on the parts that are universal to the human experience.
We all experience joy and caring. We all experience excitement and wonderment at one time or another. We all experience grief and loss.
That doesn’t mean we experience it in the same way. But we do share those experiences to some degree.
The more willing organizations are to take a stand and tell stories about themselves, their employees, their customers, and everyone else who is connected to them, the more “real” they will become in the minds of their key audiences. And the more successful they will be in creating a brand image that is unique and memorable.
I know it’s not always easy to tell these stories. We can all feel a little exposed when we offer these types of details about ourselves.
When I wrote about my mom it was like going through it all over again.
Yet as I see the reactions continue to come in I know I made connections with people I’ve never met, and probably never will properly meet. Isn’t that what marketing and PR are really all about?
by admin | Nov 30, 2017 | News
SCOTTSDALE, AZ Nov. 30, 2017 Amendola Communications, an award-winning healthcare marketing and public relations agency, heads into 2018 following a banner year of record-setting growth with new-client acquisition.
Amendola and its clients benefited from the accelerating market for healthcare technology in the U.S. and globally. The worldwide market for preventive healthcare technologies and services, alone just one of several medical technology market segments is expected to reach $432 billion by 2024, up from $139 billion in 2013, according to a recent report from Grand View Research.
Amid the expanding market, Amendola added over 20 new companies to its client roster in 2017, a record number in its 14-year history.
“This is a time of incredible growth for the industry and for Amendola Communications,” said CEO Jodi Amendola. “It’s a credit to our team of strategic doers and their ability to consistently deliver impressive, meaningful impact for our clients.”
Notable new clients in 2017 included:
- GetWellNetwork – the industry’s only true provider of cross-continuum patient engagement solutions
- GlobalMed – the world’s most-used telemedicine provider with over 15 million consults in 55 countries.
- HealthBI – providing the tools that enable healthcare payers and providers to reduce admissions and readmissions, automate care transition and improved value-based care performance and HEDIS outcomes
- Lumeris – a provider of strategic counsel and technology to health systems, hospitals and insurers
- Medicomp – a physician-driven provider of contextual patient data solutions.
- Meridian – a leading provider of revenue cycle, business intelligence, EMR and system integration services for large, multi-specialty physician groups and academic practice plans.
Amendola responded to the growth by adding five accomplished and enthusiastic team members including experienced journalists and marketing professionals. The new additions build on the agency’s proven ability to deliver strategic messaging, branding, content marketing, overall marketing and public relations that drive client success.
Clients Earn Billions of Media Impressions
During 2017, Amendola’s proactive media relations earned its clients featured placements in major national news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNBC, and Forbes. Amendola clients also received significant and ongoing favorable coverage within every influential healthcare trade publication, including Modern Healthcare, Healthcare IT News, Fierce Healthcare, HealthLeaders, H&HN, MedCity News, Becker’s Hospital Review, HFM, Health Data Management, and Physicians Practice.
Recognition for Outstanding Client Work
Amendola continued to garner recognition in 2017 as one of the best small marketing and PR agencies in the country. In its most recent win, the agency received Honorable Mention in PRNews Platinum Awards for its content marketing work for Health Catalyst. Other honorable mentions in the category included Coca-Cola, Liquid Plumr and Johnson & Johnson. The distinction is one of numerous awards that Amendola has earned in recent years from Bulldog Reporter, PRSourceCode and others for its ability to design and execute successful PR and marketing campaigns, and develop high-value content for healthcare technology companies.
Media Contact |Marcia Rhodes | mrhodes@acmarketingpr.com | 602-793-1561
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 Jodi Amendola | Aug 3, 2016 | Blog
Cloud technology gets a lot of deserving recognition for equipping organizations with a modern IT infrastructure at a fraction of the time and upfront cost it would require to build one in-house. In an interesting paradox, the value of hiring a public relations agency is less perceived, even though the benefits are much the same professional expertise and tools (and not to mention, valuable media relationships) all at the ready, priced at a pay-only-for-what-you-use basis. Yet PR agencies are often asked, “Why should I hire you instead of adding a full time employee?”
As it happens, there’s a quantifiable difference. While there’s no doubt that a full-time, senior-level or even junior employee can bring value to an organization, there’s a decided limit in experience, media relationships and hours in the week. By contrast, a public relations agency like Amendola typically assigns a team of five people to each client account. On average, each team member has 15+ years of experience in one or more niches such as account management, strategic counsel, crisis communications, social media, media relations, content development and more all of which won’t necessarily cost more than bringing on a single full-time employee. In addition, when employees call in sick or go on vacation, you may be caught short. Not so with an agency team behind you, where PR activities are constantly covered.
Hiring the PR agency brain trust
One of the most compelling reasons to hire an agency like Amendola is that our employees come from a variety of backgrounds, giving our clients access to broad expertise. Some of us hail from agencies, while others are former TV, newspaper and radio reporters. Others come from the client side, including provider and payer organizations, healthcare IT companies and industry trade associations. What this means for Amendola’s clients is that instead of having one person with some degree of knowledge in multiple areas, they can put multiple experts to work in many different areas.
For example, a client that’s been focused on the provider side may at some point want to enter the pharmaceutical space. That’s no problem at Amendola, where we can quickly add strategists or writers, social media or media relations experts–deeply versed in life sciences to the existing client team. We even have market intelligence researchers who can uncover valuable information about newly targeted spaces. When it comes to gaining insight and a foothold on new markets, the power of an experienced PR agency works faster than just one or two insulated employees.
Strategy driven by business goals instead of personal comfort levels
Speaking of the in-house bubble, very often whoever drives public relations and marketing in these departments makes decisions based on their own expertise, comfort and convenience. This isn’t a criticism so much as the natural propensity of humans to do what they do best even if it’s not necessarily best for the company’s business objectives. And so, these professionals end up spending all of their time/energy/budget on their favorite or most familiar strategies, and neglect other often important areas.
At Amendola, we offer expertise in all areas of marketing communications, branding, PR and content, which no single person can possibly provide. This enables us to determine and deploy strategies that are most likely to meet our client’s business goals. If that includes social media, we’ll assign a social media expert to the account. If brand awareness, we’ll bring in a well-connected media relations. We will customize our services to meet your business objectives.
The rewards of resource sharing
You might be skeptical that all this access to public relations expertise really can be had without investing in a sizable in-house department. But as a PR agency that works with many different clients, Amendola is able to spread the business costs across this extensive client portfolio another commonality with cloud services vendors that spread the cost of infrastructure across multiple accounts, sparing any single customer from having to shoulder the entire cost. While we offer a full range of services, including some that are a la carte, the majority of our clients have monthly retainer agreements in place that are comparable to the monthly payroll of a single employee, minus the costs of training and other in-house employment expenses, such as health insurance.
Again, these clients benefit from the experience already gained by our work for others; very rarely do we encounter a completely unfamiliar topic in the realm of healthcare or healthcare IT. And when we learn something new, all of our clients benefit sooner or later. That’s the power of “public relations-as-a-service” it brings top-tier public relations services to all.
