Hive Health

It’s especially important for us agencies to get out there, not just to be passionate about communications,  science and stuff. But to be aware of the real world. For 3 days various members of the agency job swapped with our local NHS.  All of us upping sticks to get up close and personal with actual patients. After a few hours worth of training we dived deep into it.

Despite the relatively short period we have been exposed to some pretty diverse experiences. Day 1 saw Ian run an infusion clinic, patch up a old lady and bed bath a homeless man.  Day 2 got Luke to restrain a drunk man in the waiting room, and Jas got to drain a blister. Even Kate got the chance to get hands on with eppinifrin and quarterize a haemorrhoid.

It’s been Adam that has visibly gained the most. His work experience has demanded the most of all of us;  that of A&E Consultant. Although his role in the agency is very specific he has risen to this generalist requirement faster than expected. A clear display of talent that has led to him being asked back when staff are on sick leave.  From cardiac arrest to sprained ankle, from multiple trauma to a child with a wheezy chest, the variety of clinical problems he has had to learn about, and treat has been diverse. As you know the A&E department sees more new patients than any other clinical department. Half of these have been minor injury or illness requiring no further follow up or medical care, with the remainder needing admission to hospital. Adams stood in as one of three consultants, and each has had a responsibility to ensure that each patient receives an accurate assessment of their condition, proper initial treatment, and appropriate ongoing care.

The one element of the role that Adam’s taken to like a duck to water has been the demand for structure and organisation. Clear parallels exists with his role as Creative Director. If there is one attribute of successful A&E consultants then it is organisational ability, both of their department and of themselves. Most clinical days start with routine review processes. This may be of patients admitted the previous day to the observation ward, a review clinic, or going through case notes. Quality control and audit are daily routines, with x ray reports to review, blood results to check, and notes and electrocardiograms to review. The rest of the day may include seeing routine new patients, moving the large mountain of mail, and administrative tasks that are a part of any consultant’s workload. Meetings, teaching sessions, and continuing medical education all have to be fitted in.

A unique demand on A&E consultants is the need to be available at short notice to give help, especially in the resuscitation room. Very much like that last minute client amend that’s made the font bigger, and the pictures black and white. Sometimes you just have to get stuck and paddles at the ready and save a life.

Adams also added hugely to the process of Westminster Teaching Trust and Hospital, with the first few hours of him being in role, he brought in Janine,  to help smooth out and traffic the patient though and ensure that all doctors and nurses were not dilly dallying around. By the last day, Adam was even managing not to come back to A&E, after a longer lunch than normal at NHS favourite – Hix.

Beyond the usual collection of fish bones, broken wrists and light bulbs. Adam’s been the one that after the 20 hour shift has been really enthusiastic to return; I think for me  his words that really connect, so I shall end with these;

“It’s not unusual for me not to know what I am going to work on from one minute to next. I quite often have needed to get involved, without having time to look up how I should do it. With one emergency I had we had no choice but to get a ballpoint pen out and go for the throat. All of these experiences have been very transferable to the World of A&E.”

Google have always come up with great promotional ideas,from the Google Search Stories to the Google Chrome ads, and last year’s interactive Arcade Fire video.

But recently they may have outdone themselves. They’ve found a way of achieving every marketer’s dream  getting their consumers to make their advertising campaign for them, for free, and in a way that comes across as not only authentic but also pretty cool, and even appealing to any googlephobics (if such people exist) . It’s called Demo Slam.

Demo Slam is a place where boring tech demos become ‘gotta-show-my-friends awesome’, thanks to the creativity of Google users. You can watch the Slams and declare a Champ of the week. Then each week new featured slams will vie for your attention and a shot at demo glory.

The videos demonstrate how Google technology can be used to achieve both

great and silly things. In one example, a group of kids use Google Voice Search while their mouths are stuffed with marshmallows. Another shows teenagers creating a virtual parachute experience using a projector, bungee ropes and Google Earth. These videos take tech demos from mundane to mind-blowing, and encourage people who may never watch tech demos to watch and even share them with their friends. Making Demo Slam a truly ingenious form of viral advertising that is perfectly disguised as shared fun.

As much as I’d like to think I’m immune to even the most sophisticated marketing techniques, I can’t help but ask…is anyone up for making a Google Slam?

We thought hard about how to wish our clients and friends a happy Christmas this year. The following video was my genius idea and was created with love and warbling.

Please enjoy the Hive team’s rendition of a merry Christmas ditty. Our own Kate Kinsey and Helen Scott are playing their respective violin and cello and we hope you agree: they make us sound quite good actually!

It is of course a time for giving. For every hit on our website in the month of December, we will donate £1 to a Christmas charity fund. We hope to raise £1,500 (we get about 1200 hits per month on average) and will divide this between two excellent charities Crisis and Chance.

Please enjoy the video and help us get lots of clicks this Christmas. From all at Hive, a very Merry Christmas and a big thanks for your business in 2010.

Prior to starting my work experience with Hive I took a look at their website,( in the hope that it would give me a better idea of what I was letting myself in for!). The cartoon characters and other blogs instantly portrayed the sort of friendly and exciting company that I knew I wanted to be involved with. Before looking on the website I (like many others before me) probably wondered what the hell Healthcare communications was all about, but after a browse of the site, I soon got the overall idea about the great communications work they produce for pharmaceutical companies.

My first Friday morning was soon upon me and I donned an outfit that for most companies out there would be frowned upon (jeans and t’s) but I soon learnt that their enthusiastic approach to dressing down was something that definitely added to the play hard, work hard ethos of Hive.

I had been told that I would be briefed over breakfast at the Wolseley, and that breakfast would be on them, a real treat for anyone, but especially for a broke student like myself. Over breakfast myself and two of the account executives (Clare and Claire) were given our brief: that there are not enough graduates, science graduates in particular, aware of Healthcare communications and in particular Hive. Our aim was therefore to find a way to educate and drive awareness of the industry amongst science graduates as well as about the attractions of an account executives role (the entry level position.)  Over the breakfast meeting we chatted about how the 2 Cla(i)res – both Oxbridge graduates – had got into the industry ; as well as other just general welcoming conversations, our favourite pass times and in particular about Tim’s recent  trout fishing adventure with one of the other directors (Tip : your passion for fishing would be a great topic to bring up in an interview if you want to impress them both!) After finally figuring out how to use the tea strainer (very embarrassing !) we began to look like we ate breakfast here all the time and set about brainstorming a few ideas. The rest of my time at Hive continued in this manner, a lot of good fun, but even more hard work .The energy levels I found within Hive were awesome and I think this shows in the great end products that they produce.

Back in the office I immediately felt fully integrated with the team. For the whole time I was there I didn’t feel like a newbie, but instead someone they were intent on treating as an equal. Whilst on work experience I was never once asked to make a cup of tea, or to do any filling.

Later that day Tim ran through all the stages of the Hive business, firstly so I would get a greater understanding of what was going on but also so that at the end of my time with Hive I would be able to see if I had covered all bases.

Over the next few days in the office I spent my time researching and re-grouping with Clair and Clare. We shared our findings and any ideas we had, before speaking to the creative and copy write teams, who, following our brief, produced two amazing advertising posters for us. Once we were happy with these we set about compiling and then practicing our presentation and this was when the nerves began to set in. After spending  so much time working on this project I didn’t want to let the other girls down, or make a complete idiot of myself in front of the board of directors! Thankfully, they all seemed very pleased with our work and they are currently in talks about the budget that might be set aside for our project.

One of the great things about my work experience at Hive, other than the people( who definitely don’t live up to the typical stereotype placed on some Oxbridge graduates) was that I was able to work on a project from start to finish. I witnessed all the stages within the process, and to see the final result was great. I suspect that there are not many other places where a work experience student would be able to tick off all the departments and work stages at the end of their time with a company.

During my time at Hive I discussed with the team just how hard it was to get the right balance for a person on work experience, in that both the person and the company benefited from them being there. I don’t know how they feel, but I definitely think I got the better deal, but that just seems to be the thing about Hive. Unlike places I’ve heard about from friends, Hive are willing to go that extra mile to make you feel at home, to help you out, and most importantly to provide you with excellent work experience that not only inspires you but educates you as well. So if any of you reading this are even slightly interested in this industry and in particular Hive I would strongly advise you to get in touch with them as soon as possible and sort out some time with them to experience for yourself just what they get up to!