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Seth Godin has been described by many as one of the ultimate entrepreneurs for our Age.
Anyone who chomps through business books is bound to have read at least the first half of either Permission Marketing, Tribes, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow. He is healthily intolerant of widgets, NPD, and patents, and lends a good deal of confidence to marketeers striving to achieve the ‘remarkable’.
Technology is one thing, but the value in it is the application. In light of this and to the 1250 people who read our blog every month here’s your chance to contribute and help us.
We have a competition going on in here. Come up with a great idea that we can put on the ipad and commercialise within the healthcare sector and win the sodding thing. We thought we’d extend it to everyone. So it’s simple. Send us in your ideas; however straight forward and the best idea submitted wins the ipad. The best way to start is probably to answer the question “what if you/ we could…” It needs to be relevant to what we do, supporting and communicating healthcare and medicines to people, but that’s as tight as the brief gets. We’ll do the judging, we’ll decide who wins, and the judge’s decision is final. Normal competition rules apply; see here for the legal stuff, names of winners published on request etc. Competition closes on the 18th July so get those grey cells working.
To enter leave a comment here, or send your thoughts to beapart@hivehealth.com.
Competition rules available from http://hivehealth.com/privacy/
The life of our work tends to be pretty short. The world consumes concepts at a startling pace. Although often a visual medium for me it’s a stretch to compare what we do with the art world where images and messages live for decades and even hundreds of years. In this sense then the ad could be considered to be disposable, there to change behaviour and move on. Tomorrow’s chip wrapping? It’s certainly the case that campaigns seem to be changed more and more, whether that be to meet and deliver against a new insight, or because a change of team requires the ‘done by me stamp’ that we see every few years. I always thought that as ideas migrated up past the A4 / 30 second constraints of ad space that we would drive towards more tactical ads, that felt coherent – but that hasn’t really happened yet.
With this in mind I was fascinated to come across people who consider ads not necessarily art, but culturally worthwhile. We build pieces of communication in such as way often we forget their wider importance once they are out of the door, the process of development being often so painful, denial and memory loss are part of the coping mechanism. (If I was braver and not a man, I would draw a lengthier connection between ad conception and childbirth and the rush of endorphins erasing pain memory and await the Comments with equal amounts of guts and fear).
The study of advertising as part of culture is established. A Google minute provides loads of thesis’s exploring the relationships between cultural dimensions and characteristics of advertisements. Dozens of theoretical frameworks have been developed covering identity, individualism-collectivism, femininity-masculinity, industrialization and even parental responsibilities. All getting (for me) more interesting when put to practical use explaining technique, characterization, appearances and portrayals of people. Loads of these research tomes feature statistical analysis that make the creative product look positively scientific rather than a result of its context.
With this geeky bubbling I have been enjoying visiting the Ghostsigns project, a collaborative national effort to capture, collate, discuss and archive all remaining examples of hand painted wall advertising across the UK. Ghostsigns are the typically faded remains of advertising that was once painted by hand onto the brickwork of buildings. If you live in London or New York I am pretty sure you walk by a few every day.
This made me wondered whether in 50 years people will be collecting up digital communications as part of a similar project. Then the US Library of Congress announced that it will be acquiring the entire archive of Twitter messages back through March 2006. In the same way that diaries and private journals started to be considered legitimate cultural data sources in the later part of the last century it seems that this is considered an “unprecedented opportunity for discovering patterns of social interaction” This is big!
*With apologies to Bob Dylan. I saw Bob at Hop Farm Festival last weekend. He was not very good but the title is still a big one to steal.
Buzzing.
That’s how I felt after 2 hours hearing from the gurus of Facebook and Google. They have changed our world and they will continue to do so. Search and social media. Without them brands and their web-presence are increasingly irrelevant.
Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
The power of this mission is extraordinary. The passion of those that work there is contagious. There are 400 million active users. Returning regularly. Sharing their favourite things with those they know. Did you know that your propensity to click on an article or join a group if you know that one of your friends has, is multiplied around 80 times? The joy of “Your friend likes this”. And it’s free! Community networks and social media are more enormous and more powerful than any media that has gone before. Social media can turn a marketing monologue into a consumer dialogue. It can give a brand talkability, shareability. Ignore it and miss out.
Google = Search.
A concept that the global population is very used to. But, the future of search is making the past look antiquated. It’s mobile and almost human in nature reflecting voice, eyes, skin and location by using speaker, camera, touch-screen and GPS to replace the Google search bar.
“Not being top of search in Google is like the modern day equivalent of being out of stock.” This comment came from one of the most senior marketers at one of the top pharmaceutical companies. And it really stuck in my mind. How often has search been the last thing on the list?
So what can we learn from all this? A lot. Search and Social Media – If no one can find your brand and no one likes your brand, your brand has a problem. But on the plus side, the opportunities these create are endless. Thank you Google and Facebook for changing the world and making it a better and more connected place.
How our industry is seen is a present annoyance for me. I was forced by to go to a recent boys charity do and with a load of bankers – I was turned on with multiple questions on the solid nature of what I do. Apparently ‘Media’ (said with a lightness of voice – try Frank Spencer/crossed with Dale Winton) as a sector is just nonsense. Not real work. Staggering my fellow charity goers all are in derivatives traders – pot – kettle – noir I said – infuriating them further.
I can understand this portrayal of what we do as airy-fairy-nonsense. Last night I tried to explain branding to our old IT guy Tony, who errs on the side of functional to say the least. He just wasn’t convinced. Despite wearing Nike, carrying blackberry, and swearing by Persil, outside The Blue Posts it became apparent that I was never going to convince him on any decision making other that rational. It was the source of some frustration and much cider. But then he loves Carling because its tastes better than any other lager. (A belief I am still staggered by)
Returning to the bankers, it’s possible the view of the man in the (city) street is of the Gucci loafer wearing, Hoxton types, designing for an hour a day in-between their table fussball games that they really object to. I think also it’s the thought of a group of individuals earning ”footballer wages” (sic), miles always from any market forces that further angered these guys. These guys just didn’t get what it’s all for. Yet when you speak to them about ads – these seem to be a result of some higher power – that clearly has never been near to a fussball tournament or infantile hand shake.
We need to dissect the elements of creativity, how a piece works, which elements are working which need work. Assessing ideas requires words borrowed from an emotive/artistic dictionary. Which is why a collection of (daft) terms surrounds us and why often this collection of terms makes very little sense to the un-initiated. We are immersed in tone, value, emotion, function, all elements of an idea that does something to its viewers. Perhaps this is “not the sort of thing anyone believes for a nanosecond in the real world”. but it’s a reality of our life we need the words to do the job. I have a feeling that these are totally important to us, it’s their public outings that tend to persuade non – industry bods that what we do is just nonsense. Looking around the 5,000 member Facebook group – “Don’t tell my mum I’m in advertising – she thinks I play piano in a brothel” perhaps sums it up. A good indication of the shame those in our industry feel. Perhaps? Perhaps not?
Why we shy away from just telling it like it is I don’t really know. Basically all that stuff we talk is for one real aim – to better connect in some way with an audience. The creation of an idea is about savings, it’s budgetary. Really it is. Whether you are a planner, creative or suit, the business is about efficiency. We just seem reticent to tell others that by doing it this way we connect cheaper. We find ways of developing relationships with audiences and brands that would otherwise cost more. Agree or disagree, I am not sure why the industry continues to be scared of this – hire us we will save you money seems a blinding recessionary position.
Simple as that.
Ps. No rhyming slang has been used in this blog.
A big event at Ian’s hit the agency hard this weekend as we all descended to the green and pleasant land of Wyck in Hampshire for a Saturday night party.
We were greeted by stunning summers evening, a marque, Harry the flare barman, a sloping dance floor of death and Fabric DJ, and our ace designer Krystal selling her soul with some mean 80’s classics.
The 1980’s themed event resulted in some appalling costume efforts, none more so that Ian’s highlighted hair, pink tee-shirt and linen suit combo. Coupled with eye liner, and a foundation clad face it couldn’t have been more upsetting.
As we danced the night away drinking Cosmo’s and Smurfs (blue Curacao, Vodka, Sloe gin, and Prosecco) it dawned on me that this would make a pretty good blog. All of us enjoying the evening, with different interpretations of an era - beapart in reality.
It has also spurred me on to sort out a Flickr widget (see below right) – so you can share and view the agencies photos and especially party evenings like this one with us.
I hope you find the pictures suitable upsetting.
The latest instalment of Hive Poly’s (motto - Velle est posse) strategy training sessions discussed leadership, project management and the joys of singing songs. All via a case study covering Ernest Shackleton and his 1915 ill-fated Antarctic expedition
We reviewed all aspects of the trip, planning, disaster management and eventual rescue. It’s a great way to review the elements of leadership, how plans must remain flexible, and team culture, alongside a solid direction really helps when you get yourself trapped in ice. Shackleton proved a great example of entrepreneurship, self-promotion and of obsessive dedication.
I found the ad Shackleton use in the The Times to recruit for this expedition – showing also the value of a sense of humour when asking people to take part in difficult adventures. I love the honesty of ’safe return doubtful’.
The role of the idea has been well and truly present this week. We have been developing ideas for areas as broad as pain, melanoma and hepatitis.
Despite what you may have been told – idea generation is far from a formal thing – miles from a black box of inspiration, realization or genius. It’s just bloody hard work and very scary. It’s late nights and nervous presentations; checking sanity alongside evolution, scrapping the dull, the inflexible, smoothing the rough and moulding the soft. Its a craft.
At its best it’s all of us hands dirty, at its worse its one of us, sheets of A3 and buckets loads of Coke, weeping into our pencil cases.
Client requirements, agency briefing, wrangling positioning, all have their place in this process, but mostly it’s down to intolerant alliance, a few of us bouncing brains and nurturing waffle.
This drive to idea tends to stop by a few service stations;
Please wait will we connect you…
Our requirement for the idea to connect with its audience is challenging. Subjectivity, culture, and just plain personalities always get in the way. “I know it when you see it”, is a pretty standard approach. But connection tends to be a different thing, healthy doses of empathy and often audience hugging are needed.Seeking connection reminds me of a stand up gig the other day. A female comedian expressing naïve mystery about her husband’s excessive use of Original Source Mint & Tea Tree shampoo. Leaving half the audience completely mystified and the other half aching with connection. Genius. A true connection, no where near big enough for one of our tasks – but a pretty good demonstration?
We seek whoppers
Once we have stumbled across a wrapper for a brand, its task and audience understanding it all gets a little bit more practical. How can it work in a sales conversation, ad land, could it stretch enough to be experiential, what about a direct mail campaign. A huge expectation from something we often struggle to define. We know it’s wrong when it fails to live in these channels but are often not sure how right it needs to be – or what amount of forcing the idea is allowed before its bin fodder.
Nice and tight
Despite needing to stretch and connect the damn thing also needs to be compact enough to be a saleable, rather than a sprawl of desperation to meet the previous two. This is thesaurus land for many, finding encompassing words to reduce down the flabbiness, and its often this stage that benefits from the creative team honing it as part of the creative process. Encapsulation in visual concept can at times save our bacon.
Finally when something presents itself, and checks the above criteria you allow yourself a moment to exhale. In the meantime the next mountain appears on the horizon; how to make this big thing live in the here and now. Its ridiculous – like having a baby, marvelling for 2 seconds and expecting it to start fitting the kitchen – the little fella keeps swallowing all the Allen keys.
It’s a far from linear journey and this week has seen us arrive at a place that we should have started from more than once.
I am sure there are a few more idea assessments and I am going to endeavor to give this a little more time, and perhaps stop distracting myself from my wodge of A3 paper and scribbles I have in front of me.
Along time ago, when we first started, (well 2 years ago then) we wrote a blog post on the meaning response. An Anthropological concept we were introduced to by one of our very smart planners. Its often, and wrongly as the piece explains, called the placebo effect. Anyway, Eric Mead, a magician, is also fascinated. The difference between us is that he takes it to slightly different lengths. If anyone knows how the end of the lecture works, i’d love to know.
In an increasingly rich information environment, the format in which information is presented is becoming more and more important. Beauty = Cut Through. But will content be ignored as irrelevant if it’s ugly? Will it be received prejudicially in a positive or negative manner because of how it’s packaged? Does content, in the traditional sense, now play second fiddle to its aesthetic framing? Answering yes to these questions poses some problems . . . The internet is worshipped as heralding the democratisation of knowledge, but is this really the case when money can buy you a slick, good-looking website and potentially a more engaged and susceptible/suggestible audience? As always, we’d love to know what you think.
But, on the upside, this emphasis on impact, interaction and beauty can lend itself to a more easily navigable and digestible information environment. For example, this. It’s a visual, interactive representation of the scientific evidence for popular health supplements. 5 minutes playing with this app reveals more about the evidence base (or lack thereof) for health supplements than 5 days on PubMed. And it looks nice too. I like it.
It had been ages since I have experienced a real buster moment; rolling healthcare, understanding and emotive awareness in one.
I saw this poster a little while ago at Maidenhead Station, took a photo to remind me to hunt around and I have finally got around to exploring more.
The associated film is a hard hitting view on Motor Neurone Disease, has been banned from TV despite being one of the best eye openers I have seen. It seem a terrible shame when the reality of a disease is shelved for the public good.
Alongside this film and poster the featured sufferer Sarah Ezekiel has a site showing life post diagnosis and provided me with a great example both of human spirit and inspiration.
Thomas Goetz is a journalist and executive editor of Wired Magazine. He’s also a really smart guy. His new book, called The Decision Tree, is all about how people can take control of their healthcare using data and tools which are readily available on the internet. It goes above and beyond most other health improvement books in terms of rigour (it’s based on good science) and readability (it’s easy for me to understand) The big idea is this: Our health doesn’t happen all at once; it’s a consequence of years of choices – some large and some small – that combine to make up our health. Sometimes we’ve chosen wisely and we enjoy good health; sometimes we choose poorly and we suffer the consequences. A decision tree, then is a device that can make these decisions more explicit and more obviously something we are actually choosing – it’s a way to externalise, make a note of, the choices that we otherwise make without much thought at all. Research shows that when we actually engage in a decision (when we think it through, even if just for a moment) we tend to make a better decision, defined both as one that we’re more happy with in hindsight and one that bodes a better outcome. Also, we more likely to commit to our choice, to stick by it when faced with the opportunity to change our minds. By engaging with our health consciously and explicitly as a series of decisions, one leading to another, we can become “smarter” and enjoy better health. Click on the two podcasts below – Highly recommended.
In marketing and management literature, the space in time when a customer and provider of a product meet is often called the service encounter. This encounter in the world of cars forced BMW to take servicing back into the fold. Desperate to get back an interaction that was far from Ultimate. And it contributed massively to Apple and Nike forming stores that were all encompassing controllable experiences.
With the service encounter increasingly front of mind for us, and in the past viewed as out of our remit, we seem to be spending a load of time understanding the many forms that interaction takes. The insight is being derived from mock-up consultations, anthropology style participant observation, even the more traditional scenarios and advisory boards.
With this geography now within the marketeers remit, it seems ever expanding. Interaction mapping within healthcare is loads more complicated especially in chronic disease treatments. Which prove a minefield of sub optimal interactions interrupting the brand experience.
It all proving interesting stuff. Expert/HCP marketing as an extension of consumer strategy – whatever next!
I plumbed new depths of ‘trusted partner’ yesterday. I grabbed a quick lunch with a client prior to having wash up and 2010 planning meeting on a big web project we have just launched. The poor chap had managed to chuck himself down a frozen hill badly fracturing a shoulder and near breaking a wrist. MRIs and many specialists later he finds himself trussed up and pretty incapable.
Lunch saw him in great pain, choosing a suitable starter (queen scallops), and then moving on to sausage and mash. No problems on the starter – ideal for the one armed. His main forced us to new levels of agency / client partnership when I had to cut up his food into bite sized pieces.
His brief to cut up into 3 pieces, was soon taken although those cut into 4 pieces proved much more elegant – a classic example of delivering beyond expectations.
It made me think of a section of a recent online procurement RFI that asked us “what additional non-billable services have we offered clients”. I shall upload this perfect example next time.
I have been contemplating a pitch Shep’ and I did last week that for a first-time-for-us covered ‘prosumption’ as part of an approach to develop digital understanding and better resources.
In is woolliest form prosumption is useful when we are developing materials for a sub group of consumers when you just can’t follow the traditional; write/art direct/code/build, test, review and rebuild approach. Whether than be for time or budget reasons.
Prosumption is the mixing of consumer and the producer to produce a new hybrid – the Prosumer. In what (another new word for me this week) I now know to be a portmanteau – a blend of two words and their meaning.
Reading around what I thought was a new internet thing. I find it’s almost as old as Ian, and much older than I am. In 1972, Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested that technology would drive the consumer to become a producer (‘democratisation of media’ - I hear Gemma (AD at AMV) shout). In the 1980 book, the term was coined by a futurologist named Alvin Toffler who predicted this coming together.
The approach results in individuals working together blurring the barriers, between need for something and capability to provide it.
The conclusion of much of this work is that once mass market saturation and standardisation have brought us all happi(ish)ness, the market evolves to initiate a process of mass customization. Giving consumers exactly what’s wanted with the assumption that this delivers a risk free relationship and a guaranteed happy customer.
Pretty interesting? It does make you think that once we all have perfectly tailored good, where will we go next? Ultimate rebellion should see us go full circle and start buying goods at George at ASDA perhaps?
Anyway fairly standardised fingers are crossed here. We hear Wednesday this week.
PS. I am really trying to avoid puns in headlines. Really sorry.
Just finished reading Rob Walkers book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are that delves into the attitudes of the global consumer in the age of plenty, and, didn’t making us look at all good.
This amphetamine paced tour of senseless consumption spans Viking cookers to custom high-tops. And along the way walk I been introduced to a diverse cast of characters like Red bull entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz, and an assortment of white guys without any discernable urban credibility who’ve managed to build clothing empires around hip-hop and street culture, and even viral marketers who pretend to be customers, proselytizing to others about the merits of products (and apparently not always disclosing their affiliations).
By presenting both uber-consumers and the professionals who deal with trying to sell us the stuff to fill our endless appetites, or the holes in our souls, Walker indirectly addresses what he coins the “pretty good” problem: What distinguishes a product when assembly lines or underpaid third-world workers can make even the cheapest products “pretty good?” Since quality really isn’t much of a criterion any more, there must be other signifiers, and that’s where our subconscious steps in.
Walker’s key point echoes many in the intangible brand benefit camp often written about in the planning world. Most of us have been inundated with advertising for our whole lives, so on some level we know that we’re being sold … which is why some hipster crowds gathered around PBR (a cheap red neck beer – cheers Google) precisely because they weren’t being given the hard sell. So if somebody cracks open a can now, knowing that the trend is played out, what does that act of consumer disobedience say about them? Now that PBR is so “yesterday,” shouldn’t that make it cool again? If a hipster cracks open a can in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, are they still being cool?” It all gets pretty meta.
And that’s Walkers thesis. He coins his own portmanteau for the way that advertisers can take advantage of that and calls it “murketing.” Murketing, then is that nexus between murkiness and marketing where buyers can project their own desires or aspirations on to the products that they buy. In examining the psychological motivations that drive this rampant consumerism, Walker references some of the best psychologists and researchers on the subject, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who’s Flow should be required reading for anyone with an interest in being happy and who’s The Meaning of Things happens to be a little more topical.
The conclusion is that objects are only as totemic as we let them be. Walker even begins to hint at what might be a really interesting corollary, but it is left largely unexplored. For us, as product and communications guys, if we’re pondering the future, one must wonder what sort of value we can add to society.
In a potential post-consumer future, where we’ve harnessed algae to transform sunlight into electricity and where every home has a rapid prototype machine that uses organic compounds, how will we define wealth? Suddenly when everyone has access to flawless and pristine stuff, it’s that scuffed up and worn armchair that has real value. Because even though I may love my sleek modernist furniture in ways that might not quite be healthy, if my house was burning down I’d rescue the painting I found in a junk shop.
Ian handed me a fascinating article on ‘Should patients be paid for taking their medication?’. (He also said it was high time I wrote a blog. )The story described a trial where patients with mental illness were paid £15 for each fortnightly visit to their clinic where they were administered their depot.
My immediate answer was to say, of course they bloody shouldn’t be paid! Treatments are prescribed to make people feel better and help them function in the world, surely that is incentive enough?
Hold on, I thought – it’s plainly not enough. Poor compliance is a fact of mental healthcare. It’s easy to speculate on why these patients would avoid their medication. We need to ask about the conversations they are having with their HCPs. Are professionals helping patients reach an informed decision about treatments?
Well, at least one survey says not really. Here, 59% of patients taking an antipsychotic reported that other treatment options had not been discussed. Almost two thirds said that they hadn’t been given written information prior to starting their medication. And 46% said hey hadn’t been warned about its potential side effects.
The NHS and HCPs need to look at the way they are engaging with patients. How many have read the NICE guidance on patient adherence and choice, published in January? And how is the NHS supporting them in implementing change?
Of course, it’s not easy for anyone. The befuddling thing about informed choice is that patients can refuse medication, and the professional’s obligation is to respect this decision. But what if the individual is antisocial, or a danger to self or others? Why are we paying these guys, really – what are the savings down the line? To make a judgment on this pilot, we need to know more about these patients other than that they are poor compliers.
If the scheme sees the light, bitter laughter will accompany jokes about kids being paid to go to school and likewise to adults for behaving on a night out. No-one’s going to like the idea of a pay-for-peace society. Whatever happens, let’s hope these patients get something positive out of it.
On Wednesday, Kieran and I went to see the BP ‘Classified’ exhibition at the Tate Britain. Two things stood out for me and really got me thinking.
The first was an oil painting by Gillian Carnegie. Using only black paint she’s created an amazing picture of trees, which seems to have more texture and atmosphere than a coloured painting would have had.
But what made her decide to do it in just black?
The second was a collection of sculptures by Jake and Dinos Chapman. At first glance they look like traditional aborigine sculptures, but when you look closer there are numerous references to McDonalds. It’s a comment on our lack of understanding and appreciation of the culture that this type of art originates from, and also on our own culture, and the predominance of huge commercial organisations such as Maccy D’s.
Again, it’s such a clever idea, but what made them think of it?
At Hive, our business is built on doing things differently, thinking in a different way. But it’s all too easy to get stuck thinking ‘differently’ – and then different becomes the same. The challenge is to keep finding the inspiration to think outside an ever-changing box.
We just won a pitch. A product we have been chasing for months. Hive day one started with a call to this marketing manager then I made up 2 office chairs to sit on. Seriously, its been this long.
It’s a biggie, a parent proof product. “Oh I’ve heard of that” replacing “What’s Commerce Anxiety Disorder”. My mum even wanted to star in the behavioural change application mock-up. She got her dream. She had to be 67 and meek and mild – which caused a few issues as she has been 47 for as long as I can remember.
Today we visited a big glass building with fountains and manicured gardens, went to discuss examples of our work that correlated to their problem. “Makes sense but where has it worked before” – A cry we can now answer with examples and metrics. Team back at the office nervously waiting. Hoping we closed the deal. Jackets on and shoes all shiny. We got it. This afternoon I made up our 15th and 16th chair.
Our new clients mentioned the passion (probably more nerves and need than anything) and about how different our offer is. It got me thinking and wandering around the web on my return in post win daze and stumbled back across a blog I haven’t been to for ages http://headrush.typepad.com/. The blog champions passion in business. The blog that I crashed into covered the difference between what we now consider “old-school marketing” (otherwise known as The Four P’s — product, price, promotion, and placement — heavy on advertising and “branding”) and the “neo-marketing” which we consider our end of town.
Here are a few ideas on some of the differences all a light read on a Monday am.
Every now and then we head out to see an individual talk about some mildly relevant subject. Last night – saw us be invited to Super Contemporary and a few hours with Wayne Hemingway – talking to 50 of us about design, inspiration, and life.
The Design Museum has joined forces with Beefeater 24, to bring a series of talks and gin to celebrate the fearlessly progressive spirit of London’s greatest creative minds, past and present. We were lucky enough to be invited along. Read more about Wayne here.
Wayne was pretty insistent that us in the creative world;
At no time did regulatory, PI, sales aids or brand planning feature. But the 2 hours was so valuable and a real delight. How can this be beaten? Well – the next one sees us with Paul Smith. We have a couple of tickets spare – shout if you want to come along – beapart@hivehealth.com.
Our ever loving ears hearken once more to the digital pitter patter of patient empowerment. UCB Pharma have partnered with patientslikeme.com to bring an Epilepsy community to the site.
Patientslikeme.com is a privately owned initiative that encourages patients to post details about themselves. This real world, outcome-based data is shared with individuals and organisations who work to improve health outcomes, including pharmaceutical companies, research organizations, and non-profits.
30% of epilepsy patients are refractory to treatment, so this move is good news for patients, HCPs and even competing Pharma. Over 37,000 patients are already registered on the site as well as 3,000 caregivers. Any epilepsy community should include the voice of caregivers, as a significant proportion of epilepsy sufferers are elderly or have learning disabilities.
Patientslikeme.com doesn’t just collect data from patients, it provides quality information and allows them to blog and communicate with peers. It’s a site that really does seem to have patients’ interest at heart. That’s why we like it – and so congratulate UCB for being a part.
Something both exciting and unique happened to me in 1991…….
I bought my first 12 inc record album. The band was called The Prodigy and the album was called Experience and I had managed to purchase a limited edition white sleeve special. The slick minimalist style of the cover contrasted vastly with the atmospheric colouring and transient use of typography within the inner sleeve. The music was an array of cutting edge sounds and lyrics mixed with mesmerising beats and a unique series of piano keys. Fast forward 18 years and the band are once again proving that they see design as an essential ingredient in expressing their music.
The use of animated graphics in the new video for Warriors Dance is truly magical and inspiring….
Having hit the brand planning season, with flipcharts and by post-it notes a weekly occurrence I met with a strategist mate who suggested with much mirth that informed dictatorship is by far and away the best way of coming up with battle plans.
He is a military strategist, quotes Von Clausewitz a lot, and never had to work in primary care – so I am sure he doesn’t know what tough is!
These conversations always get me thinking, our terminology is military, our challenges (resources, prioritisation, superiority) pretty similar, perhaps we have something in common. In his world having non-strategists risk being the rate limiting step to your campaign success is a fear well founded. The use of strategic development time to drive interdepartmental buy-in made him visibly nervous, and prompted him to suggest we should settle on a good old game of Rock, Paper, Scissors when approaching “strategy by consensus”.
His tips were as follows;
1. Play paper first. Rookies tend to lead with rock, so paper is the safest opener. (A savvy opponent will try the same, causing a tie.) If you win, claim victory; if not, start the next throw right away, because of course it’s two out of three.
2. Exploit copycats. Casual players often switch to the object that just beat them. You can encourage them to do this by shouting, “Paper wins!” when you defeat their rock. Then throw scissors on the next round.
3. Watch for doubles. People rarely throw the same hand three times in a row; if they play scissors twice, your next move is paper. Also, keep up the pace so they have less time to think and instead fall into patterns.
So that’s all solved then!
I am not a loser. But I love learning stuff. I really delight in finding something that inspires me to alter the way I think or my understanding of things I do everyday.
The world of online seminars, webcasts, blogs and all the other stuff can often be a source of loads of junk, often presented by some shiny suited loon, ready to strong-grip-clammy-shake my virtual hand.
It’s not all this way – I love TED, not in a coming out way, but the global community, many million strong which is focused on exchanging and spreading ideas. Whoever you are, wherever you live, you can join the TED community. I would reccomend you do.
TEDs latest gem – has come from Sir Ken Robinson speaking on Do schools kill creativity? Sir Ken argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies – far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity – are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says.
In our business – we need creativity, whether that be conceptual, strategic or just a better way of organising the desks. I really like an approach that encourages anyone to give it a go and be prepared to get it wrong and considers this an integral part of any creative process.
It’s not often within our blog that we end with an offer of something. We have tended to use the blog as a way of shouting, chatting, ranting, or whispering a view held by someone within. But…
…we are coming to the end of a sizable project for the NHS to help understand and develop communications strategy, and having spent a month wandering the countryside running group sessions with practice managers, GPs, cluster heads, management and directors.
Getting close up and personal has been nothing but a learning experience. Not only in terms of the levels of influence geography, personality and demography have on strategy and implementation, but also in terms of the consistent views that these groups have on the pharma world. We have been using pharma activity as a baseline comparison for communications approach and tactical execution. But also constantly drawing comparisons with the challenges that pharma have faced and solved and the challenges that exist for the NHS. Centrally dictated strategy, regional focus, localised resistance, the role of local representatives, consistency of tone, internal buy in, and the sliding scale between command and latitude all are massive issues for everyone. The industry has consistently been reported by the groups as good communicators, great at training, and generally good to have around. With the ever present caveat as always trying to sell something.
As an agency we are increasingly invited to join in meetings with NHS liaison departments, working alongside them in a consultancy role to help build strategic partnership and hunt down joint working projects. In contrast to the ground troops, the NHS directors we speak to are all uncertain about the risks of engaging with pharma. Mistrust and uncertainty being justified with tales of burnt fingers during various ‘nurse audits’ and other provided services where they have felt at least “tainted” or at most “turned over”.
I cannot help but feel on the tale end of this project that a good place to start would be to offer an olive branch, in areas that are often alien; internal communications, remote command and control, inspiration and engagement. All what we consider bread and butter to the pharma world. The lessons we learn rolling out a campaign across 20 markets in Europe for Alli recently are directly relevant to a regional role out of World Class Commissioning.
The very present need for short term ROI doesn’t help this, you need to be in a relationship to benefit with it, and at some point a risk has to be taken by one of the parties. To put their faith in the medium/longer term potential of developing this relationship.
I feel that our current world with reps being the main NHS interface is not far from being extinct, and those companies that make a first move will be best placed in the brave new world. I would love to speak further to anyone who would listen on this – we have an idea that might help with this first step.
Last Friday saw me showing my mum and girlfriend around my nearly completed extension. Excitement and stupidity led me to fall (off what will be the retaining wall,) landing and cracking my ankle. Result – me, prostrate on the concrete floor and what has become a huge blue foot/ankle/leg, a pimp style limp and walking stick that has cheered my colleagues up no end.
Having left it a number of days, I finally hobbled down to St Charles Hospital’s Minor Injuries Unit for a check up and X-ray expecting the usual secondary care inner London cliché. What greeted me was an organisation that sang with efficiency and care. Each person I hobbled passed asked, ‘did I need a hand?’, and ‘whether I knew where I was going?’ Furthermore, each initiated interaction contributed hugely to my view of the NHS as a service. I couldn’t help but ask the source of this feeling. The receptionist, porter, doctor, and nurse all were consistent in their answers. They put the amazing vibe of the hospital down to it feeling autonomous, working within a clear process whilst having the freedom to use their initiative, team and individual visibility, defined roles, and putting the patient right at the centre. I raised this last night at a meeting with a strategy head of a large PCT, and he aired the view that Polyclinics are aiming for exactly this – smaller, autonomous, organisations, staffed with empowered carers all driving towards a better patient experience. I only hope this can be realised.
I recently attended a webinar on the barriers faced by organisations and communications teams to internal engagement and was really interested in the differences and similarities between internal communications and marketing.
In the internal comms world there exists a common frustration with the disciplines lack of ability to get serious attention and ongoing commitment, especially when compared with its revenue generating cousin. A situation that was not expected to improve with the impending financial crisis, and its subsequent pressure to decrease ‘non-essential’ spending.
What also struck me as interesting was that when we discussed communications some of what we take for granted in the marketing world is not adopted within internal comms. Marketing tend to build a foundation for any activities on understanding our audience, their perspective, what they believe. All of which can be much easier when we are removed by the mere fact that we are ‘not one of them’. It seemed to me that viewing the internal audience as ‘one of us’ can tend to skew the approach one takes when communicating with them. This was discussed in depth by the attendees, with the majority considering this to be a challenge that the discipline needs to grapple with.
Despite this, so much is shared between the disciplines. The idea that communication professionals are integral to achieving the organisations goals is certainly common, as is the constant efforts to convert too-often tactical activities into strategic activities and is the need to get the balance right between leadership expectations and communicators’ ability to deliver.
It was a fascinating webinar, and really good to spend some time interacting with a brilliant, diverse group of internal comms bods, I for one was delighted to see audiences/beliefs being pushed to the forefront.
