Health B2B Marketing

GE Healthcare's "Healthymagination" B2B marketing campaign helped their audience see the how health care IT could transform the health care system.

2010 was the year that health care IT hit the big time. It started in 2009 with the ARRA stimulus package that promised as much as $17 billion to providers who put electronic medical records to meaningful use. And those two words—”meaningful use“—were the hottest words in health IT. It seemed everyone had an angle on meaningful use. And they should have. But it’s the actions of two big players that really made 2010 a banner year for health B2B marketing.

IBM and GE, two of the biggest names in B2B, made a big play in health care IT. IBM folded healthcare messages into their Smarter Planet campaign, and GE hit their Healthymagination campaign hard in 2010, especially during the Winter Olympic games in Vancouver. The New York Times reported that GE would spend $80 million on Healthymagination in 2010. IBM didn’t disclose their budget, but it didn’t seem trifling.

While everyone else was talking about meaningful use, GE and IBM were inspiring their audiences with what health IT can do. So, what can health care B2B marketers learn from health care IT’s big year?

Go big. The iron’s hot, and it’s time to strike. Your prospects and customers have budgeted IT expenditures for EMR, HIE, and ICD-10 projects (and a few other acronyms that escape me). They’ll not only need the technology; they’ll also need wrap-around services to make it all work. Your competitors know this, and they’re going to be pushing largely the same messaging that you will. The challenge you have is to rise above the clutter. Healthymagination and Smarter Healthcare work so well because they’re big, inspiring ideas. What’s your big idea?

Be real. The problem with a big idea is that it too often has nothing behind it. You can spend a lot of money and strike just the right tone, but if there’s no reality behind the campaign, all you end up with are jaded prospects and unhappy customers. In my experience, the best campaigns are planned with key people from the executive team, marketing, product management, sales and finance. When all these stakeholders are involved and working towards the same objective, a big idea can become a big seller.

Photo credit: Roland Tanglao (cc)

Diet Coke's sponsorship of "The Heart Truth" campaign is ruffling a few feathers.

Lots of buzz in the health Twitter community about a blog post written last week by the New York Times writer Tara Parker Pope, asking whether Coke should talk about heart health. As of this writing, bit.ly records 98 tweets, 86 Facebook shares and 551 clicks to the story.

Parker-Pope’s post reports that the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) sent a letter to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute requesting that the organization end its relationship with Coca-Cola, whose Diet Coke brand sponsors the Heart Truth campaign. CSPI’s executive director, Michael Jacobson, actually compared Coca-Cola’s sponsorship to Big Tobacco sponsoring anti-smoking campaigns.

So, should Coca-Cola be sponsoring a campaign that promotes heart health?
Personally, I think the question is absurd. The “letter” (read: pitch) that prompted the question is a standard PR grab for organizations like CSPI that rely on fundraising. Mission accomplished, CSPI. Well done.

And a hearty “well done” to Coca-Cola. Since their campaign started, awareness that heart disease is the top cause of death among women has increased two-fold, according to the company. Is it great PR for Diet Coke? Of course it is. Is it good for their bottom line? Absolutely. And thank the stars and stripes that there’s nothing wrong with that.

Diet Coke’s not the enemy to health, and neither is The Coca-Cola Company. I agree that their products contribute to obesity, but my goodness, so do milkshakes and birthday cakes and steak and potatoes and eggs and everything else that’s high in carbs and/or fat. Kudos to Coke for using some of their vast resources to do some good. Why shouldn’t they bask in the glow?

But I’d like to see them do something else. It would be great if Coke had a few community relations people who took the time to respond to some of the 170 comments on the NYT post, to add a link to the NYT blog on their Heart Truth Facebook fan page, to have conversations with real people who don’t have agendas but who do have real concerns. They’re not going to convince their critics, but they will enhance their brand in the eyes of their fans. And, they may make a few more fans.