Tuesday 7/23/10 two members of our team, Dr. Kevin Freidman (Medical Director), Alex Price (Sr. Branding & PR Mgr) and I had the opportunity to participate on WCIU Chicago’s morning show, “You & Me in the Morning” with host Jeanne Sparrow. Dr. Kevin and myself were interviewed ‘on the couch’ about the merits of InteractiveMD and our telehealth program. Alex assisted our mock patient, who sat comfortably in the next room and consulted with the doctor via streaming secure video conference. We also demonstrated the use of an otoscope to examine the patient’s throat through the system, which is fully recorded.

Jeanne was a fantastic host and presented the field of telehealth in a clear and understandable format; we both enjoyed meeting her. The entire staff at WCIU was warm, considerate and great hosts. Luckily for our team the interview was concluded with enough time for a brisk tour of the Windy City by foot.

Anything can be done once, twice, or three times, but that doesn’t mean it’s repeatable; an essential concept in any business. What do this word mean and why is it a core concept? OK, now apply it to marketing.

Repeatable: the ability to perform an action or produce an outcome virtually an infinite number of times without the predictable loss of quantity or quality. Business processes must be repeatable or the operations will have variation. Variation is good if you are an artist trying to produce unique masterpieces, variation is bad if you are trying to control costs and maximize ROI. Imagine if every time your accounting department balanced the company accounts differently, or your marketing team changed the logo slightly every time they created an add, or every time you bought eggs you got a different quantity. Repeatability is a measure of variation from cycle to cycle over a defined time frame and is controlled with procedures, training, in some cases equipment or tooling, and raw material uniformity to name a few.

How does this apply to marketing? If the raw material, i.e. lead quality and quantity vary from day-to-day or person-to-person, then the quality and quantity of the sales produced (product) will vary as well, which would ultimately make comapny growth projects impossible, budgets meaningless, and long term viability difficult. Bottom line is to make any process successful a key factor is it’s repeatability and the best way to establish it is to know your process, implement the appropriate controls, and monitor the right metrics.

-GS

My team is currently working on writing several new TV commercials, seven actually, for our clients. Writing commercials is such a fun and engaging exercise that materializes into tangible works of art. Five of the commercials surround a single campaign and primarily vary in length, two :60sec, one :120sec, and a :300sec. Although the core messaging is the same, the longer shows further develop the concept and allow expanded explanations with the intent of creating a tell vs. sell marketing approach. These shows are centered around a suite of insurance products, and we have found that the average person does not truly understand the product. Our goal is to explain the aspects of the plans/programs and educate the potential customer ofthe value and uniqueness of these specific products. Short form shows are historically :30sec, :60sec, and :120sec, whereas :300sec is a hybrid between the traditional short form and long form. Although the inventory on :300sec shows is somewhat limited, the competition is also limited. Traditional branders, i.e. Coke, Pepsi, etc are not using that format because it is not appropriate for their products. It does happen to be a great fit for insurance products! This campaign will be staring Billy Mays, America’s favorite pitchman. Working with Billy is a terrific experience because he is fully committed to every project he undertakes and only works on campaigns that he believes in, which is the source of his passion. All of these shows will be live set multiple camera and graphics.

Show #7 is a :60sec single camera w/ graphics production that highlights association programs available to credit union members and will focus on select local markets across the country.

Show #8 is a single camera production for a diabetic supply manufacturer and marketer. This show will be :60sec and will focus on educating the consumer on the the importance of diabetics regularly checking their blood glucose levels; a process necessary to controlling long term health.

Look for these commercials… they will be posted on-line once they are completed.

-GS

Shaping a call-to-action (CTA), an art and science, is the power of direct response marketing. Driving action… NOW, allows a marketing campaign to be deeply measured, analyzed, and improved. But what makes the consumer do it now? There has to be top product/service quality, an affordable price, urgency and wait… something FREE. Everybody wants something for FREE regardless of age or income. Finding the right FREE item can be a challenge because it can’t over shadow the main product, but has to have real and perceived value. It has to be cost effective and relevant, but the secret sauce lies in the give away. My favorite give aways are those that are service based and ultimately lead to an independent recurring revenue stream. In a nutshell that’s what drives a successful call-to-action (CTA).

-GS

In today’s ever changing world of communication, the merging of traditional public relations, television, radio, mail, and print advertising with modern web marketing and social networking is as essential to effective marketing as a credit card is to retail sales. My team communicates over many different mediums to reach our diverse audience because each person has their preferred and trusted information sources. Although, some might find the multitude of available channels daunting or even frightening, I am excited at the opportunity to target our messaging and reach people with information where they are most comfortable and thus receptive to listening. We speak to the I-95 morning commuter with radio that we could never reach with daytime TV, but utilize syndicated TV to speak to the work from home parents. Whereas the senior who reads the morning paper each day studies our message carefully, the college student might not. Yet that college student might be receptive to blogs or social networks. We have found that the trick is to diversify, adapt, and execute quickly. Thus, iCan Media strives to be innovative in identifying new sources of media, while giving serious consideration to connecting source to listener.

Changing mediums call for changing messages and packaging; a message that materializes into a picture or sound in-sync with the audience’s natural rhythm will be better retained. As a young company with the, ‘best of the best’ individuals comprising the team, we combine established expertise with modern technology and thought processes to produce the novel communications and delivery that drive our success. What does this mean? Start with campaigns that fuse traditional branding with measureable direct response, sprinkle on some killer websites, add a side of social networking and top off it all off with good old fashioned public relations. Now adjust the copy/content to speak to focused ages, genders, educational and income levels. Who are we missing? Because we are passionate about the messages we choose to endorse and stringent in our due diligence, excellence is the only option.

A current media campaign that does not incorporate social networking sites, the birthplace of today’s grass root movements, is virtually archaic. Our friends, affiliates, connected partners, and linked associates comprise a major channel from which we disseminate information quickly to large volumes of people. All of our campaigns involve life changing core concepts such as, “access to health insurance for everyone” a message that is in the forefront of American politics and media; therefore, the social networks, blogs, and forum posts allow us to freely communicate and share the importance of this concept while promoting our clients products. These community meeting places are as critical to our success as plastic displays were to my great grandfather’s media company in the 1920’s and we are actively maximizing the opportunity.

-GS