Peter Korian
President/Founder, IOMEDIA

Here we are in February and for some of us it’s going to be hard to leave behind the Sunday ritual of NFL football. What’s made us take greater notice this year is not who’s injured, who’s not being played, or the upsets—it’s who’s in the spotlight and filling 60-inch screens everywhere. Not the players, but the fans. In a counterintuitive approach, Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light brand has gone around the typical promotion of quarterbacks and end-zone celebrations to dub this season as the “Year of the Fan.” And not just any fan, fans who do whatever it takes.

What’s the payoff? Huge reaction, due to the fact that consumers see themselves in the TV spots. They immediately relate and belong. Research shows fans truly believe they can have an impact. Imagine the untapped power of this sentiment and unwavering confidence when we search for how to empower patients or motivate physicians.

Fans have strong beliefs that are not easily swayed or defeated. However superstitious or based in fact, fans drive followers to listen and have the power to convert non-believers. Tapping into this social soup and emotional place can lead healthcare brands into a lifelong relationship with customers.

So I ask, how can we as healthcare marketers do a better job of getting to the core of what makes our brand fans tick? How can we serve them in a way that’s more meaningful, that leverages technology to support a better physician or patient experience, that provides a multitouch experience with real outcomes and benefit for their loyalty? Google and others are moving to more localized models every day, to customize and tap into the deeper and heartfelt impact of “close-to-home” kinship and familiarity when promoting.

From big data to EHRs, we are in a unique position to understand behavior even more granularly than before. We share a responsibility to turn data into something more personalized as opposed to talking to the masses and hoping our targets see themselves in the crowd. We owe it to our clients to champion ideas based on regional insights.

We owe it to physicians who are in the game looking to deliver a win every time. And, we owe it to the patients who hold on tightly to their beliefs as we know well the impact they have on their own health and outcomes.

From the February 01, 2013 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media