In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, Dodge Communications’ president and CEO is interviewed to discuss Dodge’s history over the past 10 years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Brad Dodge is president and CEO at Dodge Communications. To listen to the interview, click on his picture or view the transcript below.

Question 1: When you started the company 10 years ago, where did you think Dodge would be on its 10^th anniversary?

Brad Dodge: It’s an interesting question because we didn’t really think about that back then. We were tied up in the day-to-day activities because we were starting a new business. There were so many variables, unknowns and challenges in getting started that we didn’t really think about what the future would hold. Instead, we had to think about what each day would hold. We were doing our own client management and writing our own brochures and things, so we didn’t really think that far ahead. Frankly, we didn’t know if it would be possible to grow the company strictly in the healthcare vertical, and it wasn’t until several years later that we said, “Wow, I guess this thing really can be all healthcare.” We started to get some successes and some long-term clients under our belt, and it became clear there was a real need for these services in the B2B healthcare space; it became obvious we’d be able to grow the business that way.

Question 2: How do you think Dodge has helped shape the healthcare industry over the past 10 years?

Brad Dodge: I think we’ve helped B2B vendors really understand how important it is to have clear messages. If you have clear messages and an integrated campaign that moves those messages forward, then that helps you drive awareness and grow your company. Because a lot of our clients have new technologies, they are way ahead of the markets they serve, and it’s not so easy just to say you’re out there in the market. If you’re selling cell phones, you can say you have the coolest new cell phone because it’s got better coverage. People understand that because they already know what a cell phone is and they’re already using one. They’ve probably tried different cell phones, and they understand the value of good coverage. They know whether or not they need that because those things are easy, but when you’re selling technology like our clients are, they are selling things that people don’t know. They can’t say cell phone because their market doesn’t know what a cell phone is.

A lot of times I use a car example: it’s easy for Volvo to sell a car that is safe because people already know what a car is. If they didn’t, then it would be a different kind of challenge of how to communicate that. Helping our technology clients say, “Back up and try to understand that the marketplace doesn’t even know your product exists or that they have a need for your product, never mind why yours is the best.”  You have to approach it from a different messaging perspective, and I think that’s one thing we’ve helped the vendors do.

One other thing is that we’ve really helped and stressed the importance of reinforcing messages through thought leadership. Through blogs, social media and the types of articles and white papers we develop for our clients, we really help them understand that when a prospect goes to a website and sees all kinds of content—relevant content—that’s approached from different angles but always advances the same message, that goes a really long way. I think vendors are finally starting to understand the work we do and that having a strong thought leadership position is a real strong requisite for what they are trying to do.

Question 3: What’s the best piece of advice you could give to a client who is trying to implement and integrated communications campaign?

Brad Dodge: I think the key to that question is the word integrated, and we help our clients understand what communications is in today’s world order—the speed and diversity through which we receive information—is not consumed the same way it was when we started the business 10 years ago. There was barely an Internet, there definitely wasn’t social media and magazines were all the rage.  Today, there are so many venues to get information from, and we help people understand that they need to be engaged in all types of communication venues to get your message out. So, just pick one thing like doing a webinar—there are dozens of ways you can make your market and your followers and your audience and clients aware that’s coming up. The more types of communications vehicles you use to promote an event, the better results you’re going to get from your investment in PR and marketing.

Question 4: What are your goals for the next 10 years for Dodge?

Brad Dodge: I think we know now that the business is well-established—we have 30 employees now—and we understand what the opportunity is. We understand where we can get better, where our strengths are and how we can distinguish ourselves from competition. We have a plan that says there is going to be a great need for our types of services in the B2B healthcare industry for a long time. That’s because of all the visibility that healthcare has at the federal and global level. There will be a lot of need for what we’re doing.

The business model has been proven and now our challenge is to execute it.  We have a 10 year business plan in place that has us growing to a certain size, and we just want to continue to build on the success we have and continue to grow the way we’re growing now. We realize we are going to have to go into some adjunct markets such as a bigger expansion into medical devices or medical providers or general technology. We know there’s an opportunity for a lot of growth, and we need to approach it systematically with the best practices we have developed so far.

Question 5: What are some of the most memorable moments of Dodge’s history?

Brad Dodge: You know, I think it’s every time we have some sort of a milestone. Just having moved into this office space that we’re in now was a pretty momentous occasion. It caused us to reflect for the past years we were in the other office location and what it was like when we moved in there. It also helps us look forward as to what it will be once we settle into this space. That’s kind of one of the times that you look at it—every time you move your office.

It’s also interesting to look at the employee list from awhile ago. I’m so fortunate to have a really awesome group of people who work in the company because it’s not an easy business to be in. Healthcare and technology are pretty heady business, and for someone to thrive in an environment where they have to have an understanding in healthcare and technology and a domain expertise in integrated communications as well as the fortitude to manage multiple brands at the same time—which is the definition of an agency—really requires a different breed and a stellar person. That’s what we’ve built over the years—employees who have those skill sets. It’s really awesome to work with people who are so competent and capable, and I look back and say, “Wow, the days before we had this employee or the days before we had that employee,” are the momentous times. I think about having first started a relationship with those employees and now they are really part of the fabric of the organization.

There’s also been a lot of trips—the standard conferences like HIMSS, MGMA and AMGA—where we connect with hundreds of people we’ve worked with as clients, vendors, editors or ad reps. It’s so much fun to do an event like that and connect with all types of people. It’s one of the things I look forward to all of the time—going to events and seeing people I haven’t seen in over a year and seeing them face-to-face to have some good social time together and really reconnect.

I think there are a lot of momentous times that I remember at the agency, but they are usually celebrating the people or the milestones, and that’s what make it a momentous event.

In the latest installment of our 10^th anniversary blog series, a Dodge Communications client is interviewed to discuss her experience with Dodge over the years. To view earlier installments please click here.

Jennifer Kuesel is the director of marketing at NextGen Healthcare. She says that partnering with Dodge Communications has been fruitful and that Dodge has always been a great team player with the NextGen team. Click on the NextGen Healthcare logo below to listen to the interview or view the transcript below.

Dodge: How long has NextGen Healthcare been a Dodge client?

Kuesel: We’ve been working with Dodge for nine years.

Dodge: How has Dodge Communications helped with your integrated communications needs over the last nine years?

Kuesel: Dodge has been our dedicated PR partner and our go-to partner for integrated communications support over that time frame. We are a full service marketing organization here at NextGen, but oftentimes the volume of work that we have exceeds the internal capacity. We’re always looking for partners who can seamlessly fit in with our team and feel like they’re a part of our team. Dodge has always done a really good job with that for us. Additionally, what we find is that their expertise in integrated communications augments some of the skill sets that we don’t maybe have here on the team. They are able to take our goals and our objectives and help us formulate an action plan that goes beyond what I would view as standard marketing communications and help us develop a plan that really reaches both web, live events, printed collateral, and full service campaigns that help drive lead demand for us, which is typically one of the key functions we look for in integrated communications action plans.

Dodge: What are some of the major accomplishments you have been able to realize through your partnership with Dodge? How have these accomplishments impacted your overall business?

Kuesel: Well, as I mentioned, a lot of times what we’re looking for is lead gen and support with developing our funnel, so integrated communications is an integral part of that. A lot of times what we’ll do, is have a kick-off call with Dodge and work through what our specific objectives are—whether it’s in a specific market, or whether it’s a specific trade show we’re working on. I’ll give you an example:

Last year we worked on a brand awareness campaign in the areas of Maryland and St. Louis. They were important to us because we acquired a business unit in Maryland and the same was true of St. Louis. They were all for one business line but were two companies coming together to form that business line for us, so it was important to begin to be recognized in those markets as a key player. The business units we acquired were considered small market vendors. It really helped us make sure the market saw the companies we acquired as now part of the NextGen family, and it helped us expand our footprint to the national level we were looking for.

The campaign we put forth, we ran first in St. Louis, and then we copied the best practices from St. Louis to Maryland. It was a brand awareness campaign, but there was a full suite of objectives that were based in web and printed collateral as well as online and face-to-face. There was a live event to culminate the end of the campaign. We were working on brand as we went along, but a secondary objective was to create lead demands in those markets. Dodge was our partner for that and worked seamlessly with our internal department in both creative services, web services and marketing communications to put forth a campaign that supported those markets. They really took the lead on it and managed the project for us and helped us measure our objectives.

In fact, we submitted that along with Dodge as a candidate for the 17^th annual Communicator Awards, and it was named as an award of excellence for the campaign. It was a great partnership; it helped us drive the brand; it helped us meet our lead objectives; and it helped us get to a place where we were able to measure both the hard dollars and the soft dollar because brand tends to be more soft dollar.

Dodge: Thanks for sharing. That’s a really great example.

Dodge: Where do you think integrated communications is headed, and why do you think Dodge is positioned to succeed?

Kuesel: I think there has been a major shift in what integrated communications means in the last 12 to 18 months. Some of it has to do with social media; some of it has to do with one-to-one marketing advances that people are making out there in the market; and some of it has to do with the way the world does its research these days. I feel like one of the things that  in the last four or five years has really switched is that it used to be very much a direct mail world and integrated communications was a piece of that, and that’s really shifted . A lot of the communications in an integrated communication plan are now focused on web and social media and areas where previously it had been maybe not so—popular—to communicate via the web and email. Campaigns were driven in a much different way than they are today.

I think Dodge for us, specializes in the healthcare market, so they have that knowledge going in and they have a fairly robust bench. Each member of the team has a different skill set. You have experts in marketing communication; you have experts in PR; you have experts in web; you have experts in social media.  Many times an organization who is looking for a partner doesn’t have all those skill sets in-house, so it’s beneficial to have a partner who is dealing in those types of media everyday and has expertise right at the pulse of the industry.

Dodge: That’s all the questions we have for you. Is there anything you’d like to add to the conversation or say?

Kuesel: I think overall our partnership with Dodge has been a very fruitful one for both Dodge and NextGen, and I believe that true partnerships are born from that. I couldn’t have better things to say about our experiences with Dodge along the way the past nine years.

MDJunction: In the world of health-related social networks, MDJunction has carved its own niche with its more than 700 support groups, each focusing on one particular health issue. Users with a free account can join any support group, participate in discussion on the site, or add a ribbon to their profile to show support for one of many different causes. MDJunction also has a convenient search feature to find doctors by area or by specialty, and there is also a search for health insurance. Users can get quotes for a variety of different types of medical coverage.

Past Words of the Week
Blekko, Healthline, Spindex, Vanilla, Twingr, Tweetbeat, Social Media Policy, infoMedMD, Health Care 3.0, Groupon, icyou, #MDchat, Quality 101, MedlinePlus, HITSphere, URL X-ray, Mashup, Blog Talk Radio, TweetedRanks, Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

William Shakespeare wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But healthcare PR and marketing experts know better.

Take, for example, two current healthcare trends: the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) and concierge medicine. Their monikers help contribute to vastly different levels of appeal.

The “patient-centered medical home” sounds great, doesn’t it? Invokes images of homemade chicken soup, mom and Marcus Welby all working to soothe your ills away. Who wouldn’t want that?Now consider “concierge medicine,” or “boutique medicine,” as it’s also called. The term conjures thoughts of personal service, to be sure—but for a fee. With this phrase, the warm, fuzzy, down-home PCMH sentiment turns decidedly upscale, less accessible. Concierge doctors, many feel, are simply trying to gain more money by treating only well-to-do patients.

The very labels used to describe these two models of care pit Hollywood against Main Street. Yet, if you set aside reimbursement differences, one could easily argue that both seek to provide patients with the same clinical goals: better, more personalized, wellness-focused primary care.

The NCQA defines PCMH as a care model “…that seeks to strengthen the physician‐patient relationship by replacing episodic care based on illnesses and patient complaints with coordinated care and a long‐term healing relationship…each patient has an ongoing relationship with a personal physician who leads a team that takes collective responsibility for patient care.”

That same personal relationship and focus on preventive medicine is precisely what attracts many physicians—and patients—to the concept of concierge medicine. One online article from earlier this year, for instance, highlights a Chicago internist who turned to concierge medicine after a watershed moment, when a longtime patient said she no longer wanted him as her doctor because he couldn’t devote the time and attention she wanted.

We all want Marcus Welby, but he had the time to make house calls. PCMH and concierge medicine both are models of care that attempt to fight against the declining reimbursement and rising overhead costs that now are forcing physicians to see more and more patients just to stay afloat. The names of these care models, however, help influence our acceptance of them.

A rose by any other name. Maybe, with the right emphasis, “concierge medicine” could smell just as sweet as “patient-centered” care.

With ACOs, MU, EHRs and ICD-10 on your mind, you may have overlooked this one…

Corporate Social Responsibly (CSR), sometimes referred to as social mission, simply refers to the strategic outreach your organization can take part in to positively affect the community. This outreach can include company-sponsored programs, philanthropic services, pro-bono support or employee volunteerism. It has the ability to not only help others, but can also boost corporate image, employee morale and make a difference in your bottom line.

Most healthcare organizations have some form of “giving initiative” where a check is written and money is donated at the same time every year. Studies reveal that this is not enough to influence business or purchasing decisions. For example, a recent survey conducted by Penn Schoen Berland revealed that 88 percent of respondents thought CSR was most important in the healthcare industry, but as a whole the industry scored poorly with only a 35 percent CSR performance level.CSR presents an opportunity to distinguish your company from the others in the market, and as the statistics show, there is significant room for growth in our industry.

It isn’t too early to think about implementing a CSR program into your company’s culture for 2011. So where do you start? Here are our top six recommendations:

1)      Stick to your business model. Hone in on activities that allow your organization to leverage its knowledge base, product focus or general expertise.

2)      Determine the current level of philanthropy. Take small steps in setting a foundation for your CSR program rather than implementing a robust venture that fizzles out after a few short years. Think sustainability.

3)      Secure company buy-in. If everyone is on board to make positive changes internally and externally for social good, your CSR program will have more impact. It’s not just about the executive team, you need company-wide support.

4)      Develop a plan and set goals. Establish a code of conduct and state clear values when developing your outreach strategy and determining objectives and goals for the program.

5)      Announce successes through media and social media venues. Highlight accomplishments and partnerships with pictures, videos, press conferences and more.

6)      Measure success of outreach. After beginning your CSR program, measure success through website traffic, media exposure and funds raised or donated.

icyou: icyou is an online video community exclusively for videos dealing with healthcare issues. Users can find videos posted by medical professionals as well as ordinary people that discuss any healthcare topic you can think of, from diseases and treatments to medical fields and politics and policy. Each topic has its own RSS feed, and the health IT professional might find particularly useful the pages on healthcare finance, healthcare politics and healthcare reform.

Past Words of the Week
#MDchat, Quality 101, MedlinePlus, HITSphere, URL X-ray, Mashup, Blog Talk Radio, TweetedRanks, Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

MedlinePlus: MedlinePlus is an online database for health information hosted by the National Institute of Health and the National Library of Medicine. The site has information about thousands of health topics covering the full spectrum of diseases, conditions and medical procedures, all divided up alphabetically in an easily searchable index. There is also an alphabetical index of drugs that provides detailed information on any prescription or over-the-counter drug you could possibly think of. The neatest feature is the library of videos that gives the site a more interactive feel. The videos range from tutorials on diseases and parts of the human anatomy to actual surgical procedures.

Past Words of the Week
HITSphere, URL X-ray, Mashup, Blog Talk Radio, TweetedRanks, Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

HITSphere: For the healthcare marketer looking for an easy way to stay on top of current industry news, HITSphere is the perfect tool. HITSphere is a news aggregator that currently compiles the top stories from nearly 100 blogs that focus on the health IT industry. These range from blogs covering several aspects of health IT such as HISTalk and The Healthcare IT Guy to more focused blogs such as EMR and EHR. With such a great collection of sources, HITSphere is the perfect stop for morning reading and worthy of a few more visits during the day.

Past Words of the Week
URL X-ray, Mashup, Blog Talk Radio, TweetedRanks, Ping.fm, Digsby, Qik, Posterous, Ning, API, Lifecasting, Crowdsourcing, Meme, Social bookmarking, Trackback, Twitter Grader, Authority, TweetBeep, Compete, Astroturfing, WEGO Health, BackTweets, PDR.net, socialmention, Twazzup, Health Exchange, Health Tweeder, DIDGET, Thoora, Google Buzz, bit.ly, E-patient, Alltop, mHealth, Augmented reality, OpenID, ROI, #hcsm, Medpedia, Almost.at, Hashtag, FollowFriday, Beta, Microblogging, Sidewiki, Meta tags

Many believe that traditional marketing materials are somewhat antiquated in the new Web world.  While the Web has taken over increasingly important visibility roles, marketing materials still play an important part in communicating the features and benefits of a medical device company’s products as well as its corporate vision in its core sector. Next to the website, marketing materials are important in describing and enhancing a device company’s positioning and differentiation and are central in giving sales reps a leg up on the competition.  As long as there are sales reps, there will be marketing collateral.

So it is important that marketing and sales collateral reflect a medical device company’s awareness of, interest in and ability to help its customers achieve the ACO mandate.  As with the website, marketing collateral plays a very significant role in building a device company’s brand. Beyond describing what a medical device company does and for whom, it is also responsible for conveying a brand emotion that differentiates it from competitors, establishes credibility, and supports the personality it is developing in all other aspects of its brand presence. Marketing collateral helps determine the strategic approach that will work best for a medical device company’s unique situation, from corporate brochures to datasheets to product brochures.   Read more…

A prospective customer’s first interaction with a medical device company brand may typically take place online. It is, therefore, increasingly important to ensure that potential customers find a compelling, easy-to-navigate website that takes advantage of the latest technologies and design techniques, as well as addresses important issues vital to client success. An accurate and powerful website can harness the power of online marketing strategies to address the ACO mandate, capture additional market share and reinforce the benefits of products and services.

A medical device company’s website may facilitate hundreds of interactions every day, and it is important that the site design captures the same personality and evokes the same emotion the company is building with its sales force and other attributes “on the ground.” There are three key elements that are critical to today’s website designs: an appearance that is commensurate with the brand the company wants to portray to the marketplace, a design that utilizes the most contemporary styles and approaches, and a vehicle that shows fresh thinking and growing momentum to the market.  Read more.