The Weekly Hash: 05.23.21
Brandon Edwards
Seasoned healthcare executive in marketing and managed care services
Should branding take precedence over service line campaigns? Airbnb might think so.
Continue reading to learn about Airbnb's shift in marketing focus and how health system marketers can learn from this move, and stick around for a 10-second review of Frontline and NPR's latest exploration of the profit gap in healthcare.
News › impact › recommendation
BUSINESS OF HEALTHCARE
Ahhh, the eternal question: brand or service line marketing? Of course the answer to that question is "yes." You should always be driving brand and service line marketing, at least at some level. The trick is in the balance, and the answer to that question is ... it depends.
Airbnb just announced strong results from a recent budget shift away from sales-oriented marketing to its first large-scale brand campaign in five years. Of course the current travel circumstances dictated that to a large degree. Similarly, the shift into a post-COVID-19 world is a critical opportunity for health systems to re-establish their unique brand positions in new and compelling ways.
— Chris Bevolo, Executive Vice President
INDUSTRY TRENDS
This week, Frontline and NPR released a documentary, The Healthcare Divide, in which they explored the growing profit gap between struggling safety net hospitals and other hospital chains that are thriving, which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Bruce Siegel, President of America’s Essential Hospitals, clearly articulated in the documentary, “we are on a precipice.” Many of these safety net facilities, which are now months shy of their target cash-on-hand goals, are also carrying operational risk from expenses related to the pandemic. As a result, we’ll likely see an increase in M&A activity, that’s if the FTC and legislation currently circulating in the Senate don’t block that exit strategy for struggling systems.
We recommend keeping a weather eye on state and federal legislation over the coming weeks, especially if your organization is considering announcing a merger or acquisition with a partner that could conceivably limit competition in your area.
— Kate Caverno, Account Director, Comms
The No Normal Show: Episode Takeaways
Missed Mount Sinai's Karen Wish and John Davey on the No Normal Show last week? Listen on-demand or catch up with these takeaways here. The episode covers:
- What health system branding should mean in a changed world
- The pros and cons of centralizing the marketing function
- How to create digital infrastructure that prioritizes access