In February 2012, the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (@TIMA_NC),  a professional organization of the marketing and design industries in digital media, based in the Triangle area of NC, hosted “Healthcare Marketing: The Interactive Impact.” 

As a TIMA member and guest blogger, I enjoyed interviewing  panelists and digital healthcare marketers from WebMD, the American Heart Association,  MedThink and Dave Harrell Advertising.

Richard Schwartz, Executive Director of WebMD,  the leading online source for consumers and physicians, delivers credible and timely health information, tools for managing health and support to encourage health literacy, is a wealth of knowledge.  WebMD.com receives more than 100 million unique visitors per month and another 2 million visits from physicians. Learn more from Richard and our Q&A interview. 

Dave Harrell worked with  Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina for 10 years, spending the last 3 as the Advertising Director, before branching out on his own and launching Dave Harrell Advertising, Today, his firm uses data to drive decisions, which in turn delivers business results to leading healthcare clients, including insurance organizations, hospital systems, the NC Department of Insurance, practicing physicians and other healthcare providers.  Dave shared his expertise in digital marketing in healthcare by presenting a before and after case study of  his work with www.inclusivehealth.org  where his team has contributed to North Carolina being ranked 4th for having the largest membership risk pool in the U.S., behind states with substantially larger populations such as California and Texas. Additionally, Dave’s team has increased membership applications by 250%, decreased the cost per member acquisition by 46% and exceeded the cost per sale goal by 15% over two years.  

Jeff Hill  is the Director of Digital Strategy & Technologyfor MedThink Communications, a full-service, integrated healthcare marketing and communications agency with small, medium and large pharmaceutical and medical clients.  He says healthcare and pharmaceutical companies are “making leaps and bounds in digital marketing and seeing the measurable ROI of a more connected, one-on-one communication approach. Some smaller health organizations are spending roughly 8-10% of their marketing budget on digital, while the larger pharma still typically are around 5%. This is far from the non-health organization spending. As digital marketing continues to evolve,  spends will increase. However, no matter what we are talking about, other industries are currently typically around 25% or higher. To help get a better picture on the future, it is expected that this year will be the first time Internet spend surpasses print,” he said.

Andre Blackman, Director of Digital Communications and New Media for the American Heart Association,  serves as an Advisory Board Member of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media and Co-Founder of the FastForward Health Film Festival.  He has been a featured speaker/commentator on a number of Public Health 2.0 related conversations around HIV/AIDS, mobile health, health disparities and new forms of health journalism, as well as worked alongside organizations such as the Black AIDS Institute, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the North Carolina Department  of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina Division of  Public Health.

 Learn more about more about panel members Jeff Hill and Dave Harrell and the TIMA event from the guest blog.