Advertising spending around the world increased by more than 4% in the first quarter of 2008, compared with the year before. Globally, healthcare retained the majority share of ad spending, with just over 10% of all advertising activity. With 9% of global consumers ranking their health as their biggest concern today, according to the Nielsen Global Consumer Concerns report, this figure could continue to rise.
Many people know YouTube as a popular website that friends and colleagues use to forward viral video clips of treadmill dancers, film trailers, and George Bush speeches. But the website can be used to promote healthcare providers such as physician practices, according to this blog entry.
If word-of-mouth advertising is your best way to build business, then your business may benefit by gathering testimonials from your satisfied customers. Marketing blogger Chris Brown offers five tips that will help marketers effectively and efficiently collect testimonials, and offers a fill-in-the-blank form to make sure you get the right information.
Today, heads of marketing have two primary jobs: brand architect and brand therapist, writes marketer Keith Jennings. The brand architect creates the blueprint for how organizations look, feel, smell, taste and sound. The job of the brand therapist is to intimately understand and translate the organization's history and culture, he says.
The Health Resources and Services Administration has announced it will not move to finalize a proposed rule changing how it designates medically underserved populations and health professional shortage areas. HRSA representatives said the organization received many substantive comments on the proposed rule and will need to make a number of changes. The HRSA plans to issue a new proposed rule for review and public comment.
War veterans, especially those living in rural areas, need more accessible mental health services after a study in West Virginia showed many are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, a psychology professor told a U.S. Senate committee.
Joseph Scotti of the WVU Department of Psychology testified before the U.S. Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee on the disadvantages West Virginia veterans are facing in the mental health realm. Scotti led a study that showed more than a third of West Virginia's veterans have mental health problems, higher than the national average of 22%.