We love to talk about our ICE App. Partly because we created it, but mostly because of how successful it has been. Our app has the potential to save every downloader’s life. Just how many people have downloaded our In Case of Emergency app? Check out the case study on our DC Interactive Group website.

http://www.dcinteractivegroup.com/category/case-studies/

Consumers like to think that they make buying decisions with their heads.  Some are adamant, even without provocation. But advertisers know better.

While at dinner parties and social business events, I’ve had more than one fork of food stall on its way to my open mouth as I tried to digest a stinging comment from someone I didn’t even know about how my chosen profession is “full of bad art without any real purpose”.  “C’mon, you got a couple in separate bathtubs . . .out in the woods . . . holding hands . . . why would anyone in their right mind think that a commercial like that could sell a pill for Erectile Dysfunction?”  My lack of response, coupled with raised eyebrows, is misunderstood as signs that I’m actually looking for another example.

“Or that gecko . . . selling car insurance. . . I know people like the little creature, but how many stupid people are there who would buy insurance because some lizard says they should?” (click this link to see the type of person I’m describing).

Well, a lot of people.  And they’re not stupid.  They’re, well, people.  They’re human, and they react to human things that appeal to the most persuadable parts of their minds — their emotions.  Rarely do we buy based on our intelligent minds.

Successful advertisements aren’t trying to win debates.  They’re not even trying to be logical.  Instead, they’re trying to cut through all of the clutter that has filled a viewer’s mind, connect with a need the viewer has, and associate the product or service with the successful fulfillment of that need.  Logic has nothing to do with this, and neither does passing along valuable knowledge. Indeed, as proven in the medical community, having a whole lot of knowledge about a subject has nothing to do with how a person views the subject.

In research published by the Journal of Internal Medicine titled “Healthcare and Lifestyle Practices of Healthcare Workers: Do Healthcare Workers Practice What They Preach?”, it was shown that the lifestyles of healthcare workers were basically no different than the general population when it came to important medical concerns like weight control, binge drinking, and cigarette smoking.  Amazing, right?  Despite all of the facts and knowledge they have on these subjects, and all of the deadly reminders they see daily, healthcare workers act, in general, no different than those with much less knowledge of the dangers of these lifestyles.  They’re fat, drunk and stinky just like everyone else.

Clearly, knowing the facts doesn’t sway people.  Knowing that 60-something % of smokers will, in fact, die from smoking doesn’t stop people from smoking — not even healthcare workers.  These people are choosing to follow unhealthy lifestyles, despite knowing clearly the risks they are taking.  The decisions they make have nothing to do with knowledge.

What persuades people, what overrides all logic and rationale thinking in the minds of all people, is when a clear message gets wrapped up in an emotion that resonates within the population. How else can you explain a brand of flavored carbonated water selling for five times the price of a no-name brand?  Logically, it’s just a drink; but emotionally, it’s so much more.  Indeed, it’s “The Real Thing,” whatever that means.

“We’ve taught over 10,000 people how to play the piano in just three months!” has nothing on “Everybody laughed when I sat down at the piano, but then I began to play . . .”  One gives facts — big, ho-hum facts.  The other hits an emotional nerve — “man, I’d love to impress people by playing the piano.”

All advertising, including healthcare, connects better with the audience when it involves emotion.  “Our Retina Center Has More Modern Technology Than Anyone In The State” cannot compete with “Jimmy’s Parents Feared That He Would Never See Again. Then They Saw Us.” I was able to add even more emotion, and thus more power, to the second headline by simply adding a child.  “More Technology” is a brain phrase for “better”.  However, “Fear” is an emotional word for “do something”, which really is the point of the ad.  The first headline explains.  The second headline gives hope. People react to hope.  They want opportunity.  They don’t want knowledge because they really don’t know what to do with it.  And I think the health habits of our medical community prove this fact.

Maybe the next time I’m confronted at a dinner party, I’ll point out that the Erectile Dysfunction ad was aimed at men, giving them hope by talking to their pleasure centers.  I’ll then ask my “friend” if he would prefer that the ad say honestly and factually,  “This pill has thrilled millions of men and, at the same time, aggravated millions of wives”.

Nah.  Let them believe they buy using their brains.  We advertisers know better. I’ll just try not to choke on my food when the subject comes up.

On September 28, 2012 the United Way of Elgin orchestrated the build of a playground in a single day with the help of KaBOOM! and local volunteers. Many employees from Demi & Cooper Advertising and DC Interactive Group participated as volunteers in the build.

Below are a handful of our employees that volunteered to help build. Deanne (not pictured) worked behind the scenes, taking pictures and video to help capture the build in progress. Digital high-five to all of my fellow co-workers who participated in building the LARGEST playground that KaBOOM has ever done!

Nicole - Web Marketing Coordinator

Mollie helping out with the video and camera stuff

Wally - Web Art Director

Bill - Account Coordinator

Luke - Web Marketing, Editorial

Bill doing some heavy lifting

Wally's turn to do some heavy lifting

Last year we started developing an ICE (In Case of Emergency) App for our clients. The app allows someone such as a paramedic to access some basic medical information about you in an emergency situation. Head over to our portfolio for a full description about the app’s features and how it can be branded for your hospital or organization.

Currently there are over 600,000 apps in the iTunes App Store. There are also over 450,000 apps in Google Play (previously known as the Android Market). Needless to say, your app can get lost very easily. This is why mobile marketing is so important if you want your app to be downloaded.

In our newest case study, we take a look at the number of downloads for a client who opted into mobile marketing and another who did not use mobile marketing. For the full case study and results head over to dcinteractivegroup.com.

After a month hiatus, the Technology Meeting has returned. This month’s meeting brought about a plethora of new ideas and technology. The quick recap below highlights some of the things presented in August’s meeting.

Bo.lt

Bo.lt is a website that allows you to edit other websites, without needing programming knowledge. To clarify, you don’t actually get to go in and revamp CNN.com, but you can edit its appearance to your liking and share your version via Bo.lt’s short-link. You can delete/edit text, remove ads, rearrange the interface, add comments, or wipe out the page entirely (although the purpose of that is beyond me). So if you wanted to share only one piece of a website, Bo.lt allows you to do that. Here’s an example of a website edited using Bo.lt.

Quick Drag – Firefox Add-On

If you’re looking to shave a few seconds off your web-browsing time each time you click, then “Quick Drag” is a great Firefox Add-on. Basically this Add-on extends the functionality of the drag-and-drop mouse gesture. Using Quick Drag allows you to quickly load URLs, search selected text on a page, and even save an image on a page without the use of keyboard shortcuts or right clicking. You simply click on what you want and drag it. Selected text will show up in the search results of a new tab and images will save straight to your Downloads folder.

Tribalfish

Tribalfish attempts to bridge the gap between social interaction and deep customer engagement using high-quality content. Essentially, Tribalfish allows you to post a short message that viewers can click on for an expanded post, without being directed to an outside website. People can browse these messages by various topics they are interested in whether it is healthcare, real estate, sports, or just about anything else. Tribalfish also has a “Groups” function where users can join, receive updates, and post messages.

TweetReach

TweetReach is a web program that allows you to get a quick snapshot of just how far your tweets reached. All you have to do is type in the desired Twitter username in the search box. TweetReach then gives you a snapshot of the past 7 days of that user’s activity along with stats such as reach, types of tweets, and exposure (impressions). TweetReach takes into account the @ mentions and retweets that your account has received and includes those as impressions. So if one of my followers retweets me, the impressions of that retweet would be included. This is based on how many followers my retweeter has.

Google Hotel Finder

Google Hotel Finder allows you to do exactly what the name says, find hotels. The difference between Google’s program and your average hotel finder, is all of the features available. Google Hotel Finder has the standard “search by location” option, but it also allows you to see popular locations; perfect if you are unfamiliar with the area. You can also keep a short list of hotels that you can come back to review at a later time. If you’re looking for the best price, Google let’s you compare the current price with the hotel’s typical price.

Additional features include limiting hotels by price per night, star rating, and user rating. However, one of the most unique features is the map view. Google gives you a preset view of all the hotels within the area. You can then adjust the shape of this area to your liking. Clicking on the hotel listing or “dot” (in map view), will give you a snapshot of the hotel’s information along with images and reviews.

YourGroups

YourGroups is a way to communicate with friends, family, and co-workers in private. Members of your group can post messages to the group wall, “buzz” each other, share photos, and schedule meet-ups. When sending a buzz or scheduling a meet-up, you can choose to include the whole group, or only certain members of the group. YourGroup is great for sharing things with a limited amount of people, in the privacy of your own group.

The Sherman ICE App that we developed has been live on iTunes for a little over two months. It has been performing increasingly well in terms of downloads. The success of the app has been due to some nice local press, social media mentions, and our traditional advertising.

However, we also wanted to make sure the ICE app was advertised where the iPhone users were; on their iPhones. This is where we have had tremendous success. With an inexpensive budget, we can reach iPhone users while they are using their mobile device. With a single click on a mobile ad, users can reach the iTunes page where your app is ready to be downloaded.

So once your hospital purchases our ICE app, it’s time to start mobile marketing. Check out the case study here.

Memorial Medical Center has the #1 Emergency Department in the Springfield area. How can you express this incredible achievement without being boastful? You let the patients say why you’re number one based on their experiences. From this simple idea came a remarkable campaign that was not only successful but also inspiring & heartwarming.

The Memorial E.R. Stories campaign succeeded on a statistical and emotional level. At the date this post was written, we have read through 82 stories all submitted by patients of Memorial’s Emergency Department. Some stories left us smiling, some inspired us, and others left us teary-eyed.

We knew this campaign had a lot of potential so we used our concept of web herding and spared no advertising medium. We created a landing page dedicated solely to the E.R. Stories campaign. Content on this site was almost exclusively patient-driven. We introduced online banner ads, a custom Facebook tab, print ads, billboards, pay-per-click, bus wraps, radio ads, a commercial, and topped it all off with t-shirts for the story submitters.

Normally we would recommend dedicated URLs on ads for tracking purposes, but the client was concerned about keeping the brand consistent so we didn’t. So as the website got underway we carefully watched for specific trends. It was clear when an ad was running based on jumps in web traffic as various pieces were introduced. During the peak of the campaign, visits to the website were about 500% more than during the launch. Page views were up 200%.

Another interesting statistic involved a close competitor’s foot traffic. A competing area hospital opened up brand new facilities in late-November; just prior to the start of the Memorial E.R. Stories campaign launch. The patient visits to the competing hospital did not improve even though brand new facilities were introduced.

The Memorial E.R. Stories campaign has done its job, but won’t end just yet. Soon we will be turning three of the E.R. Stories into commercials. The patients from the chosen stories will have a chance to share their story in a commercial. Choosing just three stories will be a near impossible task, but it’s a task we look forward to. It was a real pleasure to work on such a captivating campaign.

Ed McDowell, VP of Marketing & Communications at Memorial Medical Center, was ecstatic about the campaign stating, “With more than 40 story submissions through the first five weeks of the campaign, the results speak for themselves. We could not be more pleased or excited”.

We could not be more pleased or excited either.

Below are just a couple images from the campaign. Check out more images and our case study for the Memorial E.R. Stories campaign here.

President Barack Obama is gearing up for the 2012 Election the digital way. His microsite dedicated to his 2012 campaign, barackobama.com, includes a variety of digital marketing tactics.

The site leads with a video which is obviously hosted on YouTube. You can submit your email address to receive e-blasts, get text messages, or get connected via Facebook. You can volunteer, donate, check up on events, purchase Obama 2012 swag, and join groups dedicated to his campaign fundraising. At the time this post was written, Obama had accumulated over 19 million Facebook Fans and 7 million Twitter followers; so we’d say he is doing a pretty good job at being social.

Obama has the right idea when it comes to digital marketing. Something we call “Web Herding” incorporates all of the concepts stated above, and even a little more.

Obama’s 2012 Campaign Launch Video Video