Technology + Health

I have mostly focused my writing on this blog to interactive marketing, but that doesn't preclude my more than passing interest in the idea of technology enabling better health. I have had the recent fortune of being able to do some marketing work for The Continua Alliance, a consortium of companies with the mission of creating an ecosystem of connected health products.

Never mind the down economy and the fluctuations of the market from day to day, but if you look out over the horizon 3, 5, 7 and 10 years I see a swath of opportunity for companies in this space--pick your term, remote patient monitoring, e-health, disease management, tele-health, or connected health. I personally prefer the term connected health as it explains at a higher level the underlying growth opportunity. The opportunity to leverage technology + health for better health is exciting. This has been a few years away for about a decade, but it piques my interest because the Internet is mature and opportunities abound in a practical, useful way that can have a real impact on a real problem--healthcare delivery.

The conference, Connected Health put on by the Connected Health Organization has held a conference the last two days discussing this very topic. It reminds me of attending tradeshows when I worked in Internet start-ups in the late 90s, you hear the same type of questions like, "how are you going to make money?" and discussions on the best approach from a model perspective such as B2B or B2C. I'll probably start to cover this a bit more over time.

Lastly, I saw Clay Shirky speak, who I posted on a few months back He was a little more buttoned up and played the audience (Re: C-Level and MDs) than the presentation I posted but it was informative.

Go Irish

Just because....

Ever ask Yourself, "Why is That?"

Great post from Customer Experience Matters. All I can hypothesize is that it's hard work and more often than not, people will shy towards low hanging fruit versus the hard work. Those that do you usually get to know them via Fortune magazine.

Obama--Marketer of the Year!?!

Not surprisingly Ad Age has named Barack Obama Marketer of the Year. Check it out here.

His campaign team has had a firm grasp of branding, messaging and old-fashioned political ground organization. It's also been able to balance mass marketing with social media and niche marketing. Mr. Obama's team is led by chief strategist David Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe, both from agency AKP&D Message and Media.

I posted on this in April. Check it out here.

Political campaigning will be forever changed and I think McCain has struggled with inconsistent mixed messaging because his handlers don't understand that in the Internet age NOTHING can be hidden. Gaffes, goofs, mis-steps, skeletons in the closet and staying on message are all heightened and difficult to cover up...If this were 2004 I think it would be a different story. But we're looking 2009 in the eye and a new day appears to be dawning.

Content is King, Distribution is Queen

The adage "Content is King, Distribution is Queen" is as true today as it was in the late 90s when the Internet was taking off and everyone was trying to get "eyeballs."

I saw this and it piqued my interest. Bypassing normal distribution channels and going direct to the people. Interesting from a mainstream director and surely one of the first and likely only the tip of the iceberg. This will only increase in the future.

You Had to See This Coming

Woe to the Web start-ups...There is the quote "Those who forget history are bound to repeat it."


Ad Age has an article about the multitude of Web 2.0 start-ups who are having a tough go at it. I posted on this back in July.

My take hasn't changed in ensuing couple of months. Some cool apps have been born but that doesn't make a business.

The Cult of Personality

Via Good Grape. A nice presentation from Gary Vaynerchuk. This guy strikes envy and a bit of scorn, mostly the scorn because he has cultivated very shrewdly what most bloggers want.

His point is well taken. Companies must sit up and begin to listen to their customers and care about what they have to say. Customer Experience should be at the forefront and touch research, marketing and customer service...

Simple Genius

Credit goes to Marketing Technology Blog, a local blogger in Indiana, who dug up this stupidly simple email productivity change.

See also a few of my posts previously, here and here.

Strangely Humorous?

Via Ted

Reverse Hockey Stick

I do not pretend to know much about the market. However, I can say that I started following the market closely in 1998 when the tech bubble was bubbling. I was able to turn $1,000 into $500 pretty quickly.

Since then, I'd say I've paid attention. What scares me most right now is the fact that there are very few, if any, people out there that have seen this level of volatility. Black Monday in 1987 represented an approximate 20% drop in one day, but so far we're looking a near 40% clip so far with no real end in sight. Just a wee bit scary.

I'm not trying to time the market but I see continued volatility through the election and the Dow will go below 8,000 before it settles in for a long slow march back.

Trend Watching

Good site to check out to see early trends. Of course you can always check out Google Trends to see how your company or brand stacks up.

Brand Reputation Management

There is an article over at Ad Age about bloggers and their influence. This is not new, but interesting in how far the reach is when the reference is PBS Sprout. It's been discussed here on more than a few occasions, it is critical, vital for organizations to monitor blogs and the voice of the customer.


image via: Logic + Emotion

Stories that Stick

Good post over at Logic + Emotion regarding the importance of storytelling in marketing. I've touched on storytelling here and here and here.