Discover how you can revolutionize your recruitment strategy and ensure top visibility for your job listings.

Healthcare’s success hinges on recruiting talent by aligning with Millennial and Gen Z trends and preferences.

What you do on your social media pages to support the buyer’s journey can have a significant impact on sales of products and/or services.

Physician vacancies cost healthcare millions in lost revenue and increased operational costs, jeopardizing sustainability.

Consider AI for drafting job descriptions but rely on human insight for quality and brand alignment.

Boost your hiring by enhancing the online candidate experience—our upcoming series will show you how.

Introducing a new measure of an employer’s brand strength that is more inclusive than Net Promoter Score.

Year-round, AB&Cers engage in individual volunteer activities, and the agency as a whole offers opportunities to support local causes through events such as community walks, donations drives and more. But as a marketing communications agency that is always focused on innovating stronger strategies, we decided in May 2023 that it was time to apply “strategy” to elevate our impact on our neighbors and neighborhoods.

On July 5, Meta launched its Twitter competitor: Threads, an Instagram App. Appearing in the App Store a day ahead of the announced launch date, Threads attracted at least 10 million signups—including celebrities, brands and political figures—within seven hours of launch, according to Meta. Billed as “a new app for sharing text updates and joining […]

Most of the marketing world is based on precedents. We base our metrics and budgets on prior years’ results. We schedule the same way — peak season and off-season, planning time, production time, media buying — it’s mostly based on what we did last year. Obviously, 2021 isn’t going to work that way. 2020 threw […]

In January 2016, I wrote a blog titled “Four Marketing Resolutions for 2016.” I cited research identifying that “people who write down their specific resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t make specific resolutions.”[1] So I made my marketing resolutions public: Contribute to the growth and success of […]

At 11:59 p.m. on December 31, 2019, the ball started dropping and decided to make a year of it. Like everyone else, I wish I could close the lid to this dumpster fire, but there are some things even a trash fire can illuminate. And those are the things that I never want to lose […]

By David Brond, Elizabeth Cohen and Linda McAleer Multiple articles have been written about the important role parents play in their child’s college decision. Most higher education marketers and enrollment professionals agree that a parent’s powerful influence in guiding high school students throughout the college application and admission process is often unmatched by any other […]

Current COVID-19 trends indicate that we are on the other side of the peak in most places in the U.S. States have lifted stay-at-home orders, and we’re all starting to experience what our new normal looks like. This means that while critical care units and emergency departments are still treating COVID-19 patients every day, the […]

Communicating that it is safe to get preventative care such as mammograms is essential to getting healthcare kick-started. With the advent of consumerism and the preponderance of healthcare information, we now have an “army” of informed healthcare consumers in our country. Where have they been during this pandemic? What happened to preventative medicine or annual […]

By David Brond and Kathleen Doyle The world as we knew it has changed. This is also true across the entire landscape of higher education. May 1 was National College Decision Day, the traditional deadline for high school seniors to pick their college or university. In 2020 unfortunately, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this important […]

All the best brand managers revise their messaging platforms to reflect changes in the market. They do this to remain relevant to their consumers and their markets. Now is the time for healthcare marketers to look at their positioning and message platforms to determine if they need revisions. During this pandemic, two competing images of […]

Amid the current coronavirus situation, some organizations may be tempted to implement a “wait and see” approach to marcom. However, now is not the time to cut branding or market research efforts. For healthcare organizations there is an obvious need to focus short-term priorities on the Coronavirus pandemic and its day-to-day impact on human and […]

It’s in the news every day. This pandemic is crippling some hospitals’ resources, while others are ready and waiting. But all hospitals have stopped elective procedures and are experiencing that impact on their revenue. Some have even been forced to furlough employees and staff. But what can we as marketers do to help? Many of […]

We’ve heard a lot about the importance of thanking essential workers during this pandemic. At AB&C, we’d like to make this a little easier for you. We have designed a series of posters/ads that we will customize for you to use as a print ad or as a poster displayed in your hospitals. We will […]

Healthcare organizations have become pretty marketing savvy over the past several years. They tend to excel in having a strong brand promise, backed up by people-focused missions, visions and values. People entering the industry—especially those in direct clinical care roles—tend to be extremely mission-driven. They want to help and serve others. And that’s what they […]

Healthcare SEM in the midst of a pandemic. One thing that we can depend on is change. It’s a constant. But the massive change we’ve experienced over the past two weeks has been unsettling. Marketers are beginning to second-guess all their marketing strategies. Many are fielding nervous questions from executive teams and wondering if they […]

By Lenny Prosser, Account Services Intern As a recent college graduate, I often reflect on the lessons I’ve learned over the past 3 1/2 years. Aside from the many lectures I’ve sat through, late hours studying in the library and weekends spent with friends, I have one major takeaway: the value of relationships. College is […]

After 18 years, the unemployment scales have finally tipped, and we’re seeing more available jobs than unemployed individuals. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Eric Morath, “U.S. job openings rose to 6.7 million at the end of April [2018], compared with the 6.3 million Americans who were unemployed.” It’s the first time this has happened since […]

While many healthcare providers have been late adopters of digital marketing (as compared to other industries), it is fair to say that, as of 2018 it is now a cornerstone of most healthcare marketing programs. And that prominence comes from success and lessons learned—some good, some not so good—about both general and digital marketing. Just […]

Marketing dashboards are an essential deliverable for any marketing team. Senior leaders want to know what they are getting for their investment in marketing, and how marketing will advance their strategic plan. And for marketers, it is important to document how effective you were in achieving your stated goals. So, where to begin? In this […]

Inevitably at some point during your healthcare marketing career you will be faced with bringing a new brand to market. As you do, it is critical to stay focused on the strategic and business objectives of your organization, while also protecting the equity of your brand. The following scenarios describe bringing a new brand to […]

Over the past four-plus decades, AB&C has worked with some of the most premier healthcare systems across this country—large and small—and we greatly value those relationships. But great agency-client relationships just don’t happen; they take true commitment by both parties to be successful. And over the years, we have learned what makes a great working […]

Every once in a while, a campaign comes along, and you know that it’s special. Maybe it’s a cause that you strongly believe in, a story that needs to be told or the creative is just really unique. I guess that’s how I felt from the very beginning about MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute’s “Living Donor” […]

In my experience as a hospital chief marketing officer (CMO) and in working at AB&C with healthcare CMOs, I’ve found a number of attributes that serve a person well in this role. On Innovation Enterprise, which provides leading-edge ideas and information on a variety of key business channels, Rose Johnstone identifies a number of these […]

Healthcare organizations have always struggled with measuring return on marketing investment (ROMI), mostly because of multiple systems of data collection that don’t speak to one another. But with the advent of new “tools,” that challenge is getting easier — if you have the building blocks in place. Here are some examples of how leading organizations […]

We know a few things to be true about popular brands. They exist. They tend to offer a product or service. They have a physical space or online presence. They have identifiable brand attributes. And they are vetted over time through consumer experiences and perception. Based on these truths, it seems safe to assume that […]

Most health systems/hospitals have an affiliated and/or employed medical group. The exception is California, where the corporate practice of medicine prohibits employment of physicians by systems or hospitals. Some medical groups are faculty models, while others are the result of groups that have merged under one umbrella, and can have primary care and specialty services […]

If you followed a systematic approach to build a new brand (or refreshed an existing one), you started with discovery research. You then developed a brand mantra to inform how your brand would be articulated to internal audiences and the outside world. Finally, you created or refined the outward expressions, such as the name, mark […]

In professional communications of any kind, proper punctuation is essential. But this is especially true for marketing communications, where the copy helps define a brand. Grammar and punctuation mistakes can result in a loss of credibility—for both the agency and its clients. Here are a few tips for avoiding common mistakes. The Comma The goal […]

As branding experts, we have developed our own vocabulary for what we do and how we help organizations define and present themselves to consumers. We use terminology like “brand architecture,” “platform,” “positioning,” “promise,” “proof point,” “personality,” “identity” and “tag line” to describe how we create, communicate and control the attributes of a brand. An important […]

Every healthcare marketing and communications (MarCom) leader has heard this question from a service line or physician leader. Somehow, a newsletter is going to put their program on the map, drive volume, attract new referring physicians and make them profitable. But isn’t this the same fantasy thinking that supports billboards as business drivers? At AB&C, we […]

By Maria Antonelli, Andrea Ferrino, Elizabeth Gluck, Jennifer Harris, Lauren Bentley, Amanda Kalbrosky and Elizabeth Howarth Earlier this month, the Philly Ad Club hosted its annual Women in Advertising event, where a panel of women in advertising and communications imparted their knowledge to a room of marketers (men and women). The panelists—each with a different […]

A new year is upon us, and I, for one, am more excited than ever because 2018 seems to finally be the year that social media has a seat at the big kids’ table. Social is here to stay, so brands need to make sure they’re doing everything they can to kill it with their […]

You’ve heard about it. You’ve seen the results. Maybe you’ve even been part of a rebranding effort. But do you really understand what branding means? Some people think a brand is a company’s logo and colors. Others say that it’s a vision statement and mission, or an advertising campaign. It’s actually all of these things—and […]

Behavior change marketing, also known as social marketing, is a term used by public health professionals to describe a marketing effort that aims to increase awareness of a social issue and change a behavior that is unhealthy. For example: Use sunscreen. Recycle. Be physically active. Wear a seat belt. Don’t smoke. But how exactly can […]

Nobody has to tell you that the B2B sales cycle differs greatly from that of a B2C. For one, a B2B sale typically involves a much larger expense. It’s also a highly vetted decision, and not often an impulsive one. Specifiers, designers, engineers and choosy purchasing agents rarely rush to buy your product or service […]

If you are a company that values collaboration, innovation and teamwork, then you might want to consider replacing the staff coffee break with something a little more mentally stimulating for your employees. The creators of Vine released a new game that is the perfect midday brain-break. HQ is a trending trivia app that users can […]

The holidays always elicit a flashback to the one thing that wasn’t so “joyous” for me as a kid: the thank-you notes. Many of us had parents who made us write to everyone who gave us presents—and not just during the holidays either. For us kids, it was a chore. In retrospect, I now see […]

As a managing director at AB&C, I often attend events on behalf of my firm, where I walk into a room and strike up a conversation with complete strangers, or give the opening remarks to a crowd of unfamiliar faces. Today, I get excited about these opportunities to promote our agency. But once upon a […]

It’s one thing to claim a diverse workforce or patient population. It’s another thing to nurture a genuine culture of inclusion — one in which everyone feels welcomed and valued, one in which everyone can contribute to his or her fullest potential to achieve organizational objectives. This is where the rubber meets the road. Organizations […]

Before reading further, please to do me a favor: Dismiss any notion you have that influencer marketing is just the latest buzz term for “celebrity endorsement.” Celebrity endorsements attach your brand to a big name (a Michael Jordan of the 1990s, if you will) in order to hit anyone and everyone. Influencer marketing is much […]

When it comes to new technology, marketers are often like a newborn playing with a set of keys. It’s new. It’s shiny. And we just need to have it and play with it. But, just because it is new and cool doesn’t mean that it’s the right fit, and often marketers adopt a new technology […]

By Megan Egan and Samantha Mueller There’s something uniquely empowering about sharing a room with 12,000 women (and a few brave men) at the largest annual gathering of women in the country. It was a day where the world’s most influential women—among them former First Lady Michelle Obama and writer, executive producer and creator of […]

That’s it. The world is ending. These millennials are going to ruin what is great about our businesses. You know, they’re lazy. They don’t communicate well. They’re completely self-absorbed. They’re… they’re… going to do amazing things if we allow them to! I’ve been helping national leaders recruit talent for more than 15 years, and I’ve […]

Gone are the days when the “newness” of a news item was ample motivation to get people interested and mobilized to support a cause, buy a product or develop brand loyalty. Think about it: When was the last time you saw a press conference—including those at the White House—that didn’t include at least one member […]

What is Google for Jobs? When posting open job opportunities on the web, you may find that the same job posting appears in the search results from multiple job sites, through an applicant tracking system (ATS) or on a corporate careers page. To remove these redundant and often confusing search results for job seekers, Google […]

Recently, I was reacquainted with The Art of Client Service, a must-read for any aspiring account executive eager to set his or her agency (and the ad world) on fire. Flipping through the pages, I wondered why there was never a companion piece, The Art of Being a Great Client. Looking back on the countless […]

So, your business needs a marketing communications agency. Where do you start? Common sense tells you to ask for recommendations, look up agencies that you’ve heard have a good reputation and do lots of internet research. Even if my intention for this blog was to offer you advice on starting an agency search, I couldn’t—not […]

Ever since there’s been the practice of marketing communications, there’s been a concept inseparable from it: the customer journey. If you understood your target audience and could communicate effectively at each stage of their purchasing journey, you’d do OK in the marcom profession. Historically, that journey was the equivalent of a Sunday drive. The customer […]

A client once told me, “I don’t need to be bothered with digital media reports.” For digital media professionals, this statement stops the music, and we refrain from asking the obvious question out loud: “If you don’t care about the results, why did you even bother to invest money in this campaign?” Of course this […]

After more than a decade of managing a marketing communications agency as a partner and chief creative director, making the step up to CEO shouldn’t be that big of a deal, right? I believed this as I prepared to step into the shoes of our retiring CEO, John Hawkins, the agency’s founder and my friend […]

More and more, job boards are publishing salary information. Should you include accurate salary information in your job postings? As “candidate-friendly” websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, kununu, CareerBliss and Google publish salary estimates, companies are feeling the pressure to release competitive salary information. When a nurse searches for jobs, and finds results with five levels of […]

One of the most important drivers of business for any organization — of any size — is referrals from satisfied customers. Meeting or exceeding customers’ expectations creates a long-term relationship and loyalty, which leads to referrals. And loyalty can pay off — loyal customers are worth up to 10 times their initial purchase value. Measuring satisfaction to […]

In a world full of noise, how do you get people to actually read what you write? It takes more than good content and design. The most important part of writing is the headline. My advice? Be bold. Be brief. Be relevant. Because without a great headline hook to pull people into your article or ad, they’ll […]

If you’ve found that your outbound marketing efforts are becoming less effective over time, then read on. You may have noticed that your email blasts to purchased lists of unqualified prospects, cold-calls and direct mailers are no longer generating the quantity and quality of leads needed to fill the top of your sales funnel—leaving your […]

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” This directive was identified by management consultant, educator and author Peter F. Drucker, whose writings contributed to the practical foundation of the modern business corporation. Today, marketing plays an ever-increasing role in creating and growing businesses and brands by connecting organizations with current and […]

If you’re Skyping into a live TV interview from your home office, make sure you lock the door! Robert Kelly, a professor of political science at South Korea’s Pusan National University, learned this lesson the hard way after his two children stole the spotlight during his March 2017 BBC interview. Professor Kelly was discussing the […]

This February, I represented PRSSA-UD at one of the Public Relations Student Society of America’s Delaware Chapter (PRSA-DE) networking events. As I sipped coffee and ate some of the provided refreshments, I listened to Dave Brond from Aloysius Butler & Clark (AB&C) and Cortney Klein from WSFS Bank discuss the elements of an effective strategic […]

What Is Mindfulness? The word itself is straightforward. Mindfulness suggests that the mind is full with what is happening around us, inside our bodies or with the task at hand. Yet finding that intensely present and aware mind is hardly an easy task. It seems that when we are doing one thing, our mind is […]

By Megan Egan, Dayna Hawco, Elizabeth Howarth, Paige Miller and Caity Smith Earlier this month, the Philly Ad Club hosted its annual “Women in Advertising” event at the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown. A panel composed of six successful women in advertising and communications imparted their knowledge to the female (and male) marketers in the room. The […]

Let’s pretend it’s 2010. Your friend asks, “Have you been listening to this podcast?” Everyone stares blankly at said individual because they’re thinking podcasts are those weird audio recordings that loners produce in their parents’ basement when they’re not crushing the high score in DDR at the local arcade. Fast-forward to 2017. Podcasts like Serial, […]

Twenty-four hours later, the dust is finally settling. This Super Bowl will, without a doubt, go down in the history books as one of the greatest games of all time. The dust is also settling on the Monday morning quarterback blitz of advertisers and creatives dissecting and ranking all our favorite ads. This year—and maybe […]

Whether your organization is large or small, it can benefit from greater awareness, more leads and higher sales by unleashing the power of your employees to serve as business-building brand ambassadors. Your employees have their own network of friends and potential referrals with whom they can share your brand and marketing messages and stories. Employees […]

By Erin Mulrooney, Ashley Shuey and Megan Egan No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, the 2016 presidential election has been entertaining, unconventional and thought-provoking, with much owed to online media—and social media in particular. And as we take a look at the election through the digital media lens, it begs the question: […]

As marketers, we’re pretty good at defining audience groups within our target market, identifying their pain points and developing messaging that addresses those points. On a good day, we even come up with unique messaging for each audience segment. But there’s one segment that most marketers forget, ignore or consider to be “not our problem”—existing […]

The 2016 Olympics are now history and for a short time this summer we were witness to amazing athletic feats demonstrating perseverance, competitiveness, national pride, raw talent, strength, agility, beauty and grace. Always a marketer, I will remember these Olympics for the athletic achievements of the individuals and teams that competed, and their stories, both […]

If you asked anyone during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games who would be the most talked about U.S. athlete come the end of the games, we can guarantee you no one would’ve answered Ryan Lochte. Yet, even with Michael Phelps swimming his final Olympic event, winning more gold medals than any […]

Congratulations! You’ve completed an exhaustive RFP process and have a shiny new agency that you can’t wait to take for a spin. I’m sure you asked all the necessary questions, so there shouldn’t be any surprises now that it’s time to get down to solving all of your marketing communications challenges. The only question that […]

During my undergraduate years as a geography and economics major, a professor shared his belief that everything in the world can be related to geography, because geography is the spatial science focused on where things are and why they occur there. Geographers seek to answer questions related to location, place, spatial pattern and interaction when […]

Inspiration is defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” Motivation, stimulation and encouragement are powerful forces for human beings. Together they lead to inspiration, which spurs creativity, inventiveness and brilliance. In my opinion, inspiration can motivate individuals to […]

By Amanda Kalbrosky, Paige Miller and Caity Smith On June 30th, the 7th annual Social Media Day—a global day of recognition for the growing collection of social platforms—was held at our favorite middle school field trip destination: The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Speakers from more than 30 organizations shared their insights on everything from the […]

By David Brond and Samantha Oscar Content marketing—the business process focused on creating and distributing relevant and valuable information to attract and engage target audiences with the objective of driving action—is one of today’s business-growth strategies getting a lot of attention from marketers in many organizations, including those in healthcare. And with good reason. According […]

June 1 marks the 119th anniversary of Mark Twain’s well-known quote: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” It seems an appropriate time then to report that any rumor suggesting that marketing is dead (and branding is meaningless) is also an exaggeration. Last month, SSRS, a full-service market and survey research firm (www.ssrs.com), completed […]

“We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” —Tom Peters The term “personal branding” was first coined in 1997 by leading business-management thinker Tom Peters. A personal brand is formed by an individual’s professional reputation […]

Congratulations. Your organization’s leaders have decided to establish a new positioning statement, brand platform, externally facing mission statement and even a new slogan. And they want you to come up with concepts and copy to get the message out. Now what? Before you jump in head first, put together a work plan to collect marketplace […]

Facebook has heard its users’ feedback loud and clear. For years, the networking conglomerate has been receiving requests for a “Dislike” button in addition to the “Like” button (I submitted one of those requests). On February 24, after many months of user testing in a number of countries, Facebook delivered so much more than a […]

Let’s say you run a successful organization, and you’re asked to co-brand your business with another business. There are several good reasons for doing this, and a few things to consider to ensure you do it right. Co-branding makes sense when the two brands can promote a unified message to achieve the following goals: Responding […]

Companies use social media as a way to receive feedback, engage with consumers, and market new products or ideas. But they share a common challenge when communicating on such a content-rich platform: It’s hard to stand out. Until now. Twitter has introduced a new way to view your timeline by showing you tweets you’re “most […]

I’m here to say, it’s 2016 and marketing has changed. A lot. Marketing is no longer centered around your product, but your customer. Now’s a good time to update your marketing plan (you have a marketing plan, right?). Make it your road map for this year’s marketing initiatives. Use it to set goals that you […]

In the end, designating an advertising Agency of Record (AOR) for your organization should be a decision based on the strategic, long-term marketing and communication needs of your stakeholders in your marketplace. I know what you’re thinking. My conclusion may sound biased, since I am employed by a full-service ad agency, I can also offer […]

How do you use social media in public relations? I’m not asking how you write a social media strategy for your clients, or how you adapt social messaging across different platforms, or how you’ve run a social contest, or how you’ve leveraged Periscope at an event. I’m asking if you, as a PR professional, are […]

The New Year gives us a clean slate and an opportunity to make resolutions to improve our lives. Typical goals and resolutions include losing weight, exercising more, improving finances, getting a new job or procrastinating less. Which, I’m sure we’ll all fully accomplish this year. Yeah, right. According to recent research published in the University […]

As a public relations professional working in the 21st century, I am reminded every day about the importance of combining traditional tactics with (the ever-growing in popularity) practices from the wonderful world of technology. Social media, search engine optimization and big data analysis—to name a few—are not going away any time soon, but many of […]

Reorganization. If your organization is going through it, you’re also going to have to deal with reorganizing a very important marketing function: media buying. You have three approaches to choose from, each with merits and disadvantages: centralized, decentralized or a hybrid. With the centralized approach, you consolidate all media buying for each division and service […]

PR professionals have gotten a bad rap, stereotyped as cutthroat, competitive communicators who are constantly stressing out, skating around the truth and drinking excessive amounts of coffee (well, we do drink a lot of coffee). But despite the generalization, PR pros can actually do good. Did I say that loud enough? We can do good. Recently, […]

I’m no writer. Which might become evident as you make your way through this. When I was in college, nobody told me how important writing would be once I landed a marketing job. Maybe they didn’t think it was important because of how fast everything in marketing and advertising changes. But I’ve come to accept […]

Almost 400 people took the Business and Labor Resources Employment Branding Survey this past June. The results highlight the importance of marketing and human resources professionals working together to build and maintain an employment brand. Slightly more than one quarter (26.6%) of survey respondents said their organization has an employment brand program—i.e., “a program directed […]

If you scour our website and blog, you’ll see the words “brand” and “branding” popping up all over the place. It’s at the very core of what we do, so naturally we like to talk about it. What makes our jobs more fun is when our clients adopt that same love and appreciation for branding […]

  by: Kathleen Doyle and Michael English While we’ve heard rumblings in the industry about the demise of Flash for some time, it has become a reality only recently. Here’s a quick history of the rocky relationship between the Internet and Flash. Back in 2007, Apple chose not to allow a Flash player plugin on […]

In my career I have built, enhanced and even created numerous brands for multiple organizations in healthcare, higher education, and other industries. And people always ask me, “How long does it take to establish a brand?” My answer: five years. In the first phase, you’ll develop your brand. This requires qualitative and quantitative marketplace, stakeholder […]

The term “diversity” is popping up more and more in in the news and within our organizations. Why? Diversity is great for business—it’s a key driver of innovation, and it’s crucial for companies that want to attract top talent. Diversity and inclusion (D&I) is no longer just “training” that your employer requires you to complete—it’s […]

While business owners keep the doors open, change agents do that and more. They constantly challenge the status quo and find new ways to achieve greater success—and then work tirelessly to ensure that success. These driven people share four traits: They invest in good people. Success hinges upon the people you surround yourself with. Change […]

If you’re not a millennial, you probably have a mental image of how we behave—we can’t put our phones down, we can’t pay attention to anything for more than a few seconds, we aren’t following the traditional 9–5 workday and we can be kind of difficult. It’s all true. But we’re also an important demographic—and […]

Whether you have separate teams dedicated to marketing and new business development, or you have one person responsible for both, you need to start an inbound marketing program. What makes inbound so important? Let’s start with something everyone (especially our b2b clients) realizes: The buyer’s journey has changed. There’s now this Zero Moment of Truth—the moment […]