Archive for the ‘Computers & Technology’ Category
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
It’s a good question, isn’t it?
Think about it: Imagine that you just purchased a digital signage system for your hospital. Let’s even take this a step further and presume that you bought, say, 10 media players. You now obviously need to get up to 10 screens, which leads to two questions:
 If your digital signage screen size placement is about as random as throwing darts at the wall, take a moment to think about the value of using smaller or larger screen and resolution configurations. • What size screens do you need?
• Where do those screens go?
Believe it or not, answers to those questions are relative to each other, starting with the most important question about where the screens go. Here’s why.
Virtually every digital signage vendor (including our digital signage solution, CaptivCast™) will tell you all of the exciting places that you can place a digital signage screen. Since we specialize in healthcare and hospitals, our suggestions and solutions are geared towards related locations such as hospital lobbies, waiting rooms, physician and nurse break areas, etc.
Depending on the information that you want to provide to whom—as well as where those recipients are expected to see and hear your message—you can then start analyzing the size of the screens you’ll need.
Last year, wirespring.com published a very compelling blog that featured very specific data about the best placements for a screen, based on the distance of the viewer from the screen, the angle from which they’d view the screen, and of course, the size and resolution of the screen.
To paraphrase their research, the most important thing to achieve is for people to be able to read the screen—which means that on-screen text needs to be at least two-inches tall.
Naturally, this means that if your screen is in a small space, you don’t need a massive screen…but you will definitely want to consider higher resolution.
On the other hand, if you are projecting information to people in a large space, then a large screen will be important, but resolution won’t be as important. Think of the difference between watching a TV in your home vs. watching a big screen in a stadium or arena.
Of course, there are even more geometric assessments to be considered, but the point is that as much careful thought should be given to digital signage screen placement as is given to content and playlist planning. If you are considering a digital signage system, be sure to do your research or to get advice from a qualified consultant.
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design is a leader in hospital communication content and strategy. With our CaptivCast™ digital signage system that is specially designed for hospitals, we can help you find the perfect balance of content and technology. Click here for an online demonstration or contact us for a free consultation!
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Friday, April 30th, 2010
Dayparting content for hospital digital signage systems is interesting because it’s a study of contrasts. Although digital signage for hospitals and healthcare systems reflects the leading edge of tech-related hospital marketing, dayparting is one of the oldest mass media strategies.
 What time is the best time for displaying content on your hospital’s digital signage screens? What is Dayparting?
Most simply, dayparting is targeting content and messages for a specific audience at specific times in the day.
For instance, when you think of Saturday mornings, what do you think of? Little kids watching cartoons, right? And what kinds of TV ads are most common on Saturday mornings? Toys, games, sugary cereals, etc., right?
Now think of Saturday night. You are now probably thinking about a very different audience, programming and ads, huh?
Digital Signage Dayparting at Hospitals
Now think about your hospital and all of the different people that come and go at different times. Take this a step further and think about where you have (or could have) digital signage screens.
How can you best take advantage of these unique audiences? Here are some tips:
• Identify the shifts. What are the key periods of time where you notice marked differences between audiences? Morning? Lunch? Night? Weekdays? Weekends?
• Identify your audiences. Who looks at your messages? Patients? Staff? Vendors or other visitors?
• Analyze your existing media and content. What types of media and content get the most attention? Announcements? Slideshows? Videos? Real-time news and “tickers”?
Charting Your Dayparting
Where are the intersections between audience, schedules and content? Finding these points are where you are most likely going to have the effective dayparting schedules and content.
One of the most effective ways to experiment with plotting schedules is to use colored index cards and a tackboard, just like they do in network television.
Create a grid of your screens on the Y-axis and your optimal time shifts on the X-axis. Are there any cells that are particularly dominated by an audience? If so, what content might be most appealing or relevant?
That’s the basics of dayparting. Like planning network television, a successful schedule requiring lots of experimenting and analysis, as well as excellent content. Good luck!
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design’s CaptivCast™ digital signage system was expressly designed for hospitals and healthcare systems. Get a free online demo and see how easy it is to use digital signage!
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Monday, April 19th, 2010
If you are a regular follower of this blog or are familiar with AVID Design, you’ll know that we have quite a bit of experience and passion for interactive healthcare marketing—particularly in the areas of Website design, content and social media.
But did you know we also do digital signage for hospitals?
For the past few years, we’ve been consistently improving our award-winning digital signage solution, CaptivCast™. More recently, we’ve upped our attention towards marketing the brand, starting with a recently launched, fully redesigned Website, www.captivcast.com. Check it out and tell us what you think. Does it look good? Does it give you the information you’d need to make a decision about using our product?
Let’s Talk About Digital Signage, Shall We?
Ironically, despite our regular social media participation and contributions to several related healthcare marketing topics, digital signage has not been one of them.
Until now.
In the coming days and weeks, expect to see and hear more from us about this exciting technology. As advocates of integrated marketing strategies for hospitals and healthcare systems—such as economic repurposing of content—digital signage is a technology and medium that we believe hospital marketers will increasingly depend upon, not at all unlike mobile.
Of course, social media is a conversation, which means that in addition to the ideas, concepts and topics that we find interesting, we’d like to know what subjects matter most to you.
What is it about digital signage for hospitals that you find most fascinating? Frustrating? Confusing? Exciting? Let us know!
Let’s get this discussion started…
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
Visit the new CaptivCast™ Website to request an online demonstration or request a quick price quote.
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
At long last, we’re finally chiming in on the soon-to-be-released Apple iPad—specifically with how the iPad and hospital marketing may or may be a compelling and pragmatic match.
 Leave the “what can iPad do for hospitals” to the doctors and nurses…and let’s start discussing what iPad (and mobile computing) can do for hospital and healthcare marketing. This certainly won’t be the last time we’ll discuss the topic. However, despite the predictable hype about iPad, little is being said elsewhere about iPad and hospital marketing.
For the most part, online discussions have leaned more towards iPad’s potential as a medical device used by doctors, physicians and nurses—rather than how it can be used in healthcare marketing by people like you and me.
Case in point: Google “ipad hospital use” and the search engine results page (SERP) will return many articles and blogs on the subject (most of which don’t offer high hopes for iPad as a medical device).
On the other hand, Google “ipad hospital marketing” and the SERP will return very little relevant or interesting content on the subject.
To be fair, it’s hard to seriously talk about industrial applications of a product like iPad that technically only exists on paper since it hasn’t been released yet.
In fact, even the speculated release dates for iPad are still a bit hazy (or at least the more powerful model with 3G; the Wi-Fi model will be release April 3).
Additionally, critics have been quick to point to surveys and other research that predict failure for iPad.
Fair Warning to Healthcare Marketers: It’s Too Soon to Make iPad Judgments
Nonetheless, one shouldn’t be too hasty about predictions of iPad’s imminent failure—much as we as healthcare marketers shouldn’t be too quick to ignore the potential of not only iPad, but also mobile/tablet computing and communications in general.
After all, this is classic Apple territory. You know that li’l thing called the iPod, the mp3 player of which they’ve sold 75 million units? Well, Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player—but they did innovate the device, its utility, its content, and its marketing.
If you look at the original iPod and some of its descendents (e.g., the Shuffle, the Nano), it’s evident that Apple is not afraid to modify its products until it can get one in the every hand. Really, when you think about it, the iPad is very much a descendent of iPod (although more of a distant cousin, related through marriage to the iPhone).
Likewise, Apple didn’t invent tablet, “netbook” or mobile computing. But, if Apple’s involvement in this technology can affect it the way iPod did, then we are on the dawn of a massive boom in mobile/tablet communications—an arena that significantly impacts what most of us do for a living as healthcare marketers.
For the last decade or so, it’s been mostly about desktop/laptop computers. But in the past few years—especially with the proliferation of social media—it’s been increasingly about mobile/cellular phones, a technology that many healthcare and hospital marketers are still trying to leverage.
Although it’s future might not be certain, one thing is: If iPad succeeds, it will very certainly impact healthcare marketing and communications.
Now we just need to figure out how! Thoughts?
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
AVID Design is a leader in healthcare and hospital marketing strategy and content development.
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Posted in Computers & Technology, Marketing | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 25th, 2009
My AVID Design colleague Andy Darnell (who also contributes to this blog) recently sent me a compelling blog by Seth Godin: “The Platform vs. the Eyeballs.”
Godin offers a very interesting perspective on something that most healthcare marketers probably already realize: With the radical shifts in marketing (especially with online media), marketers no longer temporarily rent audiences, but they build them for long-term relationships—primarily because they can now control and own the platforms on which their audiences are assembled.
OK, that’s a very concise and accurate perspective, as are some of the other ideas that he presents in the blog.
However, where Godin misses the mark is by making an implied assertion that seriously conflicts with our philosophy about interactive marketing, and it rings true whether you are in healthcare or not: Do not abandon traditional marketing techniques. For example, Godin suggests transferring one’s budget for a Yellow Pages ad into a budget for an online platform.
As a company that relies on Website design, SEO and other online services to make its bread and butter, we are certainly not going to disagree with anybody that makes a case for embracing online marketing.
However, we also believe that having a diverse and integrated marketing strategy—which yes, includes old school techniques like billboards, print, radio and TV, etc.—still has utility in contemporary marketing.
When used in conjunction online marketing techniques, not only can a marketer access audiences that are not on a “platform” that they can control, but they can possibly encourage that audience to explore the new media platform that a marketer can control.
Does your hospital have a trusted and reliable partner to build, manage and plan your online marketing strategies? AVID Design offers free assessments for Websites, content, strategy and more.
My AVID Design colleague Andy Darnell (who also contributes to this blog) recently sent me a compelling blog by Seth Godin: “The Platform vs. the Eyeballs.”
 Godin offers a very interesting perspective on something that most healthcare marketers probably already realize: With the radical shifts in marketing (especially with online media), marketers no longer temporarily rent audiences, but they build them for long-term relationships—primarily because they can now control and own the platforms on which their audiences are assembled.
OK, that’s a very concise and accurate perspective, as are some of the other ideas that he presents in the blog.
However, where Godin misses the mark is by making an implied assertion that seriously conflicts with our philosophy about interactive marketing, and it rings true whether you are in healthcare or not: Do not abandon traditional marketing techniques. For example, Godin suggests transferring one’s budget for a Yellow Pages ad into a budget for an online platform.
As a company that relies on Website design, SEO and other online services to make its bread and butter, we are certainly not going to disagree with anybody that makes a case for embracing online marketing.
However, we also believe that having a diverse and integrated marketing strategy—which yes, includes old school techniques like billboards, print, radio and TV, etc.—still has utility in contemporary marketing.
When used in conjunction online marketing techniques, not only can a marketer access audiences that are not on a “platform” that they can control, but they can possibly encourage that audience to explore the new media platform that a marketer can control.
Does your hospital have a trusted and reliable partner to build, manage and plan your online marketing strategies? AVID Design offers free assessments for Websites, content, strategy and more.
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
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