A little self promotion never hurt anyone...

OK, so a little self promotion for our firm…

This past month, The Milenthal Group launched a terrific campaign for our client, CareSource. CareSource is a Medicaid care coordination plan – the largest in Ohio, the fourth largest in the nation, with over 765,000 members in Ohio and Michigan. We’ve been working with this client to thrust them onto the national scene as it relates to health care reform. They are a unique company in how they operate and care for members. When our national leadership talks about reducing costs while increasing quality, CareSource is a company that aligns well with this concept.

Anyway, I encourage you to check out a few of the marketing tactics we launched this month. We created a blog – www.ourhealthcaresource.com – as a destination for CareSource to project its points of view relative to health care reform. Please visit the site, feel free to comment on the posts, and definitely sign up for the newsletter and RSS feed.

We’ve also launched several social network platforms to support the blog, so please join/follow:

- Facebook

- LinkedIn

- Twitter

- YouTube

And you can find us on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and all the relevant social network sites.

The blog is the centerpiece of the campaign. But it’s supported by:

- Advertising in Roll Call – Washington DC’s premiere political rag

- Event sponsorships through Congressional Quarterly

- Online advertising (banners, links, splash pages, etc.)

- An ONN television program that aired about 1-week ago with Sen. Brown, Rep. Kilroy, Rep. Space, Rep. Sutton, Mary Jo Hudson (Director of Ohio Department of Insurance) and Douglas Lumpkin (Director of ODJFS)

And in mid-October (10/13 to be exact), we are putting on an incredible event in Washington D.C. with Congresspeople that will include a keynote speaker (Sen. Harkin is our likely keynote), a panel discussion and a unique exercise called the Poverty Simulator where attendees will role-play what it’s like to be poor in America. This is a great simulation that CareSource uses often within their organization to help its employees appreciate the hardships that their members go through day in and day out.

Our tagline for CareSource is “Health Care Our Country Can Build On”, and our expectation is that in the coming months, CareSource will be pointed to as an ideal model in this new era of health care that is expected to come to fruition.

This client is the perfect example of “transformational times calling for transformational ways”. And because you are friends and colleagues, I just wanted to share a bit of what we’ve been up to…hope you don’t mind.

Thanks for your support, and remember to visit www.ourhealthcaresource.com.

"Outcomes. Not Outputs." That's Transformation!

I’m sure this blog entry is going to get some blood boiling by my industry colleagues – who are good friends and smart people. But I can’t help but notice that many PR and lobbying firms out there are still promoting the same old line tactics and outputs for their clients while the world as we know it is transforming.

That’s why The Milenthal Group is so successfully pursuing new business with the mantra “Outcomes. Not Outputs.” So what does this mean?

For PR and lobbying firms, “outputs” are measured by the number of mentions in the paper or the number of legislators visited. It’s an important tactic, but it is just that…a tactic. And it hinges on winning desperate short term battles year to year rather than building solid, long-term success. Granted, many of the businesses or organizations we meet with are consumed with these tangible, short term results – “Get me in Business First.”; “Make sure you get me a meeting...” “Stop this." “Protect me from that.”

It’s so short-sighted for clients to wait until it’s too late to start with these desperate tactics, rather than first honing in on the power and centrality of what they are trying to sell or advocate. Why in earth’s name do most entities wait until the train is leaving the station before they set the context of how the stakeholder should think of us? Always too late----and way too often a dollar short.

Aiming at permanent outcomes, however, is quite a bit different. Permanent outcomes are achieved through strategic planning, brand development, message platforms, forming and amplifying your points-of-view around a topic or issue that makes the ultimate goal an affirmation of your capability---- not a Hail Mary pass to stop something or avoid it.

Outcomes are measured by achieving permanent goals – like becoming the voice for Ohio health and wellness…or positioning your company for a new era of health care…or teaching the state that alternatives to oil can be produced right here in Ohio…or that Ohio agriculture offers multi-faceted opportunities to feed the world and sustain energy independence. We see that clients that are open to the idea of achieving long term outcomes are typically in a transformational stage…they are rebranding themselves, positioning themselves for the birth of a new industry or a new attitude or a new arena to play in.

A press release in the newspaper or a sit down with a legislator or a DVR-deleted TV ad may be part of what we do, but they are now only a small component of what works in today’s world. To achieve ultimate outcomes, we turn our efforts to transformational marketing approaches – provocative blogging, coalition building, social network marketing, experiential marketing, custom television shows, etc. We understand that in these transformation times, clients need transformational packaging and transformational communications systems. Success to our clients means being positioned as a “new” organization driving a point of view as the dust swirls…and then standing atop the heap once the dust of change has settled.

The world has reset itself, friends. Are you going to reset with it or pretend you can recover the past?

Jon Milenthal is vice president of The Milenthal Group – a strategic marketing firm focused on helping "game changers" transition from ideation to commercialization, or from public unawareness to mass movement by helping develop their missions, create brands, establish persuasive selling propositions and find a powerful voice in today's new ideology and new economy.

Social Networking – Changing the game of word-of-mouth

The Holy Grail for any brand is to attain positive word-of-mouth buzz from its constituents. Through all of my schooling and experience as a marketer, word-of-mouth has been deemed the pinnacle of any marketing strategy.

In the years before the Internet, word-of-mouth was a difficult marketing ploy to initiate and manage. However, today, digital social networking has absolutely made the integration of a word-of-mouth strategy attainable. With the advent of such Internet sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, and the incorporation of comment bulletin boards and product rankings tools in virtually every e-commerce site, integrating social networking into your marketing plan has never been easier…and it’s actually become a critical means to accomplishing your marketing objectives.

Barack Obama showed the world how powerful social networking is to creating a movement. By the end of his campaign, Obama had almost 3-million Facebook “friends”. He put millions of dollars into online advertising, and he raised millions online at $10 or $20 at a time…all through social networking and online platforms. Now, we look to this new way of campaigning to transcend to a new way of governing, where Obama will continue to leverage – and grow – his vast network to gain public opinion around his initiatives.

As I strategize around my clients’ own challenges, I am constantly looking at how social networking can help achieve the goals of game changers. A LinkedIn group around your point-of-view is an excellent way to pull people into the conversation, and deliver your message. Creating a blog and commenting on blogs are ideal ways to make a presence, and showcase your credibility. Allowing site visitors to comment or rank your products and services provides you with valuable feedback, and a customer lead you can follow-up with later. Your goal is to create a following for your brand…a movement of people that will advocate for you, talk about you, pull others into the conversation for you, and ideally purchase from you.

There is no stronger vehicle than social networking – word-of-mouth. If you haven’t considered how it works into your marketing plans, then you’re missing a huge opportunity to deliver your message and create a passionate following.

Jon Milenthal is vice president of The Milenthal Group – a strategic marketing firm focused on helping "game changers" transition from ideation to commercialization, or from public unawareness to mass movement by helping develop their missions, create brands, establish persuasive selling propositions and find a powerful voice in today's new ideology and new economy.
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