Innovare in the News

Becker’s Hospital Review (Written by Bob Herman December 13, 2013) – Marketing and advertising have become routine for hospitals and health systems today. Competition is fierce, revenue dollars are prized and capturing the attention of a more cost-conscious patient has become paramount.

But the traditional tactic has been hospitals go out into the community and spread their message through billboards, radio messages or TV commercials. Now, advertisements are starting to enter the hospital campus — and it’s presenting a new opportunity for both exposure and the bottom line.

Michael Ricciardi is a partner of strategy and business development at Innovare Medical Media. Innovare, founded in 2011, works with hospitals and health systems to build and operate marketing venues, which it calls “community showcase models,” at their sites.

“We install various signage throughout the hospital campus,” Mr. Ricciardi says, noting that parking garages, elevator banks and cafeterias are untapped assets at hospitals. “But the hospital partners have total control over the program and what it looks like.”

For example, earlier this April, St. Luke’s University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., partnered with Innovare to build electronic signage throughout the multihospital network. St. Luke’s incurred zero capital costs, meaning Innovare covered all expenses associated with hospital branding, digital technology, European-style displays and static signage. About 80 percent of all ads feature local services and businesses — such as banks and colleges — while the remaining 20 percent highlight St. Luke’s own services.

“Hospitals have hundreds of products they need to market but don’t have the budget,” Mr. Ricciardi says. “If they want to promote their top orthopedics group in the region, our program gives them a new vehicle to reach existing patients and potentially new patients that are visiting.”

Mr. Ricciardi says hospitals gain the new exposure on their own campuses, but they also earn a new line of revenue. Hospitals can generate anywhere from 20 to 35 percent of the revenue. For St. Luke’s, the system and Innovare are expected to share $2.4 million in revenue during the life of the multiyear contract.

Several other hospitals and health systems in the Atlantic area — including North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., and Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, N.J. — have also partnered with Innovare.

“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are growing rapidly,” Mr. Ricciardi says. “We are working with hospitals throughout the country with plans to have 100 hospital partners by 2018.”

Victoria Allen, vice president of marketing for Somerset, said the project has helped her hospital in several ways. “The displays not only gave us an opportunity to reach smaller businesses that we previously had no relationship with, but we were also able to promote our healthcare messages in key areas in a new and different way to a number of audiences,” she says. “Other added benefits have included beautifying hospital property, as well as providing our physicians with a new opportunity to promote their practices. Best of all, the displays have generated necessary income for our Somerset Medical Center Foundation.”

Although some worry advertisements may consume the sanctity of a community hospital, Mr. Ricciardi says the initiative is more about building new partnerships and increasing community involvement than a typical advertising program.

“We’re trying to leverage the opportunity of just how the world is changing,” Mr. Ricciardi says, noting that hospitals can only cut costs so much before they have to find new sources of revenue. “Initially when people hear about this program and think of commercialization, they ask, ‘What would that look like here?’ It’s not until they see the program do they get it and are more likely to embrace it. (http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/racs-/-icd-9-/-icd-10/how-new-marketing-strategies-could-mean-new-opportunities-for-hospitals.html#!)

Long Island Business News (Nov. 1-7, 2013 / VOL. 60 / NO. 47) – Posters pitching products are common in airport terminals, as are rotating signs selling services at the mall.

But advertisements inside hospitals?

Health-care facilities have historically adopted more somber tones, but many are changing that tune as advertisers warm up to hospital employees, patients and visitors, and facility managers recognize new revenue opportunities.

The fabled Mayo Clinic runs ads for myriad medications on its website, for instance, but no Long Island facility has yet embraced digital advertising or promos for particular drugs. There are still questions of appropriateness – and some lines local hospitals haven’t crossed.

“We can’t appear as if we’re endorsing specific medical products,” said Winthrop-University Hospital Vice President J. Edmund Keating, “because we’re not.”

But with advertisers expressing interest and hospitals hungry for revenue, companies like Summit, N.J.-based Innovare Medical Media – which has installed billboards and scrolling signs at several Long Island hospitals – are wading into the market, Innovare Partner Michael Ricciardi said.

It isn’t easy overcoming the notion that hospitals are places where the sick come to heal – or not – and therefore ill-suited to for-profit commercialization.

“Some hospitals are more aggressive and some are more reserved,” Ricciardi said. “Each hospital has its own entrepreneurial way.”

But Innovare is still finding plenty of Long Island business. The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System worked with the New Jersey marketing company to install fixed and alternating signage at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, while Mineola’s Winthrop has also installed Innovare signage in common areas including parking garages, cafeterias, elevators and waiting rooms.

Among those pitching hospital audiences are several local institutions of higher education, including St. Joseph’s College and Adelphi and Long Island universities. Auto dealers such as Westbury’s Rallye BMW and Great Neck’s Beiner Audi also advertise in hospitals, as does the occasional assisted-living facility, including Sun Harbor Manor of Roslyn Heights.

“It’s a new opportunity to reach an outstanding demographic audience of health-care professionals and the community at large,” said Diane Moser, Adelphi’s executive director for marketing.

By aligning the Adelphi brand with regional hospitals, the university positions itself as a regional leader in health-related education – a worthy investment, Moser added.

But insiders like Winthrop Chief Operating Officer Garry Schwall are quick to note that revenues from advertisers like Adelphi aren’t the only benefits for the hospitals.

Schwall is happy to have the new source of revenue, he said, but hospitals can also use professional billboards and scrolling signs to deliver their own marketing messages.

“We were able to brighten up walkways and get some of our marketing messages up at the same time,” he said. “The revenue generation was a much less significant consideration.”

So Winthrop can promote specific cardiology or orthopedic services, for instance, along with impressive rankings from the likes of U.S. News and World Report. And when it does permit outside advertising, it’s careful not to concentrate too much on a particular industry, or to tip too far onto the for-profit side.

“I wanted balance,” Keating said. “I wanted a limited number of any one type of advertiser, including nursing homes. It was first-come, first-served, and after that, we said ‘it’s enough.’”

That’s not to say there isn’t profit to be had. Winthrop’s new advertising opportunities should produce $2 million in revenues during the next decade, Ricciardi said, with an unspecified percentage going to the hospital.

Advertisers see hospital crowds as “a good target audience – a high-value audience with a good household income,” Ricciardi noted.

And they’re willing to pay to reach that audience, even if many of the hospitals – while welcoming new revenue streams – aren’t out to make a killing.

North Shore-LIJ spokesman Terry Lynam said the system sells advertising opportunities primarily in spaces like parking garages, “the same way we sell ads in our publications and patient guides to cover the cost of production.”

And while being careful not to “overwhelm our patients” with blaring advertisements, facilities like those throughout the North Shore-LIJ system are also very selective about whom, exactly, can advertise on their grounds. Hospital A is not likely to run an ad promoting Hospital B, for instance.

“As much as we want the revenue to help offset some of our expenses,” Lynam noted, “we don’t want to steer customers to our competitors.”

Based on that natural selectivity and other sensitivity guidelines, there’s still plenty of advertising space to go around.

Innovare has been steadily adding hospitals to its mix since 2010, when its founders sold InterSpace Airport Advertising, which marketed in over 200 global airports, to Clear Channel Outdoor. Citing better demographics and a less-transient audience, Innovare has now installed signage in more than a dozen health-care facilities and plans to be in about 100 by 2018.

While more hospitals recognize the potential, Ricciardi agreed with Lynam that they’re going to be very careful about the clients they let advertise in their parking lots and waiting rooms. Innovare owns the signs, but the hospitals have final approval on advertisers and how their messages are delivered.

Ultimately, there’s a matter of decorum – and health-care facilities aren’t likely to run ads for tobacco or alcohol products or anything that might be considered in poor taste.

“It’s an opportunity for businesses to reach a good marketing demographic,” Ricciardi said. “But you’re not going to see ads for a funeral home or malpractice attorneys, and you won’t see retail advertising.”

http://libn.com/2013/11/01/healthy-signs-for-hospitals/

Written by: Claude Solnik
Published: November 1, 2013

Bethlehem, PA (9/24/2013) – St. Luke’s University Health Network has launched a new media partnership with Innovare Medical Media of Summit, NJ to establish an electronic signage advertising program at four hospitals within the Network.

“The new program launched in April 2013, featuring leading local and regional businesses in digital, large-format, edge- and back-lit signage that affordably reaches thousands of households and health care decision makers throughout the region,” said Ken Szydlow, Vice President of Marketing, St. Luke’s University Health Network.

Local Businesses Promote Services

Szydlow said, “The electronic signage is a brilliant marketing idea. Highly visible wall space is conducive to digital signage, which in turn, is utilized by local business to promote their services.”

Some of the local companies utilizing the advertising opportunities at St. Luke’s include Miller-Keystone Blood Center, National Penn Bank and Service Electric Cable TV, Inc.

“National Penn is pleased to partner with St. Luke’s on this effort,” said Pete Gray, President, National Penn’s Northern Region. “We would like to thank St. Luke’s and Innovare for creating another venue for reaching our audience.”

The new electronic advertising program has produced revenue for the network, added Szydlow. In addition to providing information about local services and businesses, twenty percent of all the displays will feature the many outstanding health care services of the St. Luke’s University Health Network, he said.

“Service Electric Cable TV is proud to be a supporter of St. Luke’s University Health Network and Innovare Medical Media and thank them for all they do for our Lehigh Valley community,” said Steve Salash, Marketing Director of Service Electric Cable TV, Inc.

First to Launch in Pennsylvania

Having grown up in Allentown and a Lehigh University graduate, Nicholas Lieberman, Partner and Managing Director of Innovare, is thrilled with the very successful launch and St. Luke’s community participation. Lieberman said, “We are excited that St. Luke’s University Health Network is the first hospital system to launch our program in Pennsylvania. Having already launched our business at the largest not-for-profit health care system in the New York market, and additional hospitals in New Jersey and Ohio, we were ready to come home to Pennsylvania. The Latin word ‘Innovare’ means ‘to innovate,’ and we recognize that successful area businesses will see the exciting opportunities available with the Innovare program.”

These dynamic Innovare displays have enhanced the appearance of strategic, high traffic, public locations at each hospital, said Lieberman. St. Luke’s has also been able to leverage these locations to communicate more effectively with their many patients, visitors and employees, agreed Michael Ricciardi, Partner and New Business Director of Innovare.

“The St. Luke’s University Health Network is a critical economic engine in eastern Pennsylvania. Leading regional businesses have been very excited at the opportunity to participate in our program and align their message with the Health Network,” Ricciardi said. “The demographics of this audience make it a marketing home run for these companies and the exclusive Innovare model provides the opportunity to enhance overall patient and employee experience by transforming blank walls in less attractive environments into valuable showcases,” he added.

More about Innovare

Innovare launched its first hospital in 2011, and now has established ten new hospital programs. Over 35 years, the family that launched Innovare also created the successful airport niche media business Interspace Airport Advertising of Allentown, PA, which developed marketing opportunities in over 200 midsize airports on three continents. Ultimately this dramatic success led to the acquisition of Interspace by the world’s largest out of home marketing company, Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO).

More about St. Luke’s

St. Luke’s University Health Network is comprised of six hospitals and provides services at more than 150 sites, and includes home health, hospice services, the largest hospital-based EMS unit in PA and other related health care organizations. The Network employs more than 8,900 people as well as 400 physicians at more than 80 physician practices. Learn more.

http://www.slhn.org/en/News/2013/In-Hospital-Electronic-Advertising-Program-Launched.aspx

Contact

Denise Rader
Director, Media Relations
St. Luke’s University Health Network
484-526-4104
Denise.Rader@sluhn.org

Community Medical Center (a Barnabas Health facility) in Toms River, NJ has partnered with Innovare Medical Media to develop a new Community Showcase Display Program.  This program will enable Toms River area businesses and organizations to participate in on-site display options to further entrench their commitment in the Medical Center and reach a fantastic target audience.  In addition, this program is a valuable marketing vehicle for the Medical Center to reach visitors, patients and employees with various strategic messages, all while developing a discretionary revenue stream to support the Medical Center.

Mike Ricciardi, Innovare’s Strategy and Business Development Partner, says “Innovare is thrilled to partner with their 4^th hospital in New Jersey and 10^th hospital in the North East.  Community Medical Center has a strong presence and an excellent reputation in Ocean County.  We look forward to working with the medical center and exceeding their expectations for growth.”

About Community Medical Center Medical Center:

Community Medical Center (CMC), an affiliate of Barnabas Health, is a 592-bed, fully accredited acute care hospital.  CMC has evolved into the state’s largest non-teaching hospital and Ocean County’s largest and most active healthcare facility—caring for over 28,000 inpatients, 127,700 outpatients and 100,000 emergency department patients each year.  More information on Community Medical Center can be found at www.barnabashealth.org/hospitals/community_medical/index.html.

About Barnabas Health:

Barnabas Health is New Jersey’s largest integrated health care delivery system with six acute-care facilities, more than 19,600 employees (second largest private employer in the state), 4,750 physicians (one-fourth of the state’s practicing physicians) and 450 residents who provide treatment and services for more than 225,000 inpatients and same day surgery patients, 451,000 Emergency Department patients and over 1.5 million outpatients, and 17,500 births.  More information on Barnabas Health can be found at www.barnabashealth.org.

The North Shore-LIJ Health System has rolled out the Innovare Model with their two largest and premier facilities, North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY and the LIJ Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY.

This marks the one year anniversary of the LIJ Medical Center program which was launched shortly after the program at North Shore University Hospital.  North Shore-LIJ has been able to leverage strategic display locations in order to communicate various corporate marketing initiatives and leading service lines.  “It has been exciting to see how leading community businesses have such respect for North Shore-LIJ and have continued to invest in these programs,” says Michael Ricciardi, Innovare’s Strategy and Business Development Partner.  Innovare anticipates years of further growth in both these established programs.

About North Shore University Hospital:

North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) in Manhasset is an 806-bed teaching hospital that is spread across the 58-acre Sandra Atlas Bass Campus. The hospital is one of the cornerstones of North Shore-LIJ Health System and is academically affiliated with the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, employing a staff of more than 6,000. More information on North Shore University Hospital can be found at www.northshorelij.com.

About LIJ Medical Center:

Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) is one of the clinical and academic hubs of North Shore-LIJ Health System, offering world-class cardiology, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, orthopaedics, head and neck oncology, urology, gynecology and vascular programs. The 48-acre campus has three major components: Long Island Jewish Hospital, Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center and The Zucker Hillside Hospital.  LIJ Hospital is a 524-bed non-profit tertiary care teaching hospital serving the greater metropolitan New York area.  More information on LIJ Medical Center can be found at www.northshorelij.com.

The Keats Agency, an agent of Nationwide based out of Floral Park, NY, has joined the Innovare Community Showcase Display program at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY.

As written on Nationwide.com, “The Keats Agency staff consists of the perfect blend of experience, education and genuine concern for others. We do care about our customers and work hard for them every day. We make insurance easy… while ensuring comfort and security. The Keats Agency provides insurance products for individuals and businesses. We are committed: to consult with expertise on a needs basis; to offer competitive insurance products and to serve with prompt, friendly and professional personal service.”

Nick Lieberman, Innovare President and Business Partner, asserts “We are proud to have yet another great community business partner in our Community Showcase Display Program on Long Island.  The unmatched hospital demographic is an incredible opportunity to reach local high-income earners who are on campus every day.  We are thrilled with our growing clientele and confident with the continued value in the hospital audience”.