Innovare in the News

Erik Hartranft’s Story

We had the opportunity to ask Erik Hartranft a few questions about himself, Innovare Medical Media, and his sales role at the business.

Innovare: Most importantly Erik, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Erik: Thank you. Foremost, I am proud to be married for over 20 years.  I enjoy playing golf on the weekends and watching my nieces and nephews play sports.  I love traveling to different places across the country and enjoy eating at local restaurants “where the locals eat”.

Innovare: How long have you worked in the Out of Home Place-based industry (OOH)? Tell us about your experience and understanding of the market.

Erik: I have been in the OOH industry since 2004 and before that I was a Radio DJ for 16 years.  I love prospecting new businesses and talking to them about Hospital Placed Media.  There’s an incredible amount of education because 99% of companies have never heard of our niche hospital industry.  I enjoy talking about this innovative opportunity and finding out if this is a good initiative for their business to be in front of healthcare professionals, visitors, and patients.

Innovare: Erik, what brought you to Innovare Medical Media and Hospital Placed Media (HPM)?  In addition, Innovare has about 165 hospital partners; How many hospital partnerships did Innovare have when you started and what are your thoughts on the growth?

Erik: I truly love the small family business vibe.  It’s great to have conversations with ownership and my team to help onboard clients.  It feels as if we are all in the trenches together – it’s very collaborative and teamwork oriented.  I started with Innovare when the company had only 37 hospitals and I had no idea we would add almost 130 more partnerships in just 7 years.  I’ve also had the pleasure of working with hospital partners located in Miami, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, and other Designated Market Areas (DMA’s).

Innovare: What is your favorite part of being on the Innovare team?

Erik: I really like working with my teammates with brainstorming how best to promote small local businesses through our platform.  In addition, I like working with management to get the best advertising packages together, whether it’s a small family-owned flower shop or the largest University in the region.

Innovare: What do you look forward to in your career and at Innovare in the years to come?

Erik: I’m looking forward to continuing to leverage our footprint and become even more attractive to larger marketers.  A platform of 250-500 hospitals would do just that!

Innovare: Lastly Erik, what do you do for fun?

Erik: Golf and more golf, and Philadelphia Sports.  I’m a 5 for 5 guy, including Villanova Basketball.  When I travel for work, I always try to attend a sporting event.  In fact, I’ve had the pleasure of attending a Seattle Sounders game, a Monday Night Football game in Kansas City, an Arizona State Wrestling match in Tempe, and many more!

Exclusive Hospital Placed Media inventory is now live and published with Geopath

Utilizing Geopath’s standardized approach to measure out of home media and Place-based venues, media owner, Innovare Medical Media is one of Geopath’s newest members.  A majority of the Hospital Placed Media venues have already been published and close to 400 screens will be fully live on Geopath Insights later this month.

Hospital Placed Media presents highly-valued demographics:

• $100K+ Household targets
• College Educated impressions
• Key Age Characteristics (25 – 64)
• Average weekly spot impressions 40K

Founded in 2010, Innovare has grown to work with over 163 hospitals in 25 states.

Hospital Placed Media Presents a Target Audience for Real Estate Companies

Real Estate Specialist, Carol Dorey mentioned, “We are always looking for new ways to reach potential clients in the Lehigh Valley, particularly within the medical circuit. Innovare reached out to us about an opportunity to advertise on-screens at multiple St. Luke’s locations and we jumped at the opportunity to partner with a renowned health system. Working with the team at Innovare has allowed us to seamlessly and effectively reach our desired clientele.”

“Advertisers continue to fine tune their planning with an increased focus on the right audience,” Jon O’Dowd at Innovare commented.  “With the targeted local demographics at the hospital, businesses can segment their campaigns to reach healthcare professionals as well as visitors and patients at their local hospital.  Considering the growth Hospital Placed Media has experienced, the trend is very encouraging giving more advertisers access to a highly valuable audience,” O’Dowd added.

Digital Hospital Placed Media Continues to Grow

Placed Based Media is marketing placed in a specific location that’s targets a specific group of people.  As one of the many Out Of Home media formats advertisers can invest in, Place Based is rapidly growing and spending is expected to increase approximately 20% by 2027 (grandviewresearch.com July 2020).

“Hospital Placed Media presents an exciting opportunity for advertisers to reach a highly-valued audience,” says Kelly Gaunt at Innovare.  “Leading businesses such as colleges, banks, auto dealerships and real estate companies are increasing their presence within Hospitals across the Innovare Hospital Placed Media Network.  These businesses have found a strategic way to invest in a media platform with minimal waste as their campaigns are directed at an ideal target audience with highly valuable demographics.”

PQ Media (via Digiday) forecasted that out-of-home (OOH) advertising revenue would grow 6.6% in 2021. And according to recent figures from the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), 88% of the top 100 OOH advertisers increased their OOH budgets in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the third quarter of 2020.  “As businesses continue to invest in new advertising plans for 2022, it has been incredible to see these businesses capitalize on the Innovare Hospital Placed Media opportunities across the country,” Gaunt added.

Moravian University Continues Investing in Hospital Placed Media

Innovare Medical Media has been a cornerstone of our marketing efforts for several years now,” says Brian Martin, Director of Graduate Admissions Moravian University.  “We offer multiple healthcare programs and there is no better way to capture the attention of prospective students looking to further their education than through the digital placements offered through Innovare,” Martin added.

Colleges seem to advertise nearly everywhere—on TV, billboards, radio, transit and now, more than ever Hospitals.  “For colleges looking to increase enrollment of online programs and strengthen their brand, hospitals have proven to be a valuable place,” commented Erik Hartranft of Innovare Medical Media.  “In the past five years, Innovare has seen a surge of colleges and universities investing in the Hospital Placed Media network to feature RN to BSN, MSN and MBA programs to healthcare professionals,” Hartranft added.  Moravian University’s Martin concluded, “Enrollment managers looking to make the most of their marketing dollars have found a gem with Innovare’s Hospital Placed Media network.”