Building advocates for our brands can be a bit tricky these days. But by applying some 21st century-thinking and technology we can produce events that leave the old ways behind and forge a new road into the future. Following are five ways you can get your initiatives up to speed in this new year.
First, whatever you produce, it needs to be memorable. Today’s HCPs are looking for what Seth Godin calls the remarkable. “Create remarkable products that the right people seek out,” he tells us in Purple Cow. You can’t produce meetings that just put KOLs and HCPs together in a room and hope for the best. You need to create an experience they will remember. The meeting needs to be designed with the total experience in mind. Ask yourself, what will they remember when they get on the plane going home? Designing for the complete experience is a must if you want to build strong advocates.
Second, the only way you’re going to get your potential advocates to consider taking part in your initiative is if there’s something in it for them. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that your data and KOLs are the best and should draw a crowd. Remember the last time you tried that formula? How did recruiting go? Not so well, eh? Sure, a segment of the population will always come to hear Dr. Vinnyboombotz, but you could be reaping greater ROI if you think beyond that single value and add a few more to it. One of the features in meetings that I’ve noticed HCPs always comment on is the value that they get from exchanging ideas with their peers. Think about this next time you design a meeting. Have some workshops included that exploit this feature. Letting your HCPs hob-knob with their fellow wizards is an agenda item that rarely gets explored. There’s high value there waiting to be delivered.
Third, shift your spend from physical modalities to digital ones. Everybody wants to do virtual meetings these days. The problem is that many of them are worse than the physical meetings they replaced. Maybe the bottom line looks better, but where’s the ROI? The vast majority of virtual meetings are 90s’ versions of teleconference calls with a PowerPoint overlay. You know what I’m talking about: time wasted telling everybody to mute their phones so that we don’t broadcast the dog barking in the background, nonengaging presenters controlling your screen with the same slides we saw last year– and if you thought that presenter was boring onstage, why would you think he was going to be any better as a disembodied voice on the phone?
The problem with this approach to virtual meetings is that it allows the budgetary reason for being to be the sole reason for being. The truth is that when done right, virtual meetings only save a percentage of your budget. If done right, the spend isn’t saved, it’s shifted from things like airline tickets and hotel charges to the high production values of three camera shoots, studio time, and web-developer fees. But the result is a memorable, digital, mobile experience (see point four) that saves your HCPs time while providing a high value, enduring experience, along with a significant cost savings.
Fourth, produce everything twice. Once for the live event and then again for the mobile event. Everything is going mobile, and HCPs are leading the trend. HCPs are the fastest adopters of the iPhone and iPad, showing a desire to consume content on the fly. If you applied point three well, you’re in a prime position to move on point four.
Fifth, invert the dialogue. One-way communication isn’t communication, it’s sermonizing. I like my sermons on Sunday mornings and not in my medical education meetings. You’ve got to think dialogue, not monologue. But the deeper point here is to open the channels of dialogue with your potential advocates so that they are in the lead (inverted) and telling you what they need to get their job done. Letting your HCPs raise their own issues tells you what’s important to them and creates an opportunity for you to provide it. This demands careful design of your agenda to include activities that allow for this inverted flow. Coupled with points one and two, this concept should make your next initiative memorable indeed.
Building advocates for your brands is getting increasingly complex in our current market, but it’s not impossible. Changing your thinking, you’ll find, is the tougher part of the job.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
When is Dr. Vinny Boombotz available for my [client's] program? That one really made me laugh out loud. Your wisdom in these messages is noted Paul. These suggestions beg the question: can you share some specific examples? We have some [client] programs coming up…will be in touch VERY SOON. Stay tuned and thanks for the input and the laugh! Barbara
Barbara, I’ll have to check the Dr’s schedule to see if he’s available for your meeting! Seriously, keeping the article short precluded me from giving specific examples for each. All the points made here are techniques and elements that we design into every meeting in which we participate. One quick example of point three was a recent webcast in which we utilized a full film studio to shoot a panel of Drs that I moderated through a “point-counterpoint” kind of discussion. The project incorporated live polling to a nationwide audience. We achieved an 83% change in behavior in the participants, while only asking for about an hour of their time. My guess (not having been privy to the total budget) is that it was not much cheaper than a physical meeting. But a whole lot more efficient than multiple nation-wide meetings.