Traditional Media? Social Media? “New” Media? The Message is What Matters

By Cinda Orr

During my career, the advertising industry has gone through a monumental paradigm shift. When I was growing up, there were basically three television networks, at least one daily newspaper in every city, relatively few consumer magazines, and billboards lining virtually every highway.

Cable television splintered what was once a monolithic audience, magazines sprang up for every possible consumer interest, and people started losing the habit of reading a daily newspaper. Lady Bird Johnson’s highway beautification program brought down the billboards even as it cleaned up the litter along America’s highways.

Then, along came computers, cell phones, the internet, email, iPhones, TiVo, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and the techniques of marketing a message to a discrete audience changed forever.

Or did they?

Traditional media – properly used – can still be highly effective communications channels. For example, consider how receiving an email marketing message compares with receiving a package in the real mail. The challenge in both cases is to get the recipient to open the mail and get the message, but the promise of opening the email is — at best — that you’ll be momentarily entertained by some music or animation. The promise of opening the physical package, on the other hand, is that you get something physical. You know it’s not going to be a bar of gold, but not knowing what’s inside is usually all the motivation the recipient needs to tear open a dimensional package.

Once he or she does, they have something with your name on it that they can hold in their hand, interact with, and possibly even feel mildly indebted to you for. Which message do you think is more likely to be remembered?

Real mail has another advantage over email, in that it’s much easier to acquire a targeted list, vetted for accuracy, so the chances of the right people receiving your message go up enormously.

I don’t mean to imply that “new” media can’t be effective – it’s been proven repeatedly that it can. The point is that a marketing program of today has essentially the same objectives as one of 50 or even 100 years ago, namely, to repeatedly expose the same prospect to a consistent and persuasive message. Our job is to figure out the best way to do that for each individual client, and we’ve learned it sometimes means a Facebook page, email blasts and regular “tweets”, and other times it means a tradeshow booth, magazine ads and direct mail.

Advertising is a lot more complicated in the digital age, but people haven’t changed. If you can get their attention and demonstrate how your product or service can make their life better, you’ll get just the reaction you need.

SCORR Marketing has recently added the following clients to our growing list of regional, national and international clients:

Bryant Cosmetic Surgery – Lincoln, NE

Columbia Analytical Services – Kelso, WA

The Dent Popper – Kearney, NE

Firecrest Clinical – Limerick, Ireland

HealthCare Innovations – Philadelphia, PA

Impact Analytical – Midland, MI

KCAS – Shawnee, KS

MEDTOX – St. Paul, MN

Organizational Intelligence – Omaha, NE

PharmaNet – Princeton, NJ

Worldwide Clinical Trials – King of Prussia, PA

Keep track of where our clients are at on our Location Map page.

Honored for excellence in advertising, SCORR Marketing, a full-service marketing and public relations firm with locations in both Kearney and Omaha, is the proud recipient of three recognitions in this year’s 2010 Aster Awards competition.

The Aster Awards, one of the largest national competitions of its kind, is hosted by Marketing Healthcare Today magazine and Creative Images, Inc. This elite program recognizes outstanding marketing organizations for excellence in their advertising and marketing efforts in 2009.

The 2010 Aster Awards received approximately 3,000 entries from across the United States, as well as Canada and South America. Participants competed against similar-sized organizations in their category. A score in at least the top 85 percentile is necessary to receive an award. Judging criteria includes creativity, layout and design, functionality, message effectiveness, production quality and overall appeal.

“It was an honor to have SCORR Marketing participate in the 2010 Aster Awards competition. They placed in the top 5% of the nation. The quality of this year’s entries went well beyond the judges’ expectations,” said Melinda R. Lucas, Aster Awards Program Coordinator.

SCORR Marketing received respective Gold and Silver Asters in the Pharmaceutical, Total Advertising Campaign category for both the DaVita Clinical Research “Patients is a Virtue” campaign through the work of Designers Janelle Reed/Brandy Nichols, Account Executive Justin Rolfes and Creative Director Ben Rowe and for the Frontage “Moving Your Compound Forward” campaign through the work of Account Executive Christine Wigert and Designer and Creative Director Ben Rowe. In addition, SCORR also received a Bronze Aster in the Pharmaceutical, Direct Mail Piece category for the ACR Image Metrix™ viewfinder promotional mailing through the work of Designer Brook Carpenter, Account Executive Justin Rolfes and Creative Director Ben Rowe.

“These awards reflect the outstanding collaboration of design and client management efforts of our team, and we are delighted to be recognized,” stated SCORR Marketing President, Cinda Orr. “Being a recipient of the Aster awards highlights the essential role that SCORR helps to provide clients through tactical marketing and communication services.”

SCORR Marketing offers complete strategic communications programs to clients in a wide variety of markets and industries. For more information or to view samples of their work, visit online at www.scorrmarketing.com or call 308.237.5567.

DaVita Clinical Trials (DCR) “Patients is a Virtue” campaign: Gold Aster Award “Pharmaceutical, Total Advertising Campaign”

Frontage “Moving Your Compound Forward” campaign: Silver Aster Award “Pharmaceutical, Total Advertising Campaign”

ACR Image Metrix viewfinder promotional mailing: Bronze Aster Award “Pharmaceutical, Direct Mail Piece”

SCORR Marketing, a full-service marketing and public relations firm with locations in both Kearney and Omaha, is proud to be the recipient of three Healthcare Advertising Awards received at the 27th Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards Competition .

The Healthcare Advertising Awards is a national competition that began its efforts with the goal in mind to recognize the field of healthcare marketing and advertising. Today, the industry has matured into a sophisticated and competitive field, meeting the needs of knowledgeable prospects who are making their own healthcare decisions. The Healthcare Advertising Awards is the oldest, largest and most widely respected healthcare advertising awards competition.

Over 4,000 entries were received in this year’s competition, making the awards the largest in healthcare advertising awards competition. A national panel of judges was engaged in reviewing all entries based on creativity, quality, message effectiveness, consumer appeal, graphic design and overall impact.

SCORR Marketing received a silver Healthcare Advertising Award in the calendar category for the Good Samaritan Hospital calendar design through the work of Designers Janelle Reed/Brook Carpenter, Account Executive Tricia Danburg and Creative Director Ben Rowe. In addition, SCORR received two Healthcare Advertising Award merits in the Total Advertising without TV category for the DaVita Clinical Trials (DCR) “Patients is a Virtue” campaign and in the website category for the QPS Bio-Kinetic “Patient Recruiting Website” design. Work on the DCR campaign is attributed to Designers Janelle Reed/Brandy Nichols, Account Executive Justin Rolfes and Creative Director Ben Rowe, while the QPS website was credited to Designer Michael Pohl, Account Executive Christine Wigert and Creative Director Ben Rowe.

“What a great experience it is for our team to win such outstanding awards for the work we have completed for these three organizations,” stated SCORR Marketing President, Cinda Orr. “I am very proud as it takes tremendous teamwork from everyone to be able to express our creative talent and incredible dedication through our work—that is what propels our growth and gives us a competitive edge in local and international markets.”

Good Samaritan Hospital Calendar

QPS Bio-Kinetic “Patient Recruiting Website”

DaVita Clinical Trials (DCR) “Patients is a Virtue” campaign

Watch Part 2 of the interview here.

Also, check out the feature on SCORR Marketing at the NTV Good Life Blog.