Mason received three gold awards in the strategic campaigns category; a gold award for Hospital for Special Care’s reputation and brand management, one for The United Illuminating Company for marketing energy efficiency, and one for Connex Credit Union’s integrated communications program.
In the tactical categories, Mason received a gold award for the Hospital for Special Care video program “Three Lives”. Mason also was awarded two silver Mercury Awards in the tactical category, one for The United Illuminating Company’s “Home Energy Solutions” program and one for Mason, Inc.’s social media strategy and implementation.
“This has been an exciting year for us, and we are honored to receive six awards,” said Francis Onofrio, APR, President, Mason, Inc. “These awards represent the very best in public relations, and we are very proud of our achievements. Not only do they reflect our creativity and strategic thinking, but they’re also a testament to the strong relationships we have built with our clients to create programs that help them achieve their goals. I congratulate the entire Mason team and our clients on an exceptional year.”
The Mercury Awards recognize outstanding work in public relations, communications and marketing professions throughout Connecticut and are sponsored by the Connecticut Valley, Southern Connecticut and Westchester/Fairfield Public Relations Society of America chapters.
About Mason, Inc.
Bethany, Conn.-Mason, Inc. is a brand development and integrated marketing communication firm with award-winning expertise in new media, digital and traditional programs. Mason is on the forefront of today’s most-innovative technology, but grounded in business strategy.
Clients rely on Mason insight for uncovering and communicating what is at the heart of their brands. From developing authentic brand platforms to message development through implementation at every point of contact, Mason connects people to brands and brands to people.
Mason clients include Acadia Insurance Co., Calcagni Associates Real Estate, Connex Credit Union, Cookson Electronics, Hospital for Special Care, Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corp., The United Illuminating Co, and Yale-New Haven Hospital. For more information, please visit http://www.mason23.com or tap our insights at www.mason23.com/blog.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Ed Bennett, Director of Web Strategy at the University of Maryland Medical Center, about his take on social media in the healthcare system and the work that he has done to improve and help speed up the movement. Mr. Bennett is a wealth of knowledge and the information and viewpoints he shared with me resonates with the work that Mason, Inc. does with our healthcare clients.
As Mr. Bennett and I spoke about social media as it pertains to healthcare I was able to learn some things, and there are a few points that I would like to share. Below are three questions hospitals and businesses should be asking themselves.
1) Do you have a social media policy?
You have heard it before, and you will hear it again. Your employees ARE online. Whether it is while they are at work or when they go home. Either way, they are on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites sharing information about their lives and their jobs. Make sure they know what they can and cannot say as it relates to their job and your hospital.
If you are looking for examples of quality social media policies head over to Ed’s website and look at the list he has compiled.
2) Who takes the lead on the social media initiative?
In most cases the appropriate person to handle the social media initiative is in the marketing and communications department. The reason for this is because they are (or should be) the people with the best understanding of your hospital’s brand. However, the initiative does not need to begin there. For example, if your goal is to use social media for recruiting, then the HR department should be involved. Either way, the person that should be taking the lead is someone that is a visionary and someone that can make that vision a reality.
3) Why do most hospitals get involved in social media?
This answer is one that is consistent across most industries. Social media provides a company with an opportunity to communicate directly with its customers. It is not much different in the healthcare world. Social media marketing is being used for recruitment, idea sharing, and for crisis communications. As Mr. Bennett noted, “With social media you are in the room listening to what people are saying about you.”
As a person who has been in his field since the internet launched, Ed Bennett has seen the healthcare industry falter in the sense that in general it has been slow to adapt. Thanks to his work and research, hospitals will have an easier time finding the information they need to be successful in social media. Check out his blog here, and his lists here.
Crisis communication has been part of the public relations world for a long time. Traditionally, it was dealing with issues that organizations face and working with the press to make sure stories were accurate. Thanks to social media, crisis communication has changed. With constant public commentary on everything from customer service to a damaged package you received in the mail, acknowledging customer complaints publicly has been a skill companies have had to learn.
However, what if your company is facing a crisis with an ex-employee who has the only access to an outlet that you had been using for marketing? Basically, your brand is now in the hands of someone who could disclose confidential — even harmful information.
This is an issue that Mason recently managed for one of our clients, and here are some basic steps to take care of the issue. I will lay out what happened and what we did to resolve the issue.
Situation 1: An employee was in charge of communications for a company, there were cut backs and the employee was let go. The company had a Facebook fan page that was controlled by the now ex-employee. The employee begins releasing internal memos on the Facebook page and commenting publicly about an old, but sensitive issue.
Response: The employee was no longer the authority behind the brand, and because he was using a site that had a copyrighted logo on it, Mason was able to reach out to a contact at Facebook and have the site taken down.
Situation 2: The employee sets up a new Facebook fan page using the same logo to release even more information that was detrimental to the brand.
Response: Again, we reached out to our contact at Facebook and informed her that there was copyright infringement through the use of the logo, and the page needed to come down. It did.
Situation 3: The employee uses a free service to set up a website that has the identical URL that the company has, except with a number at the end of it. For example, www.xyz1.com instead of www.xyz.com. The website has many items on it that were meant to be internal and should not have been released.
Response: Mason determined what service was used to build the site and contacted them directly. The site was pulled down immediately. Then we performed a search through the html to see if we could identify a username or email address so that we had proof of who was responsible.
Finally after pulling down multiple Facebook pages and websites the issue cooled down and the person went away. Through all of this, in addition to advising internal stakeholders and preparing reactive media materials, there is one step that we did that made all of the difference. We created a legitimate Facebook fan page and maintained it so that people knew it was the company speaking to them, and they never lost the important engagement factor.
There are many things that could have been done to prevent some of this from happening, most obviously giving control of all social networking profiles to more than one person! Remember, social media is about conversations and engagement. Stay transparent and honest with your customers about situations and you will protect yourself and your brand online.
I’ve often wanted to use my imaginary superpowers and transform myself into a fly so I could sit on the wall and witness the madness and thinking that goes into bad ideas and campaigns. It could be fun, so long as I’m not swatted into oblivion. That might sound a bit harsh, but after reading this, you’ll probably agree and say to yourself: “What were they thinking?!?”
I stumbled upon an article on MSNBC appropriately entitled “Make the logo bigger: 10 rebranding disasters” and I got a good chuckle out of it. I also learned a few things, which is why I feel this is Mason blog worthy.
The article references some of my favorite brand blunders, most recently the Tropicana orange juice packaging fiasco. If you don’t remember, PepsiCo decided it would be a good idea to change the entire look of the Tropicana orange juice carton. The result? The new look created confusion amongst the public. Hordes of unhappy customers bombarded PepsiCo with emails, phone calls and letters complaining about the new look and requested a change back to the familiar packaging. Power to the people – the efforts worked! PepsiCo reverted back to the existing design and all is happy in the world of orange juice. You can read my original blog post on this specific issue by clicking here.
The MSNBC article goes on to cite some recent rebranding disasters, including London’s new version of the Olympic logo, Radio Shack trying to be hip by referring to itself as “The Shack“, Capital One desperately tried to update its look with the overplayed, boring swoosh design, and in a poor effort to “start fresh”, Comcast changed their name to Xfinity in 11 of its U.S. markets. Seriously?
I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of rebranding efforts for all kinds of clients, ranging from smaller local businesses to major national brands. It’s what we do and we’ve had some great success stories along the way. The one thing I’ve learned is that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Many companies get overexcited and feel that a new name, a new logo, or a new “mission” will “fix things” and help them dominate the market place. I’m not quite sure what the reasoning is in some cases, but it couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth. I couldn’t have said it any better than the article itself, so I’ll quote it:
“The lesson? A successful rebranding involves overhauling a company’s goals, message and culture – not just changing a name or logo.”
Case closed and I couldn’t agree more, but I would like to hear some personal stories or alternative thoughts on this.
If your job includes interacting with the media, you owe it to yourself, your company and the reporters whose job it is to cover your industry to take a long-term view of media relations.
While it may be their job to cover your industry and your business, journalists will cover it for their readers’ sake, meaning it’s not about giving Global Robust Solutions, Inc., Best Manufacturing, Co. or Dandy Donuts publicity or what some marketers like to call “free advertising.” This means that as your company’s representative, whether you are the CEO, project engineer or communications officer, you need to be prepared to withstand scrutiny, and not only from a product perspective.
Today, journalists are more skeptical than ever in the wake of the AIG and Wall Street woes. Add that experience to corporate accounting and CEO scandals such as the not-too-distant Enron and Tyco examples, and you have a challenge. What’s more, factor in downsizing and the fact that reporters are wearing multiple hats these days often responsible for print or broadcast coverage as well as online posts.
You must be able to articulate your company’s business plan and role as corporate citizen as well as your product benefits. Successful institutions know that goal setting, brand authenticity and a track record of trust are paramount. …Journalists known this, too.
