Healthcare is an ever-evolving industry, and public relations is becoming more crucial than ever in this niche. Businesses from regional care collectives to medical practices invest to ensure perpetual public relations by making it a part of their medical marketing plan to get a leg-up on the competition and promote their brand in the sector. The company handling the public relations of medical practice plays a vital role in creating and monitoring the communications between the medical practice and the public.
When we think of PR companies that thrive on enabling reliability in the healthcare sector, we tend to think of the comprehensive fundamentals like qualities, skills, and traits primarily focused on improving the quality of life. This is where TransMedia Group excels as one of the leading multi-lingual companies that have provided breakthrough communication strategies that are significantly transforming the healthcare space.
Under the coherent leadership and the quintessential skillset of Thomas Madden, CEO and Chairperson, TransMedia Group cites numerous awards, accolades and articles praising its work over the years. His journey from being a journalist to one of the well-known names in the healthcare PR industry has made him achieve great clients and further build a successful outcome.
In an interview with Insights Care, Thomas speaks about his journey in the Public Relations industry and showcases the crucial aspects that make him stand out as a trusted PR leader in the sector.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Thomas, please give us a brief overview of your journey as the CEO and Chairperson of the TransMedia Group.
I came up from the ranks of journalism, working at several newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer. After seeing that I could be interested in teaching journalism, I discovered I’m a better doer than a teacher. So, I went into an area I thought could use my journalistic skills—PR. I joined a leading PR firm in NYC at the time and from there, I went into network TV, first at ABC, then to NBC before starting my PR firm, TransMedia Group in NYC.
Can you elaborate upon the core values upon which TransMedia Group is built and what is its mission?
TransMedia Group’s core values are focused on telling our client’s stories effectively by applying our journalistic know-how and skills to make them attractive to the media to accomplish our mission to make our clients widely known and greatly respected.
Tell us more about TransMedia Group, its vision, and how it provides products and services and enhances the brand to increase its sales eventually?
TransMedia Group is an expert at pitching its clients to the appropriate media who will be interested. If necessary, to give our pitches some runway for them to take off, we’ll write and distribute news releases, combined with posts on social media designed to speed up the process of making our clients better known and in many cases, famous!
Can you elaborate on the integration of AI and its impact on the PR niche?
TransMedia Group is always looking for systems that are informed or inspired by human reasoning, using human reasoning as a guide but are not driven by the goal to perfectly model it. An excellent example of this is IBM Watson, which builds up evidence for the answers it finds by looking at thousands of pieces of text, recognizing patterns, and weighing evidence matching those patterns. It’s based on people coming to conclusions without hard and fast rules and can build up collections of evidence instead. Watson is able to notice patterns in text that provide a little bit of evidence and then add that evidence up to get to an answer.
Being popularly known as the “PR Man”, what is your opinion on upskilling in digital marketing and customer relations to stay relevant in the industry for the long run?
Digital marketing is of growing importance in public relations, and the better we can get at it, the more valuable PR will be. Messaging needs many forms and different routes to reach targets with impact, and digital has become a primary form of marketing. This, combined with impactful customer relations, has become the mainframe in building successful outcomes.
Thomas, you being an experienced leader, what were the initial challenges you encountered following the biggest challenges on the way ahead, and what were the ways you opted to overcome these?
The biggest challenge for me was getting clients to listen to my advice as they had their notions about communication. Still, I persevered to gain their confidence until they followed my advice and could see it working in generating positive media coverage. One of the ways I accomplished this was getting top executives to see reporters like their children sometimes not understanding and who needed an explanation that came with a smile.
Having won so many awards including the Public Relations Society of America’s Bronze Anvil for a PR campaign, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the public relations industry?
I would advise young people interested in pursuing a career in public relations first to understand journalism and how most journalists are seeking to ferret out the truth and the real meaning behind actions and strategies.
How do you envision further strengthening TransMedia Group’s stronghold in 2022 and beyond?
We are building our international capabilities by bringing on board people who speak other languages besides English, which is how we’re securing clients in other countries, which I see as a growth area for us. Also, we have added other components to our firm, including a fully licensed talent agency called MaddenTalent, from which we can pull spokespersons for our clients.
Besides this, I see my writings of articles and books including my latest WORDSHINE MAN, now availing available on Amazon, which is full of tips on how to make writing more inviting. And don’t forget my weekly blog, at MaddenMischief.com, which is also helping to expand the reach and frequency of impressions our PR firm makes for clients.
