Considering the constant evolution of the healthcare industry, public relations (PR) is proving to be more essential now than ever. Organizations that wish to stay ahead in the industry should invest in good PR to create demand. PR helps organizations send a solid message across platforms to position them as an industry leader.
This is where a public relations agency plays its crucial part. PR helps companies with communication, both internal and external, building the brand, and enhancing business growth. TransMedia Group has been one such brilliant multi-lingual PR agency that has helped organizations tell their stories across all media.
In the following interview, Thomas J Madden, the CEO, Chairman, and Spinman of TransMedia Group, and Adrienne Mazzone, the President of TransMedia Group, talk about the excellent work that their firm has been executing in the healthcare PR space since its inception.
Please brief our audience about your agency, its values, and the aspects that make it a leading player in the healthcare PR space.
The most productive prescription for keeping companies in healthcare healthy involves at least two major media hits a month, plus weekly social media posts followed by appearances on television but only after undergoing media training allowing PR experts like us to take X-rays of your delivery so we can surgically remove any dull spots and concentrate on five or six message points that most build confidence and enhance your brand.
Brief us about how you have set yourself apart from the competition through your expertise in healthcare PR and communication?
We set ourselves apart from other PR firms by emphasizing three things about TransMedia Group that make us measurably different.
- Our 40 years of experience in grooming our healthcare clients for the big leagues in media. 2. Our many success stories in having healthcare clients featured on network television, in major market newspapers, and national magazines.
- The impact our PR has had on our clients’ bottom line, for example, our publicity making the founder of Rexall Sundown, a billionaire.
What other services does your agency offer, and how are you making an impact in the global healthcare industry?
We love working with international companies as well as leading healthcare companies in other countries like Israel, where for many years we successfully represented Dr. Eli Fisher, whose company has become a household name there, and today we’re helping Meir Medical Center raise funds for devices to save infants in pre-natal births.
Tom, please brief us about your journey in the healthcare PR space and how you have made an impact on the agency through your role.
My experience with healthcare started years ago when I broke my neck in a diving accident when I was a young lifeguard in Atlantic City, NJ. It was then that I developed a strong admiration for doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals who nursed me back to health.
When I started TransMedia Group in the early 1980’s one of my first clients was Boehringer Ingelheim, a large pharma company in Connecticut that asked me to promote a mental energy aid called Ginkoba M/E, for which I came up with the phrase “Good News for your Brain” and made thousands of buttons with that phrase.
It was fun, and some of my best PR campaigns were fun, which is probably why they worked. One time I was promoting Laugh Factory, a comedy club in New York City, and we handed out thousands of toothbrushes on Times Square that said: “Fight Glum Disease” at Laugh Factory.
Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how the adoption of modern technologies and platforms within PR and communications has transformed the industry and what more could be expected in the near future?
Technology is an area that’s always running ahead of me, and I’m forever trying to catch up with it. But it’s revolutionized the PR professional. Keep in mind that I started with a typewriter, not even a laptop, which for me was a giant step upward.
While there are so many marvelous ways to spread communications today, I still believe we need to express ourselves effectively, and that requires writing skills, which in today’s new metaverse I feel are losing effectiveness, something that I write about in my latest book, ‘Wordshine Man’, due out in March.
We need to send pitches to media that stand out and news releases that shine enough for media to notice and act upon. This takes writing skills that we need to keep sharp regardless of what technology is transporting them to recipients.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the healthcare PR sector?
Besides the science and proof of effectiveness, healthcare needs passion behind it, a penchant for wellness, a strong desire to convince people to preserve and protect their health, especially today while we’re under unceasing pandemic attack.
It’s one of the reasons I started the online publication Dietary Supplement News, which my health-conscious daughter Adrienne Mazzone runs, while she’s also a prolific president of TransMedia Group. Today we need those Vitamin C B and D supplements and many others more than ever to keep our immune system on track and at its best.
Where do you envision your agency to be in the long run, and what are your goals for 2022 and beyond?
I see our agency expanding in many rapidly burgeoning areas like telemedicine. We represent iRecovery which is assisting so many people dealing with drug addiction and other medical problems surging today via telemedicine and advanced companies like Health Karma, which is taking all the hassle and complexity out of navigating a plethora of healthcare options.
Exhibiting Excellence
“Tom and the TransMedia team have been an incredible partner, but more importantly have essentially been an extension of our team, as we entered into our next phase of growth at
Health Karma. They truly understand the importance of building brand equity and have been able to communicate effectively in what is complex health care and media space.”
“This collaboration has truly helped to extend the reach of Health Karma being recognized for providing an easy-to-use and personalized solution that empowers consumers with the tools and resources to navigate the confusion and cost of the healthcare system. We have great chemistry with the team at TransMedia Group and are confident in their ability to tell our unique story in ways that connect to the needs of consumers and businesses across the nation.” – Health Karma
