From Dell to EdX, Columbia Sportswear to Red Bull -- advertising is increasingly less about claiming value, and more about delivering it through memorable experiences. That's the secret behind Zeno's Paradox of Marketing.
Is a World Without Ads Possible? We’re already halfway there.
Why No One is an Agency Anymore, and Why No One Cares
Customer Experience Makes Five Guys the Top Ranked Burger in the US
Best job ever? Usability Testing Bartender
Companies with Top Customer Experiences Out-Score Super Bowl Advertisers
What I Found at Caine’s Arcade, a Few Minutes of Fun
Amanda Palmer Won’t Settle for Less. Monitizing engagement is just the start.

Deception creates its own harm: Facebook shouldn’t know if you’re ovulating; voting shouldn’t be rooted in lies
January 14th 2021
Facebook gained the ability to see if users were ovulating, but the FTC put an end to this practice….because deception causes marketplace harm. Perhaps it’s time for voters to have consumer protections similar to what they enjoy in commerce from the FTC.

Telehealth is becoming a built-in part of healthcare’s service design: presentations and lawsuits show its growth path
November 4th 2020
Telehealth may have grown in response to the COVID pandemic, but large health systems, payers, and service providers are building virtual health capabilities as a permanent change to healthcare. Hear a dozen telehealth leaders, read research, and catch my interpretation of a recent lawsuit – which together suggest the direction of change in virtual care.

OHSU Invent-a-thon gathers medical innovators from 19 countries to hack medicine
October 26th 2020
Congratulations to the organizers and 600 volunteers who came together last weekend for OHSU’s Hacking Medicine Inventathon. This is the second time I’ve mentored for MIT’s Hacking Medicine, and the ingenuity of the groups they gathered was energizing and inspiring.

Its on! The Healthcare Management Mini-MBA is filling fast for October
September 15th 2020
Teaching has changed. My Fall course was recorded in-studio and produced by the team at Rutgers Business School. I teach the healthcare marketing part of their 14 week mini-mba program, and am joined by experts in economics, finance, operations, and regulatory issues. It’s a rare digital-first program. Registration is open now for Fall and Spring cohorts.

In praise of conservatives, specifically Carolyn Roth, my Mom
August 29th 2020
Personal post: I’m depositing my first daughter to college this week, as my Mom did me. After watching four nights of the Republican convention, I can’t help but think how out of place my Mom, a life-long Republican would be with Trumpublicans, and how proud I am of her and my daughter’s political impulses.

Investors and innovators: AmWell and Google rise to challenge dominant Teladoc
August 26th 2020
Teladoc’s year over year revenue has tripled, which is big news in an economy that has lost 15% of GDP. The growth of telehealth is a narcotically appealing to investors and competitors, which soon will include an IPO-fueled AmWell with Google as a key stakeholder.

Hospital content teams innovate as COVID-19 continues to change everything
July 30th 2020
As COVID-19 enters its sixth month, health systems are building out richer sets of content. PK’s Director of Content Strategy and I share innovations we’re seeing at four leading hospital systems, in another of our monthly video fly-overs.

Healthcare Marketing and the power brand stories
July 10th 2020
I am on Jeopardy, baby! Okay, its fake Jeopardy, and it’s really a casual fun discussion on why story marketing is so powerful in healthcare marketing. Come watch a video of Derek Phillips discussing story marketing with me late on a recent Friday afternoon.

Of hoaxes and heroes: the President wants to focus on anything but COVID19
July 4th 2020
Last week, the US broke records for new coronavirus cases day after day. If this were a normal administration, it would be flooding news programs with medical experts to tell Americans to wear masks and to take precautions to fight the virus’s spread. But the Trump White House is doing the opposite. The President hosted an […]

Until the racism is over, a framework for empathy
June 21st 2020
We have closed the US economy to compensate for a health system unprepared for a pandemic. Now it’s time to address the inequities that have made the burden of COVID-19 fall disproportionately on minority and lower-income communities.