The Hope Gala is an annual event to support the American Cancer Society while honoring 13 Spirit Award recipients on the forefront of cancer care in our community. 650 were in attendance and over $280,000 was raised. All proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society Patrick F. Taylor Hope Lodge which provides free housing and transportation for cancer patients and their families.

The H Agency served as a media sponsor by designing the entire identity of the Gala. Lorrie Lee of The H Agency is President of the American Cancer Society Executive Leadership Council for greater New Orleans.

To learn more about how you can help fight cancer in our community click here.

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Download our H-Paper

Our H-paper takes you through the steps of creating a basic plan for your business and yourself. It provides helpful tips and suggestions, includes a readiness check-list and “Be Prepared” booklet, plus loads of educational resources. Click here to download it now.

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Download our Check-list

From what we learned with Hurricane Katrina, we created a preparedness guideline book and tools. Use them; share them. We hope they help you and your business to be better prepared for any emergency. Download the Be Prepared guide here.

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It’s hurricane season once again.

Being prepared to weather any storm is an empowering place to be. It gives us balance and focus in a chaotic situation. Ask yourself these questions to see how prepared you are this year.

• Does your business have temporary relocation contingencies?
• Do you have copies of all important personal or business files including insurance policies, leases, medical records, contact sheets, etc.?
• Do you have a central business number that your employees can call to check in and receive updated information during an evacuation?
• In case of evacuation, have you created a list of what to take?
• Have you let your contacts and customers know your preferred alternative means of contact during a power outage or evacuation?
• Do you have a comprehensive emergency management system in place for your business and yourself?
• Do you have procedures in place to communicate to your contacts and customers in an emergency?
• Do you need to create a communications template (an ad, e-mail, direct mail, etc.) to keep your clients aware of your contact information and other pertinent matters?

Being prepared can help both you and your clients. Your readiness is catching. You can be the source of leadership, resources and ideas to keep people communicating and moving forward in an emergency. It’s all about your attitude and your willingness to be flexible, to learn and change.

Don’t expect institutions to take care of things for you. The past has proven that the government, insurance companies, mortgage companies, credit card companies, police or utility companies can all be unable to help in an emergency. They’re just as affected as you. You have yourself, your family, neighbors and friends—they’re your community and support system.

Surviving loss and change takes a positive mental attitude. No matter how much you’ve lost, at some point you have to let go of the trauma and move on.

Look for the opportunity and the learning experience. There will always be one.

The Pelican Awards are given each year to honor exemplary efforts in hospital public relations and marketing among LHA members. The awards are handed out during the annual spring meeting of the Louisiana Society for Hospital Public Relations & Marketing, for work done the previous year. www.lhaonline.org

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Awards Given:
Internal Magazine – Production Cost per issue Greater than $500
Physician Notes, Ochsner Health System

Advertising Campaign – Agency – 150 Beds or Less
ER Campaign, Ochsner Baptist Medical Center

Presentation – Production Cost of $5000 or less
Marketing Roadshow Video, Ochsner Health System

The H Agency received the “Judge’s Choice” Award in the Aster Healthcare Advertising’s Excellence in Medical Marketing 2010 competition. The agency was given the award for the Ochsner Baptist Medical Center’s “ER Campaign,” a marketing effort that launched the re-opening of a new emergency services wing.

NEW ORLEANS, LA; May 24, 2010 – The H Agency, a strategic marketing and creative agency founded in New Orleans in 1990, won the “Judge’s Choice” Award in the Aster Healthcare Advertising Excellence in Medical Marketing 2010 competition. The Aster Awards is a marketing awards program in which entries from around the country are scored, judged and recognized by a panel of healthcare marketing and advertising experts. The H Agency’s “ER Campaign,” created for Ochsner Baptist Medical Center in New Orleans, was selected from among 3,000 national entries. It was one of only 8 such awards given in 2010.

“It’s an honor for everyone on our team, for their thinking and effort that went in to this project,” said H Agency president and founder, Winnie Hart.  “And we share credit on this award with our marketing partners at Ochsner who saw the value in our creative approach that was ‘larger than life.’ Emergency care is not necessarily top-of-mind for most of us until we need it,” Winnie said, “and then it becomes bigger than life. Our solution focused on translating this bigger-than-life concept into a visual reality using the oversized letters, ‘ER,’ on all materials.”

To demonstrate their bigger-than-life theme, The H Agency team designed two 12′ tall, 3-D letters reading, “ER.” The oversized letters were driven on main streets and through neighborhoods around the medical center’s service area to gain attention and build awareness for the opening of the emergency services department. Patient use of the new ER far exceeded the medical center’s projections in 2009.

The Aster Awards is hosted by Creative Images, Inc., an internationally recognized firm that has specialized in strategic healthcare marketing for more than 16 years. The Judge’s Choice award winners are featured in the May/June Issue of Marketing Healthcare Today magazine, available online at www.mhtmagazine.com.

The H Agency is a strategic marketing and creative agency that develops marketing programs and brand strategies for healthcare and wellness companies. The company has grown from a local New Orleans design firm into a regional strategic marketing and creative agency that develops marketing programs and brand strategies for healthcare and wellness companies. In its 20 years of service to clients, The H Agency has been recognized with more than 120 top industry awards for excellence in marketing, communications and design.

Agency Contact:
Winnie Hart – President and founder
504.522.6300
Winnie@thehagency.com

Or see it at TED.com here.

Today is World Graphic Design Day!

World Graphics Day is celebrated on April 27, the anniversary of the founding of Icograda, the world body for graphic design, in 1963. It is a day to celebrate the profession of graphic and communication design. The day has been celebrated since 1995.

On this occasion, designers reflect and hope that an international network can contribute to a greater understanding between people and can help to build bridges where divides and inequities exist.

International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda) was founded in London in 1963. Icograda is the world body for professional communication design and visual communication. Icograda network members include professional associations, design promotion bodies, design media and design education institutions. Design media are affiliated through the Icograda Design Media Network. Individuals are affiliated through the Icograda Friends Network.

The Icograda Education Network (IEN) brings together the worldwide community of graphic design educational institutions. The IEN was inaugurated at a meeting in Brno, Czech Republic, in June 2002 attended by 73 delegates from 28 countries.

For more info on Icograda click here.

Become a part of the event on Facebook!

Our New Orleans offices overlook Lee Circle on St. Charles Avenue (site for Earth Day installation).

The project is the ‘Spore Project’ – created by Orlando Installation/Mobile artist Doug Rhodehamel. The Spore Project New Orleans is curated by New Orleans Visual artist Isabel Theriot. These paper bag mushrooms are part of a world-wide art project that promotes awareness for the support of arts education and creativity in day-to-day life.

www.dougrhodehamel.com

House Bill 1 – to support the Colon Cancer Screening Program (FITCo) for an additional $1.5 million for year three of the project.

Senate Bill 348 -to support this Bill to strengthen the Louisiana Smokefree Air Act by extending to bars and casinos. www.tobaccofreeliving.org

Together, we’ll stay well, get well and find cures in the fight against cancer. http://www.cancer.org

Lorrie Lee with The H Agency has been a volunteer with the Greater New Orleans  American Cancer Society for the past ten years,  and is currently serving as President of their Executive Leadership Council.

The answer is not ‘if’ but ‘when’ and ‘how much’ – its ease of use and programming are moving Apple one step closer to having a big impact in healthcare communications and clinical applications.

A few things need to happen to significantly impact the clinical side:

1. Needs to fit in a white lab coat pocket.

2. Sterilization – hmmmm.

3. Enable touch to work with a gloved hand.

4. Drop resistant – or able to recover from a drop onto a hospital floor.

5. Camera with video conferencing.

6. Bridge the generational gap with physicians – and acceptance of new tools and technologies.

7. HIPPA compliance.

According to Manhattan Research, the percentage of physicians in the U.S. using smartphones has increased to over 65 percent – and this will increase to 81% in 2012.

“By 2012, all physicians will walk around with a stethoscope and a smart mobile device, and there will be very few professional activities that physicians won’t be doing on their handhelds. Physicians will be going online first for the majority of their professional needs and will be regularly pulling online resources into patient consultations,” said Monique Levy, Senior Director of Research at Manhattan Research. “Understanding the shifts that are occurring is essential for manufacturers, especially as many are reevaluating their sales model overall at this time.”