Unconventional Marketing to Tell Remarkable Stories

Desiree Duncan (00:01.583)

Welcome everyone to the No Normal Show brought to you by BPD. This is where we leave all things status quo, traditional, old school, and boring and the dust and celebrate the new, the powerful, the innovative, the future, all related to how brands can lead the way in health. I’m Desiree Duncan, Vice President of Health Equity and Inclusion at BPD, and I’ll be your host for today. In this episode, we have a great group of friends here. We welcome back Julie Bricker, Vice President of Media Innovation and Integration at BPD.

And joining her, we have a few new guests, Frank Carter, Vice President of Brand at Avent Health, and Michelle Figuero, founder of Good News Movement. In this episode, we’re gonna discuss how healthcare marketers can market in unconventional ways to tell remarkable stories. And we’ll get into that later, but first, let’s start with some good news. Let’s start with you, Julie. What has been your good news of the week?

Julie Bricker (00:57.139)

you guys. So I was a little behind the eight ball in this, but my son is officially potty trained and I could not be more excited. It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal in our house. That’s what’s been going on this week.

Desiree Duncan (01:05.371)

Woo!

Michelle (01:06.347)

That’s huge.

Desiree Duncan (01:09.787)

haha

Frank (01:12.172)

That is a-

Desiree Duncan (01:12.677)

Well, yeah, big congrats there. All right, Michelle, how about you?

Julie Bricker (01:13.777)

Yeah.

Michelle (01:18.422)

Well, to carry along with the theme, my son, actually I had a call, a parent teacher call, and while they’re always talking about grades, one teacher was like, he’s just the nicest kid. And even though that seems like a simple thing, I felt really proud, even more proud than, you know, perfect straight A’s. I was more proud that he was just a really sweet kid and nice with his classmates. So, simple, but good news for me.

Desiree Duncan (01:42.169)

Yay, love that, love that. And Frank, how about you?

Frank (01:45.386)

Well, I will keep with the theme of kids. And I recently had the pleasure of walking my daughter down the aisle. We had a fine young man join our family and I now have a partner in crime. I’ve had a family of females and now I have a new son-in-law to help me out.

Michelle (01:54.219)

Desiree Duncan (02:09.311)

yay, love that. And wow, what a theme. I’m gonna totally break it. Maybe I can find a way. So I’m home for this week, this weekend. And I’m bit of a nomad. live in a different city every couple of months and trying to figure out where I wanna live. But I’m home in Nashville and my mom gets to see her daughter. So keep that theme. So yeah, just really excited to be home and get to see folks. All right. So essentially, know,

Michelle (02:16.715)

you

Desiree Duncan (02:37.157)

That’s kind of what our conversation is going to be about, how we are able to bring these innovative ways of connecting with our consumers, our patients, and what have you, but in the form of a good news movement, and that it is really cool what you all have been able to do. But I want to start first with where this all kind of like, this thing has been.

works in the making of a number of years. So Frank, Julie, you two have been kind of working together for a number of years. We just love to learn more about the kinds of things you two have been partnering together on.

Frank (03:15.713)

Yeah, well, our relationship as an agency and company is really 20 years in the making. BPD has been a big partner in the AdventHealth journey and has helped us primarily in the earlier years in our flagship market of central Florida. A couple of years ago, we actually contracted with the agency to really come on board and help us build our brand.

And our brand is about wholeness. It’s about creating opportunities and helping consumers see themselves fully. you know, oftentimes we are interacting with consumers in the health space. And that’s probably like 2 % of their lifetime, right? That they’re in a medical crisis, if you will. Well, we need to help them feel whole across

the fullness of their life. So our brand promise is wholeness. It is to help people feel whole. And so the agency has worked with us to really help develop that out. And Julie and in her fine ways really helps us uncover innovative ways that can do that. And our connection with the Good News Movement was really all about that. Julie, you want to talk a little bit about

how you uncovered it and what that perspective was as you brought that to us as a client.

Julie Bricker (04:51.779)

Yeah, we’re always looking for ways, as Frank mentioned, we want, you know, we’re trying to build a brand to national status. We want to be a nationally recognized brand within in a few short years. And we’re always looking for how do we kind of unexpectedly appear when people are going about their day to day lives? And one of them, of course, is on social media, right? And so I’ve followed Michelle’s page for for quite some time. And I’m always looking for that white space, like where

does someone not have dominance in this area yet? And I noticed she had some advertisers, but that she didn’t have any healthcare. And so I just kind of took a shot. sent her a note and within like a few seconds, she replied right away. We were on the phone that same day and talking about what we can do together. And we kind of instantly clicked. And so we were able to sort of form this partnership with

her beliefs are and how she got into Good News Movement really aligns with what Advent Health’s trying to do in terms of spreading kindness and making a difference in the world. so it was really fun to see how it uncovered. I think that’s part of, my job here is to find the new, the different, the never been done before. And I think a lot of people don’t wanna put in the effort to do that. And I am all about like, let’s get this done. How do we do it? So that’s sort of how it came about.

Desiree Duncan (06:15.002)

your

Yeah, you’re, you’re scrappy. just, saw something that looked cool and you just slid right into the DMS.

Michelle (06:20.708)

He

Julie Bricker (06:22.067)

Yep, that’s 100 % what happened.

Desiree Duncan (06:25.773)

All right, so Michelle, you got that message from Julie and kind of take us from there. Like what happened? What was going on in your mind?

Michelle (06:33.592)

The first thing I thought was this woman knows what she’s doing because, you know, I worked in the advertising space, you know, before Good News Movement, I was placing TV ads. So she knew exactly what she was doing, the objectives, and she had such clarity. And I feel like automatically we clicked, our personalities clicked. And it makes total sense for this category to really have their own little home on Good News Movement because

you know, when someone’s sick, that’s the most vulnerable they are in their lives. And there are so many stories that are born from what Frank’s saying about trying to nourish this wholeness and this, the emotional part, that’s, that’s what Advent really gives is the emotional support, right? Cause you go to any hospital, yes, they’ll try to find a remedy for your problem, but it’s really going further in like, how can we help human to human? And so yeah, when I heard from Julie, I was like, this is perfect.

there really wasn’t anyone in this category at all. from there we’ve just had, actually we have a hard time narrowing down the stories. Sometimes we have so many good ones that we’re like, wow, that’s a good problem to have because there’s just beautiful stories of people going the extra mile, whether it’s a nurse for a patient, a patient for another patient. So it’s been a beautiful experience so far.

Frank (07:54.527)

And when you think about that and how that ties back to who and what we are, it is about mind, body and spirit. And the work of the Good News Movement, the stories that come to life there, and the stories that we’re able to bring to it really help to bring that to life and to allow consumers to see themselves in the stories. And they’re really organic and authentic and touching. And I think also in way that

Desiree Duncan (07:54.842)

Okay, so.

Frank (08:24.189)

That is what really engages her audience and allows us to deliver the stories that we want to deliver.

Desiree Duncan (08:34.117)

Okay, we’ve been talking about the Good News Movement, but what exactly is it?

Michelle (08:39.628)

Well, it started actually in this apartment in my bedroom. I had a horrible ear infection and an ear infection sounds kind of like a baby thing to have, like, it’s no big deal, but it’s very debilitating and painful. So in 2018, I had an ear infection in bed. I’m a journalist who had been frustrated with having all my good news stories overlooked by not one network, basically all of them. So I decided to kind of become the news director.

that I wanted to be and no more gatekeeper just create my own platform for good news and so head down just posting good news and good news stories and yeah it took off pretty quickly.

Desiree Duncan (09:21.723)

Yeah, okay. So when brands are approaching you about this, you you were putting out good news and so like a Julie slides your DMs, you know, you were figuring out. So how does this exactly work? Because as she noted there, you know, there’s not really ads on there. So how is it that a brand shows up on the good news movement?

Michelle (09:39.456)

Well, I’m glad you say that because I’ve heard that feedback a lot from people like, I don’t even know that there’s ads on your page. And actually we’ve worked with, you know, dozens of brands in different categories from retail to healthcare to food and beverage, but it really flows with the content and we’re very intentional with how we tell the stories and making sure that it’s a good story to begin with. It’s not just we’re feeding you an ad with a service or a product. So.

I love that people don’t notice their ads, but yet they’ll remember the story and they’ll remember, you know, that was the hospital that helped this patient out. So I think it does take kind of locating what’s the focus of the story and what’s the best way to tell it. So it just really flows. And I think we have a good partnership in that we kind of go back and forth with, how should we word this? How should we edit the video?

So it’s been really fun to kind of formulate the right way to work it also for social media because you have, you know, it’s a very fickle community. know, within the first two seconds, you want to grab their attention right away if it’s a video, right? You know, you can’t have a logo on the screen or they’ll be like, that’s an ad. So anyway, it’s been really interesting to see what stories perform best and how we tell them and how we kind of adjust it as we go along.

Desiree Duncan (11:03.973)

Yeah, I love that because I know we talk a lot about creating things that are social first. So for that particular platform, how do we generate those stories? But then something like this, it’s like that really organic way of telling a story and just kind of telling the almost essentially like the brand story without it feeling like you’re telling, you’re advertising this brand story. So we’d love to hear more about how this relates back to

the brand Frank and how maybe it sounds like even some of this was used internally as well, just given what you’re trying to do internally and as far as what you’re delivering then to patients.

Frank (11:46.169)

Yeah, so we are lucky in the sense that the Good News Movement really is an extension and that’s extension of work that we are already doing internally. We believe that our voice is a casual voice, it’s a friendly voice, it’s an approachable voice. And so as we tell our story, whether it’s to consumers, to potential employees, or employees and internal stakeholders,

We do it in that way. So on a regular basis, we are meeting with a group that we call our Story Bureau. And that group of people really reflects the stories that are coming in across our entire footprint. We are a national organization. We’re in nine states. We have 53 hospital facilities, all the healthcare network that supports a hospital system.

We have that, and so we’ve got a really, really broad footprint. And the team members that represent us in those markets, they come together in the Story Bureau and regularly bring stories for us to consider in all of our channels. And oftentimes, you know, a story that we might be telling to our employee base might be something that we send over to Michelle as well.

So we sort of use the Story Bureau as the groundwork, if you will, to uncover the stories. And then once we have them, we start to look at the channels that we have and where the story might play best. And oftentimes it plays across multiple channels. And that’s a good thing.

Julie Bricker (13:31.723)

I also think that the teams have been more encouraged to submit their stories now. Like they’re like, wait, I want my story on Good News Movement too. So they’re actively looking like maybe even harder than they were before, which is really nice to see as well.

Frank (13:39.142)

Yeah.

Desiree Duncan (13:47.897)

Yeah, I wonder what fueled that. know there’s like a actually a pretty large reach that Good News Movement has a couple of key folks out in the world. don’t know, Michelle, if you want to share some stories about who even this reaches.

Julie Bricker (14:03.475)

What’s it like 5.6 million? It’s amazing. Amazing.

Michelle (14:04.076)

Yes. 5.6 million. Yes. It’s wild. The stories are really fun. I was in the same room where I’m speaking to you from when I saw a man post a picture. His house burnt down in California, sadly, and the only thing he saved was his Tom Brady jersey. And Tom Brady took the picture, posted it, and said, hey, who can help me get in touch with this guy? I want to help him out. He lost his home.

Frank (14:19.939)

in

Michelle (14:30.594)

And I was like, well, I’m a journalist. I’m not doing anything right now. I reached out to the guy. I said, hey, Tom Brady wants to get in touch. He’s like, yeah, right. Madonna’s my neighbor, whatever. So I said, no, no, really. I have him interested in getting in touch with you. So he was elated. And I connected the two. Tom ended up helping him out. And he thanked Good News Movement.

from his Instagram. So overnight, all of a sudden I have like Patriots Nation. You know, I don’t know the last thing about football, but so that was kind of like a first bump for us. But then I guess the biggest one was in 2019. It was New Year’s Day, the first day of the year. And I got, I turned off my phone. I was in Puerto Rico, just kind of disconnecting, digital detox. I turned on my phone and getting all these messages. Congrats about the Prince.

And I’m like, what prints from where and what happened? And so then I found out that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had featured Good News Movement. I was their only follow, so that helped with all of a sudden a British following. So just these little bumps here and there, but always the mission has been, well, that’s great to have the public figures following. Our mission really is to just reach as many people reminding them of.

Desiree Duncan (15:40.539)

Wow.

Michelle (15:52.054)

the good news that exists in the world and that we can be the good news. Right? think we’ve always had that mission of just sharing, amplifying as much as we can, head down, working hard. And it’s been really a privilege. And I have to say that with Admin Health, I think one thing is really important to note that we wouldn’t have as many good stories if they didn’t have the staff and the kind of healthcare professionals they do have.

So I feel like they’re living good news movements in what they do every day. And I feel like that really makes our job super easy of picking out great stories because they’re living out our mission, we’re living out their mission. So the synergy is just perfect.

Frank (16:34.144)

Love that. Absolutely love that.

Desiree Duncan (16:34.64)

That’s a.

Yeah, and that you have been able to, I so there’s a number of different kinds of stories of good news that show up on your channel, but knowing that we’re focusing on health. What are some examples of some of those past stories that have been specifically focused on for AdventHealth and health in general?

Julie Bricker (16:55.795)

What’s one of my favorites is, well, I think I have two favorites, but one of my favorites is there was a nurse that was sewing a wedding gown with sutures for one of the patients that was about to deliver a baby. She wanted to get married first. And so she literally like did a whole handmade sewn wedding gown with sutures, like amazing, just amazing. And I think the other.

The other one is probably the one that went viral, right? I mean, how could we not call that one out? And that wound up on the Today Show. And I got a text like, your Good News movement just wound up on the Today Show. And then of course I shared with Frank immediately and that was really cool to see.

Frank (17:35.162)

Yeah, and that story was really centered around one of our nurses in the Colorado region that was out on the weekend, you know, during a hike. And he happened to come across a gentleman who was having a heart attack. And he helped the gentleman and got him to a safe place where he was able to be transported back to the hospital. And then ultimately, the two of them remat at the hospital facility and sort of reconnected.

the patient was able to really thank him for the work. you know, being a nurse isn’t always about being in the hospital. They have a personal obligation and desire to really help people. And so it didn’t matter if it was on the hiking trail or if it was in the actual hospital.

Desiree Duncan (18:27.227)

Yeah, that’s so special. It’s like you’re living out your purpose, your passion, like beyond what you’re doing at work and out in the world.

Frank (18:37.144)

At Desiree, our team members really believe that and we as an organization throughout everything that we do, we really reinforce that. And so having opportunities to really showcase the true collective belief that we have as an organization, it’s just not a company mantra, know, it’s something our team members truly believe and that

allows for these stories to truly come to life because we’ve got, we have people who care.

Desiree Duncan (19:12.495)

Yeah, and then the fact that it’s also exciting, like yes, doing this thing, but to then see these stories like reach others beyond and it even inspires other to do the same and live out their purpose. It’s just all really, really, really impactful. And all of this is just that creative opportunity to connect with folks outside of what we typically think of in advertising. So Julie.

But like, is, not that you have to give your secret sauce, your social sauce, but, but what is it that you take, maybe some of the things that you do throughout your day or week that helps kind of inform some of the really cool inspirations that you have to just kind of take those leaps of faiths and slide into and shoot your shot with brands to do things and make them come to life.

Julie Bricker (19:43.16)

Mm-mm.

Michelle (19:43.506)

You

Julie Bricker (20:02.439)

I really believe, well I’m not gonna give away my secret sauce just to be clear, but I really believe that a good idea can come from anywhere and I think you can find inspiration anywhere. So I constantly am scrolling LinkedIn, I’m looking at social media, I’m looking at, especially like the, there’s advertising things that call out cool things brands are doing and just kinda getting inspiration from there. There’s a ton of really cool stuff Heinz has done and other really large.

Michelle (20:06.546)

You

Julie Bricker (20:29.831)

me. So I just am always looking and wondering how I can apply that to the clients that we serve here at BPD. so, you know, and obviously I’ve been working on the Advent Health account for five plus years now, so I’m really ingrained in it. So I know what will work and what won’t work. And so I just love being able to come to the table and be like, I just need 10 minutes of your time, Frank, I got the best idea ever. And that’s typically how I will approach him about something, something like this.

Desiree Duncan (21:00.229)

You know, and that kind of stuff and almost that key to being able to just kind of go out and dream like Frank, I imagine that’s, you that’s set up by, you know, you and your team where it’s almost like you give people and your agency license to bring you all the things and ways to kind of put you out there, put Advent Health out there in the market. I’m just kind of curious your philosophy behind all of that.

Frank (21:25.143)

Well, obviously, we love the ideas that that Jola brings forward. And I’ve got to share that probably 80 % of our brilliant ideas, we’re not able to do. And it has to do with being able to balance the resources of the organization against the big idea. One of these days, we’re going to really do a crazy, crazy big idea. But

Michelle (21:53.154)

You

Julie Bricker (21:54.483)

And I’m gonna keep bringing them, Frank, don’t you worry.

Frank (21:55.416)

Yeah, of course, and you should. But, you know, my philosophy is how can we do this? How can we find the opportunities that allow us to do this in a place and space that is real for us? And when I mean real, it’s authentic in nature, but it’s also real in the sense of it’s something we can pull off.

And so, you know, there’s that balance as marketers, as business people that we all have to sort of go through. And while it might be disappointing in the moment that we can’t do this crazy big idea, Julie found this phenomenal small idea that is big in nature. And that’s the Good News Movement.

Desiree Duncan (22:49.335)

Yeah. And Michelle, I mean, with this movement, you know, essentially you saw something missing out in the world, even just, you know, personally for you, you’re like, I want to see more good news. And then you made it happen. Kind of, you know, what’s the drive behind that?

Michelle (22:58.615)

Yes.

Michelle (23:04.055)

Well, if you think about your average day, right, you go outside, maybe you see a neighbor, you go into a coffee shop, you talk to coworkers, most of those exchanges are positive. Most of the people we come across are good. So I thought, yes, we need to be informed about natural disasters, economy, any impending danger on the news, but at least 50 % needs to be good. Come on, it can’t just be like, there’s actually a phrase in the news industry called a kicker, which means

A good news is just relegated to the last, I don’t know, two or three minutes of the newscast and it’s called a kicker because it’s kicked out if necessary, if there’s more important news. So I just didn’t think that was a balanced reflection of reality. And so, yeah, I just was passionate. had always, and it wasn’t even like a business model I even had in mind. The truth is I always liked telling.

inspiring stories. That’s like who I am and what I gravitated toward. But yeah, I got rejected for, I mean, over a decade. My life was kind of just rejection, rejection. And now it’s like, I get so much good that I’m just, I have to kind of focus every day and make sure that I’m sharing the most important or impactful stories. But there’s so much good and I’m the testament to that because I receive messages like every couple of minutes on my DMs.

Desiree Duncan (24:27.791)

And that’s the beauty of this, in that each of you kind of, you’re able to lean into your your gut and what you want to see in the world and things that you’re trying to achieve and you just go for it. You’re not trying to jump onto something that’s popular or trying to come up with the next thing. It’s like meeting these simple needs that then leads to something great.

Michelle (24:52.369)

Exactly. Yeah, I think to add one little thing is that like if you see a problem, like how can we fix it? Right? And what I liked, have to shout out to Advent Health because during Hurricane Milton, I loved and this wasn’t even part of our official agreement. I saw that they were offering doctors or medical visits virtually. And I thought, wow, nobody else is doing that or no one’s contacted me about that. And just being there for the community and thinking, okay,

Julie Bricker (25:04.648)

Mm.

Michelle (25:20.966)

what’s important right now, what’s going on, what are people stressed about, and how can we bring a solution to them. So I love that Advent Health did that for people and people were like very grateful. I got good feedback that it was very useful for them to reach out to Advent. So kudos to you guys.

Desiree Duncan (25:36.879)

Yeah, it’s, yeah, and I know that it’s, sorry. And I know that it’s always, you know, you think about when the weather and some natural, you know, things that occur. And it’s like, okay, how, what role can I play? You know, how can I help? And that everyone really bands together and it shows up in a number of different ways. You know, whether you’re helping move debris from someone’s yard or helping clear water out.

Julie Bricker (25:40.872)

Mm-hmm

Desiree Duncan (26:05.859)

or you’re seeing like, hey, these folks are doing something, I’m going to amplify that so that more folks know and can get this service or also do the same. So all of that. So I know we’re running, we’re about to run out of time, but I wanna get some key takeaways and what is something based off of the work you do, this conversation and just the good news movement in general, what’s one thing you would love for folks to take away from this conversation as well as the work that you do?

Frank (26:36.649)

Well, who wants to go first?

Julie Bricker (26:37.234)

My

Michelle (26:40.081)

Hahaha

Julie Bricker (26:41.124)

You go ahead, Frank, you do it.

Frank (26:42.353)

All right. As I think about that question, and I think about who we are as an organization, we’re a healthcare provider, right? But we’re also a huge community partner. And we’re about galvanizing the community. And as I mentioned earlier, our brand promise is about feeling whole. And ultimately, what that is about is human connection. And human connection,

is healing. People are healed by the touch, the connection with others. And I think the work that we’re doing with our partners at BPD and with our partners at Goodness Movement is about that human connection, showcasing and featuring these phenomenal stories of people connecting and healing together.

Desiree Duncan (27:37.304)

when people come together, it’s just even just like a mood lift. Imagine like everything else that’s happening internally that that supports. Julie, what about you?

Julie Bricker (27:47.869)

So when I’m doing client discovery and when I first sat down with Frank after they brought us on, I said, what’s the one thing you want to do that you haven’t done yet and why? And the answer was interesting. He said, I want to appear to consumers in the moment. I want to meet them in the moment in ways that they would not expect me to. And so I use that as sort of the foundation for all the ideas that I bring forth to them.

And I think a lot of that is really going the extra mile, making that connection sliding into Michelle’s DMs. And I mean, I will stock, I will do whatever it takes to find people. I message on Instagram, LinkedIn, I figure out their email. Like I will just go the gamut to figure it out. And I think people just don’t put in that effort and it really can result in an awesome partnership.

Michelle (28:23.27)

You

Desiree Duncan (28:36.793)

And I’ve heard you say time and time again that essentially inspiration can come from anywhere.

Julie Bricker (28:41.903)

anywhere. I don’t care where you sit within an organization or what organization you’re for, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has good ideas and maybe sometimes they can be fleshed out further or whatever. So I always encourage our team, like you have a good idea, just share it and let’s see what we can make of it. Always.

Desiree Duncan (28:58.703)

Love that. All right, Michelle, how about you?

Michelle (29:01.879)

In terms of the storytelling, always tell people that what I’ve learned from, you know, what’s a good story, you know, what makes one better than the other is really what Frank was saying is like the human connection, like our common thread we have on all of our posts is love. You know, whether it’s showing love patient to patient or if it’s a doctor to the patient.

or it’s even a gift shop. I remember there was a story we did once of a gift shop worker who was having cardiac arrest and the medical professional was on break and saved her life. So it’s just caring for one another. And I think that’s been really Advent Health success as well as our success is just showcasing those raw moments of beauty, of humanity. You know, you don’t really have to complicate it or tell a long story or do a

super highly developed production. If you have that authentic, real moment, it stands alone. You just have to find those stories. now we have kind of good word of mouth within the AdventHealth network for people to be sending in their stories. So yeah, I just think it’s been a perfect partnership. I love that Julie was looking for me. Every time I did a digital billboard in the shopping mall, she’s like,

Let’s think of something with that. Every single thing I do, she’s like, let’s, and I love that. think that that is exactly how you want to be. You know, someone with energy thinking outside the box because that’s where good ideas come from. Stuff that other people aren’t doing or thinking of. So my long winded answer there.

Julie Bricker (30:41.267)

Hahaha.

Desiree Duncan (30:42.295)

love that, love that. It’s a great way to wrap up. Frank, Michelle, Julie, thank you so much for this inspiring conversation. And for all of you listening, thank you so much for joining in. If there’s something you want us to cover on the NoNormal show, shoot us an email at nonormal at bpdhealthcare.com and make sure to share the show with friends and colleagues and give us a review and rating on iTunes and Spotify, preferably five stars. All of that would be greatly appreciated.

And until next time, don’t ever be satisfied with the normal. Push that no normal y’all, and we’ll talk to you next week.