MEDICITY MARKETING MILESTONES
One fine November day, I was invited to join a healthcare IT start-up called Medicity. At that time, all they had was a name — a play on ‘medical’ and ‘city’. My first task? Come up with a logo, website, product interface design, collateral and trade show booth graphics for our launch in February. I hit the ground running…and kept it up for SEVEN additional redesigns to the website, product, logo and branding. I also did design and creative for some of Medicity’s hospital and provider customers. I stuck around through Medicity’s acquisition by Aetna, and even took on work for a few of Aetna’s subsidiaries. I invite you to check out this timeline of the major milestones and hi-lights from each rebrand.
IF YOU’RE NOT HERE…WHERE ARE YOU?
Before joining Medicity, I met it’s dynamic founder and CEO for lunch one sunny afternoon in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was immediatly engaged in the start-up concept that he presented to me and not long after agreed to join the team as employee #8. He gave me the tagline ‘If you’re not here…where are you?’ to use while designing Medicity’s launch campaign. He sat right next to me in the new office space where we started with only one table and a shared internet cable, watching as I came up with logo options and designs for the first website. No pressure…
Before joining Medicity, I met it’s dynamic founder and CEO for lunch one sunny afternoon in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was immediatly engaged in the start-up concept that he presented to me and not long after agreed to join the team as employee #8. He gave me the tagline ‘If you’re not here…where are you?’ to use while designing Medicity’s launch campaign. He sat right next to me in the new office space where we started with only one table and a shared internet cable, watching as I came up with logo options and designs for the first website. No pressure…
IF YOU’RE NOT HERE…WHERE ARE YOU?
LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED
Medicity’s founder wanted the launch concept to have a ‘Route 66’ feel – including a logo that looked like a fuel station attendent shirt badge, and website with a city scape. I designed a color scheme to stand out from the typical healthcare look. Our tradeshow booth at the launch was a roadside diner, with a lunch counter and chairs, plus booth seating for product demos. Our unique and creative booth won us the first place trophy at eHealthcare World 2000 in Las Vegas…and our launch event at the Bellagio was a notable success. We were ready to roll with several customers on board and hired three new developers to make the demo I designed in collaboration with our amazing product manger a reality.
BENEFITS FOR PROVIDERS
Two years after our launch, the next major marketing initiative was to speak to our audience directly. I softened our color palette and updated the architecture of the website to appeal to our primary customers.
In response to our campaign for provider and hospital customers, we identified the opportunity to create personalized storefronts. I collaborated with our clients to modify templates I designed into custom branded interfaces to link to the Medicity product. And there was much rejoicing.
CUSTOM INTERFACES
BOUTIQUE CREATIVE
Some of our customers were in need of fresh design for their own websites, so I was able to add another revenue stream to Medicity by offering this service. At that time, I was still the sole member of the creative team, and I also served as project and account manager in these instances. I designed, build and maintained websites for several of our clients. I also put together a few logos, animated product demos and print materials.
Medicity’s next marketing campaign took into account our emerging position as industry leaders. With quotes from actual members of the team, I redesigned the website with a personal focus on the company itself. You may notice I simplified the logo a bit, too.
“TAKE IT FROM US…”
SALES COLLATERAL
At this time, we undertook our first multi-page printed collateral set. I designed dimensional color blocks for visual interest to explain elements of our products. Oh yes, I did the interface design, too. Working in collaboration with our product team, the goal was to develop a portal for hospitals and providers that was not only comprehensive, but clean looking and easy to use. This collateral became an invaluable sales tool outlining all of the details and key benefits of our product. It was tuly a labor of love, because to stay in budget, I printed and cropped each page in house. Remember, this was a start-up!
An update to the Medicity color palette adding bold orange and blue for visual cues to which elements of our product was in focus.
LET’S GET COLORFUL.
Finally, our budget allowed for a real press-printed collateral set. I tried something new with our design this time, moving away from photos of our product and stock pictures of doctors and patients, to using abstract art as a design element. The product sheets were cut to different sizes so each tab was visible when opening the folder.
THE CLINICAL INTEROPERABILITY COMPANY.
Our 2006 website redesign used the bold colors to identify our different products complimenting the collateral. The home page hero graphic was a scrolling Flash animation I designed and developed with pop up text to direct the viewer’s attention to specific points. I loved working in Flash!
GET ON THE GRID
The next major marketing refresh took place in 2008 – with a focus on what was becoming quite a large Medicity network. A new marketing manager came on board, I was finally able add a graphic designer to my team and outsource some of the production. We were growing!
The new marketing campaign called for a grid illustration and lots of icons to explain how the Medicity network benefited its variety of customers. I designed several graphics containing the grid as a base, modifying stock icons to suit our needs. I designed collateral and an epic demo in Flash to explain the concept.
ISOMETRIC ICONS
COLLATERAL
THE STANDARD FOR MEANINGFUL HIE
I truly enjoyed working on Medicity’s 2010 marketing campaign. We did things a little differently this time, collaborating with a small agency (former colleagues of mine) on the second floor of our office building. I think we came up with something quite unique and visually engaging.
PATIENT IMAGERY
Physician practices and hospitals remained our market audience, though this campaign used imagery of patients and their medical record data. We integrated the grid with a new look. This was the first Medicity website that I didn’t personally develop. Our collaborators introduced us to a CMS platform, which made updates a breeze.
I got to design yet another set of collateral, with a budget for even nicer paper and spot gloss! I used the patient and medical record imagery for visual focus, and we also were able to gather quite a few quotes of praise from our customers. We even integrated their video testimonials into our website. The concept ‘Meaningful Use’ became a mandate in our market, with new federal funding to assist healthcare organizations in digitizing their medical records. To emphasize our ability to provide that service, it became part of our company tagline.
The Next Level of Metrics:
TRADESHOW GRAPHICS
Medicity hit the tradeshow circuit big in 2010. Our booth contained large screens where I turned our patient and chart imagery into moving graphics. At this time, we also started to tout our metrics and began to think about how we could visualize our network size. The heatmap concept was born. It took me the better part of a week to create the map graphic with accurate density of our customer locations. We didn’t want to exaggerate…honesty is the best policy, right?
THE HEATMAP
As much fun as it was to collaborate with my former colleagues, the 2011 campaign was kept in house – our marketing team had grown to six! We finally were able to launch a social media presence and think bigger about future moves. Note the first splash of red in our palette.
WEBSITE
PRODUCT VIDEO
iNexx was the next evolution of our product, and I designed a new demo to explain how it worked in our network. This fun new ‘whiteboard’ style of icon and design really freshened up our sales PPTs, too. It helped our presentations stand out.
INSIGHT
Part of our effort to promote ourselves as market leaders, we began to blog about Meaningful Use, Care Coordination and much more. Blog authors differed in each post, and Medicity gained more attention and momentum.
‘iN’ @ THE SHOWS
Our new tradeshow booth had a campaign all of its own. A play on the name iNexx, we were ‘iN’. I used healthcare imagery and typography to visualize the Medicity network. Beyond the booth, I designed print items which were mailed to potential customers, advertisements that were placed around conference centers and integrated imagery for Atena – our new collaborator.
And then we were part of …
COLLATERAL FOR AETNA
Our collaboration with Aetna in 2012 lead to their aquisition of Medicity into the Healthagen Network. Things changed practically overnight! There were a lot of meetings and sales presentations to promote the network, and I stayed on to help get things rolling. Healthagen consisted of Medicity, iTriage and Active Health Management.
COLLABORATION
As an experienced designer who could hit the ground running, I was asked to put together collateral, web elements and tradeshow graphics for both of those companies, as well as the Healthagen brand itself.
“It’s kinda genius.”
Becoming part of Aetna’s Healthagen Network shifted things into high gear for Medicity, and it was time for another branding refresh. My team was absorbed into Aetna’s marketing group – suddenly it was like working for a new company.
HERE WE GO AGAIN…
Even though we were now Aetna, I still had creative responsibility of Medicity’s brand. With a new CEO at the head, and a new parent company we decided we could more than refresh the brand – we could revise it. We redesigned the logo and came up with a new website that had much more functionality than our past sites – I had Aetna developers who could make it happen!
PRODUCT BRANDING
The next evolution of the Medicity product separated its solutions into six distinct functions. My team and I designed these icons to be used in all of our marketing materials.
ANIMATED PRESENTATIONS
As our sales team began to present the refreshed product, I was tasked with creating custom presentations for each potential customer. I created templates and integrated animations to explain the technical elements of our network. Another round of icon design was called for, and an update to our metrics, too!
With Medicity rebranded and running smoothly, it was time for me to move on. In 2014, I departed the company where I spent most of my design career. I had already relocated to Seattle, and was ready to try something new. Now and then I peek at their current website. I am pleased to see that they are still going strong, and that some of my branding contributions remain. I have no doubt that my role as versitile creative director helped the little healthcare IT start-up evolve into the very sucessful company they are today.