A “Me”-covery?

Is there something of a “me”-covery in the air?

It turns out that Black Friday was a time for shopping … selfishly. While total dollar volume only edged up slightly from last year, purchases for “me” were coming out on top. Articles this weekend were full of stories about shoppers saying they deserved something for themselves – and at least for a few minutes, were putting themselves first

It’s not that we’re giving up on gifts… even charitable gifts are starting to rise again, after taking a nosedive in 2009. But there’s something encouraging about taking care of ourselves too, something that speaks to a desire to refresh and rebuild.

Lest you think this is a celebration of being selfish, I’m always reminded of that line spoken on every flight, every day, here in the U.S. – in the event of an emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first. Why? Because of course, if you aren’t taking care of yourself, it’s harder to take care of others.

It doesn’t have to be about gifts, of course, or even spending money – which for many of us is still tight. Part of your own “me”-covery might be scheduling an hour of me-time during the week, to take a walk, to start reading the new biography of Cleopatra (oh wait, that one’s for me!), or even “we”-time –-to catch up with someone whose company you always enjoy.

Because everybody deserves a little more Wellness this holiday season. Especially you!

Hope this finds you well,
Johanna

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Tribe? Or Community?

“Man is by nature a political animal.” – Aristotle

Cavemen wrote on cave walls, today we write on Facebook walls. At its core, social networking fulfills our human need to make a connection - it is the modern iteration of tribal behavior.

Tribes are active, mobile, made up of passionate influencers who drive behavior; these are the opinion leaders and the most important targets for a social media campaign. The problem is, many brands think they're creating online tribes when in fact they're simply collecting a community of passive admirers.

What does this mean for wellness brands?

According to Walgreens' president and CEO Greg Wasson, "as patients gain greater access to health care information…they are increasingly becoming shoppers of health care."

Translation: it’s more important than ever to have a clear strategy for engaging with tribal leaders in social media.

Here are 5 ways I've been thinking about to leverage the power of tribes:

1. Identify your influencers- they will lead you to your tribes!
2. Map the points where tribal influencers intersect—these are your best points of engagement (i.e. blog, groups, etc.)
3. Develop key messages that resonate with the tribe
4. Engage and listen. Tribes will often tell you how to market to them
5. Repeat

Hope this finds you well!

Sharon Mandler
Senior Digital Strategist

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Another big day for Saatchi Wellness -- and our friends at AZ

I am more pleased that I can put into words, but I'm going to try. . .

On Friday night Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness took home a Silver Clio for our work on AstraZeneca's Seroquel XR. This was a day after we took home the Gold honors at the Rx Club Awards, again for Seroquel XR.

A word about the Clios: this honor carries a lot of prestige given that the Clios are a global competition, so our work was up against 'the best of the best' from all over the world (to see for yourself, please go to http://www.cliohealthcare.com/winners/winners.cfm?medium_id=1 ). Now we received a Silver, but being the proud Managing Director I also have to point out that there were no Gold or Grand Clios awarded this year -- which means, for the second consecutive year, Saatchi Wellness has taken home the highest honor bestowed upon any agency at the Clios (last year we received the Grand Clio for Ambien CR). There is no other agency in the world that can make that claim.

Pretty nice. Congratulations go to Helayne Spivak and the Seroquel XR team -- led by Stu Fink, Jennifer Shirley, Jacob Braude, Paul Schmidt and Steve Pytko. You guys are truly on top of the world.

Please congratulate the entire Seroquel team when you see them for both the Silver Clio and the Gold Rx Awards -- their tenacity and vision for better product is an inspiration to us all. Thank you Seroquel team!

Ned

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