We Are, Marketing Happy - A Healthcare Marketing Podcast

Hosted by Hedy and Hopp

Business Marketing

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Episodes

126

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Healthcare marketing is always evolving, and We Are, Marketing Happy is here to help you make sense of it. Hosted by Jenny Bristow, CEO and founder of the healthcare marketing agency Hedy & Hopp, this award-winning podcast explores the latest shifts, challenges, and innovations shaping the industry today. Follow along, share with your team, and let us know what topics you’d like us to explore next. Learn more about Hedy & Hopp at www.hedyandhopp.com.

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60 recent

June 12, 2026Episode 1269 min

Scaling Shared Marketing Services

Many healthcare organizations face the challenge of centralizing marketing initiatives across local offices or different departments. In this week’s episode, our CEO Jenny shares a model for successfully implementing shared marketing services that’s especially useful for private equity groups, expanding hospital systems, and nationwide organizations that offer local autonomy. By collaborating with individual teams, rather than forcing mandates, organizations can minimize teams “going rogue” and producing off-brand materials.The Four-Pillar Shared Marketing ModelSelf-Serve Brand Toolkit: Provide an easy-to-use digital asset management (DAM) system or use tools like Canva Enterprise, to allow teams to customize approved templates with relevant information, making it easier for them to stay on-brand than to create their own materials from scratch.Network Effect and Knowledge Sharing: Treat the organization like a marketing laboratory by testing strategies in one market and productizing successful results to roll out to other locations. This ensures offices benefit from collective intelligence rather than just purchasing individual services.Centralized Strategy with Local Execution: Have the headquarters handle time-consuming, expensive tasks like strategy development and creative asset production. This offers a financial incentive for local offices to opt in, while still allowing them to manage their own local media buys.Shared Reporting Dashboard: Develop a performance dashboard that provides leadership with a macro view of the total marketing ecosystem while allowing teams to drill down into their specific micro performance. This provides value for local offices by solving complex infrastructure and analytical challenges.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

June 5, 2026Episode 12512 min

Right People, Right Seats: Building a Modern Healthcare Marketing Team

In the healthcare marketing industry, just when you think you have everything under control, a new change comes along. And, honestly, it's a heavy responsibility for leaders to build a team structure that can withstand the pressures of the ever-evolving healthcare marketing space, but it also keeps things exciting! In this week’s episode, our CEO, Jenny Bristow, shares two key concepts from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) framework that have helped Hedy & Hopp build a solid marketing team that has withstood many industry changes: the accountability chart & the “Right Person, Right Seat” framework.The Accountability Chart: The accountability chart is distinctly different from traditional job titles and organizational charts in that it focuses on the essential functions a team needs to operate efficiently. Start by mapping out core functions, such as content strategy, paid media, analytics, etc., and assigning responsibilities to each “seat.” When developing an accountability chart, it’s critical to ignore current personnel to design an ideal structure from scratch, ensuring zero ambiguity regarding who owns each function.The "Right Person, Right Seat" (RPRS) Framework: Once the ideal structure is developed, evaluate current staff through two lenses: Right Person & Right Seat. Right Person assesses whether the individual shares the organization’s core values. Right Seat utilizes the “GWC” framework (Get It, Want It, Capacity to Do It) to determine if a person is suited for a particular role. In other words does the person understand the requirements of the role? Are they genuinely excited and motivated to perform the responsibilities of the seat? And do they possess the mental, emotional, and technical capacity to succeed in the position?Separating the person from the problem is vital when restructuring. If a team member lacks the capacity for a specific modern technical role, it does not necessarily mean they must leave the organization; they may simply belong in a different seat.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

May 29, 2026Episode 12413 min

The Future of Healthcare Marketing: A Roadmap for New Grads

Why healthcare marketing? For many people in the industry, healthcare marketing is a deeply purposeful career path that allows them to positively impact others’ lives and improve access to healthcare. In this week’s episode, our CEO Jenny offers guidance for new grads and professionals on rising industry trends and important skills for success in healthcare marketing. Major Industry TrendsShifting Search Journeys: The percentage of patients using Google for traditional searches is shrinking, as people turn toward generative AI for pre-diagnostic research.Authenticity Beats High-Production Value: With the rise of deepfakes and AI-generated media, there is a growing demand for transparent, unpolished video content.Privacy and Measurement Challenges: Marketers need to get creative in order to prove ROI while maintaining compliance, as HIPAA and state-level privacy laws have made it more difficult to track campaign performance.Essential Skills for SuccessKeep a Human in the Loop: Use AI as a productivity tool, rather than a replacement for critical thinking. Be sure humans are in charge of the storytelling.Engage Audiences with Microlearning: Work on translating complex clinical topics into engaging, short, mobile-first videos that can quickly educate and build trust.Adopt a Privacy-First Analytics Mindset: Focus on downstream business outcomes, like patient appointments, while ensuring patient information remains secure and compliant.Proceed with Empathy and Health Literacy: Focus on writing copy that is easy to understand and empathetic, that AI cannot easily replicate.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

May 22, 2026Episode 12311 min

Combating Deepfakes: A Crisis of Trust

With the recent introduction of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) seven-priniciple framework designed to protect physicians from unauthorized use of their likeness, AI-generated deepfakes are having a clear impact on the healthcare landscape. In this week’s episode, our CEO, Jenny, presents strategies for marketers to maintain undeniable authenticity amid the current “crisis of trust.” Episode Notes:Marketing Strategies for AuthenticityKeep It Raw: Move away from high-production value toward raw, behind-the-scenes, unedited content that is easily authenticated.Put Physicians at the Forefront: Focus on content that explicitly highlights real doctors and clinicians. Use interactive features like live Q&As that are difficult for AI to replicate.Multi-Channel Footprint: Social media videos are easy to fake. Create a cohesive ecosystem where a patient can verify a physician’s profile and likeness across multiple channels, including your official website.Localize Content: Orient content on local issues and regional health trends to anchor a physician’s authenticity to the community they serve.Organizational Compliance Tips for MarketersAudit Your Consent Forms: Review and update media release forms to ensure they meet the new standards for explicit, revocable consent.Create a Rapid Response Plan: Develop a plan to execute fast takedowns of unauthorized content on major social media platforms.Communicate Internally: Use this as an opportunity to build trust with physicians by proactively communicating the steps being taken to protect them and ensure the dissemination of reputable information.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

May 15, 2026Episode 1226 min

Optimizing for “Near Me” Searches This Summer

The summer months bring an uptick in travel and an increase in “unplanned” care needs, with travelers searching locally for urgent care, sports physicals, and pharmacies. In this week’s episode, our CEO, Jenny Bristow, provides strategies for optimizing during the summer months to capture “near me” searches from individuals and build trust with those who may not be familiar with your organization.Episode Notes:Strategies for building a strong foundation of organic SEO: Start with the basics, ensuring your Google Business is up to date with accurate hours for the summer months. Then optimize your organic presence for local searches, by creating local hyper-local landing pages and optimizing them for the conversational, long-tail searches that people are likely to type into their phones.How to leverage paid search for a precision strike: If your area allows, increase bids around airports, train stations, or popular resort clusters to capture travelers through those areas. Utilize local inventory ads to show the real-time availability of common summer needs, like EpiPens. Consider call-only ads to capture people with minor crises who want to talk to a real person rather than spending time browsing a website.Tips for optimizing for AI (GEO & AI Agents): AI models now summarize the “best” local options, using website’s structured schema.org data, that clearly defines location, services, and credentials. Be sure to maintain a positive online reputation, as AI models increasingly pull from sentiment in reviews. Clearly state insurance acceptant, wait times, and out-of-state policies to assist potential patients and feed accurate data to AI platforms. Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

May 8, 2026Episode 12116 min

HMPS26 Recap

Our CEO, Jenny Bristow, and Director of Growth, Marissa Gurrister, have just returned from Salt Lake City where they were attending the recent HMPS conference (Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit). In this week’s episode, they recap their experience, describing the event as energizing and collaborative, an environment that fostered meaningful connections and professional growth.Key highlights from the conference included:CEO Communications Playbook: This session was notable for its "no-recording" policy, which encouraged vulnerability and candid discussion regarding professional leadership.AI in Action: This session outlined a shift in the AI conversation toward sophisticated, strategic implementation and process efficiency rather than fear of job replacement.Promise to Practice: This session focused on aligning brand strategy with patient experience through real-world case studies.Governing Patient-Facing AI: This session explored how health systems can effectively meet patients where they are regarding AI interaction.Brand Frankenstein: This discussion covered the emotional and strategic complexities of navigating joint ventures, affiliations, and rebrands.Epic Marketing Implementation: H&H presented a case study with Bayhealth, outlining a roadmap for improving patient experience and volume through technical audits and leveraging existing infrastructure.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Marissa:Email: marissa.gurrister@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-gurrister/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

April 10, 2026Episode 12015 min

Epic Marketing Services

This video features a discussion on the evolving role of Epic’s marketing and patient engagement tools within healthcare systems. The host, Jenny Bristow of Hedy & Hopp, introduces the company's new Director of Epic Services, Brandon Hallman, to discuss the intersection of marketing strategy and IT infrastructure.Episode Notes:The Epic Ecosystem Shift: Leveraging Epic’s functionality for marketing is a relatively new development. Historically, patient engagement was fragmented across various third-party tools, but Epic is increasingly providing a unified platform—acting as a "single source of truth"—to help organizations manage patient experiences.The Evolution of Cheers: Cheers has moved beyond simple patient communication to become a more comprehensive client relationship platform that includes CRM and CallHub functionality. While some in the industry have questioned the tool's sophistication, it is maturing into a powerful solution that integrates with other tools like Hello World.Consolidating Tech Stacks: Many health systems are moving away from third-party vendors like Salesforce and WebMD Ignite toward a strictly "Epic-first" mentality. This transition aims to reduce costs and complexity, allowing for more autonomous, synergistic communication between marketing and IT.Bridging the Gap Between Marketing and IT: Bringing marketing and IT to the table together during the planning phase to align on goals, security, and compliance is key to combatting the siloed nature of these departments. Hedy & Hopp facilitates workshops to help these teams prioritize campaigns, align on measurement strategies, and define roles.Strategy and Services: The agency approaches this space through three primary lenses: audit, strategy, and implementation. They also highlight the "UTM Connect" tool, which helps bridge the gap between digital marketing efforts and patient records in Epic to enable ROI reporting.Some advice for marketers struggling to navigate the Epic landscape: communicate early and often with IT, and treat the relationship as a translation process between technical requirements and marketing goals.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Brandon:Email: brandon.hallman@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-hallman-03074742/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

March 26, 2026Episode 11910 min

Paid Media Trends: Political Season

Jenny Bristow, CEO & Founder of Hedy & Hopp, is joined by Miranda Ochsner, Director of Paid Media to discuss the significant impact of the 2026 midterm elections on healthcare marketing. Political ad spend is expected to exceed $10 billion ahead of this year’s midterms, presenting significant challenges for marketers, particularly when it comes to traditional channels, like TV and radio. They discuss these challenges and offer strategic advice for navigating the volatility of marketing during a political season.Episode NotesSince political campaigns typically have first-right access to advertising inventory across local TV and radio stations, other advertisers risk being “bumped.” No matter how far in advance you planned and purchased placements, getting bumped means your spots may be moved to less effective times of the day, like overnights, or removed entirely. This forces marketers to pivot quickly to deal with credits and reallocate budget.The following strategies can help marketers plan ahead, as the political season is scaling up quickly:Have a Plan B: Even the best laid plans need contingencies during political seasons, as inventory and political noise is largely out of your control. Think about scaling back or pausing tactics during the busiest weeks to ensure your message isn’t getting lost.Capitalize on Alternative Placements: Be flexible and consider adjusting daypart mixes. Shifting from highly competitive times to alternative slots can maintain reach even during a busy season.Diversify Media Channels: Beyond traditional local TV and radio placements, digital channels like online video and Connected TV offer additional control. Just be aware that additional control comes with additional costs, which are projected to increase by 20-50% in competitive markets.Prioritize High-Intent Tactics: Channels like paid search remain stable and effective drivers of qualified traffic, even despite potential increases in bid costs.Since political seasons are guaranteed to be unpredictable, focus on early, proactive planning to ensure a consistent, high quality presence.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Miranda:Email: miranda.ochsner@hedyandhopp.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandamochsner/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

March 20, 2026Episode 11813 min

Paid Media Trends: YouTube in Healthcare

Jenny Bristow, CEO & Founder of Hedy & Hopp, is joined by Miranda Ochsner, Director of Paid Media to discuss the evolving landscape of YouTube as a critical platform for healthcare paid media. They highlight YouTube’s significant reach and unique advantages compared to other streaming and social platforms. With over 75% of the US population consuming YouTube content, it is the most-watched streaming platform on TV (surpassing even Netflix!) — making it a powerful platform for healthcare marketers.Episode NotesStrategic Advantages for Healthcare MarketersPatient Education & Discovery: Patients often use YouTube to research symptoms and self-diagnose before consulting a professional. Video content helps simplify complex medical topics and introduces expertise earlier in the patient journey.Targeting and Measurement: The platform combines the broad reach of traditional TV with the granular targeting and measurement capabilities of digital media. Content Versatility: YouTube can effectively host various video formats, including repurposed Facebook ads or traditional 30-second TV spots.Retargeting Capabilities: YouTube allows for "in-platform" retargeting that enables healthcare marketers to deliver content, such as a multi-part educational series, to the target audience. Paid and Organic Synergy: Paid media on YouTube can expand an organization's reach to new audiences, while organic content builds long-term engagement.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/Connect with Miranda:Email: miranda.ochsner@hedyandhopp.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandamochsner/ If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

March 13, 2026Episode 11711 min

Healthcare Marketing Agencies: A Shopper’s Guide

In this episode, Jenny Bristow, CEO & Founder of Hedy & Hopp, unpacks the state of the healthcare marketing agency landscape, which has evolved a lot in the past few years! It’s important to choose an agency that understands the nuance of your organization and the challenges healthcare marketers face. Jenny explores three different categories of healthcare marketing agencies and the types of offerings they provide. Episode Notes:Full-Service Agency: These agencies provide upstream strategy and branding, in addition to performance tactics. Their primary focus is on the who, what, and why. They thrive in market research, persona development, and messaging positioning. And, they have traditional capabilities, too.Performance Marketing Agency: These agencies focus exclusively on patient acquisition and retention, primarily utilizing digital tactics. Their goal is to drive appointments.Specialty Marketing Agency: These agencies are pros in content development, upstream research, direct mail, and website services. They are a great fit for organizations that want to focus in one area without a broader need for full-service agency services.(Bonus—not an agency!) Tech Solutions: SAAS platforms provide extremely useful solutions, like CDP or analytics compliance, but don’t provide service. Maintenance and ongoing work falls on an individual organization, or an organization can choose to partner with a full service or specialty agency for support.Finally, Jenny offers some advice to differentiate between the full-service agencies, which is to ask about an agency’s roots. Many started as creative agencies that added digital capabilities later. Hedy & Hopp was built on a strong analytics, compliance, and performance foundation, and later added strategy and creative services.Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.