While searching through the internet and reading various blog posts, I found this interesting article on opthamology times. The article is titled Look to new LASIK advertising methods for a tech-savvy generation and that being said, it had some pretty good content on it. If you’ve read any of the other blog entries here on boothe media about lasik advertising, then you will know how much I speak about the need to advertise in new media. With the baby boomers getting older and the internet and technology is replacing old mediums of entertainment, it’s vital for advertisers to devise new ways to reach people. While this article had a great message, i’m not sure I agree with all of it.

Lasik Advertisng on Social Network Sites like Facebook
I’m going to start with advertising on facebook. If you don’t know what facebook is, check it out. It is a social networking site, where people can keep track of their friends and talk to them. Advertising on social networking sites can be great, and if you can afford to advertise on facebook, it can be a great investment. Another great social networking site to check out would be MySpace as it has the largest userbase and can be affordable. When looking at social networking sites, here are a few tips on what to do.

1. request geo-targeting for your city (this means, request the ads show up just for the cities you are targeting)
2. use some sort of tracking method, like google analytics, to ensure your ads are effective and worth the cost.
3. try making the ads interactive to grab the viewers attention. These sites are really engaging, and if your ad doesn’t match, they won’t click on it as much.

iAds and Remnant TV Ads
The article mentioned iAds, which are described as TV ads, where the user can interact by clicking the ad with their remote. I’ve done a little searching on the internet, and i get alot of different results for iAds. I will admit, i have never used this form of advertising for lasik, but based on how it is described in the article, i would say that i would not pay any more for this type of ad. For me, clicking on an ad on TV sounds frustraiting, because the interface on TV is frustraiting. The user has no keyboard to enter information to you, and thus this form of advertising sounds a bit immature still. I will also argue against remnant ads on TV. They may be innexpensive, but if you are a lasik surgeon advetising on TV then ou are going to expect results from an ad that costs that much. These ads are inexpensive for a reason, and that is because other people don’t want those times. I would suggest not wasting your money in these types of ads.

Using Effective Radio Ads
The article mentions that radio is still an effective medium, and i would agree with this very much. Radio is still probably one of the best forms for lasik advertising.

“We try to get people on their way to work. We don’t want it to play 5 or 7 p.m. as they’re going home,” Malley said. “Why? The clerical is closed. We want our spots when the clinic is open.”

I don’t agree with everything in the above quote. between 5-7 you can get a considerable amount of calls, because people are in their car, stuck in rush hour, and listening to the radio. This is a really good time to have radio ads, and if you arn’t taking advantage on these times, then you are losing out. Put someone in your office at that time to answer phones, or outsource your phone bank.

Conclusion:
While I focused alot on the negatives of this article, i do think it was a great article. Hopefully this article and the presentation that went with it got people thinking about ways to advertise lasik to a younger crowd using new methods and mediums.

Source Article:

http://ophthalmologytimes.modernmedicine.com/ophthalmologytimes/Online+Only/Look-to-new-LASIK-advertising-methods-for-a-tech-s/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/508294