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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Reimagining the Emory Healthcare Brand and the Future of Marketing Leadership with Molly Biwer
00:15:23
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- [00:02]
A
The most important healthcare decisions don't happen in isolation. They happen when leaders come together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings together more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives this April in Chicago. With 800 speakers from Ascension, Cleveland Clinic, Common Spirit, and more, the conversations get real. Leaders will share how they're scenario planning for policy shifts, breaking through value based care barriers and building clinical teams that translate new ideas into real world care care. Join top decision makers in the room April 13th through the 16th. For the agenda and event details, visit BeckersHospitalReview.com and click on the events tab in the upper right.
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B
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Mackenzie Bean, Associate Vice President and Managing Editor of Becker's Hospital Review. Today I'm so thrilled to be joined by Molly Biewer, who is the Chief Marketing Officer of Emory Healthcare. Molly, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing?
- [01:04]
C
Good, thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [01:07]
B
It's a pleasure to have you. I was hoping we could start off our conversation by having you share a little bit more about yourself, your career background, and then some more details about Emory Healthcare. And then we're going to dive into a lot of exciting things going on at the system.
- [01:23]
C
Absolutely. Well, thank you. So I am currently the Chief Marketing Officer for Emory Healthcare and Woodworth Health Sciences. My role really spans brand and marketing and communications, the digital experience and then, you know, media relations obviously, and then strategic partnerships across Emory's hospitals, our physicians, and our academic mission. So really we're building. When I came on board about a year ago, you know, what we had talked about, Jun Lee, who's our CEO and me is really about building a modern patient centered brand that honors not only the academic medicine, but also the evolving needs of the expectations of today's patients. So we really are at the intersection of that compassionate human care and being very patient centered. But because we're an academic health system, Georgia's most comprehensive, we also bring that academic into play. So all of the innovation and discovery and so we believe that that's a huge differentiator for us. So, you know, prior to Emory, I, I had spent most of my career in communications, marketing and, and brand. I was at Carlson, which is a hospitality and travel company based in Minneapolis. Then I moved to Hallmark in Kansas City. So I learned the whole, you know, CPG business and the wholesale business, streaming when it was just coming out. And then I from Hallmark, I moved back to the Twin Cities and joined Mayo and I was leading strateg strategic partnerships, brand and advertising there. And then I got a call to join Emory and I really hadn't thought about making a move again. But after I had met with some of the leadership team, it was just too wonderful of an opportunity to pass up with all the things coming that are going on here. So, so here I am one year later.
- [03:27]
B
So here we are one year later and a lot of exciting things across Emory's brand happening. Most recently, I know you all unveiled the refreshed brand identity. Talk to us more about that. What prompted the decision to rejuvenate the brand right at this moment and what we're really hoping to indicate about where the organization is going with it.
- [03:50]
C
Sure. So we relaunched the brand January 21, so two weeks ago from today. And you know, when Jun joined the organization, there was a lot of things that he wanted to work on first and you know, really strengthen the organization as whole. And so by the time I came on board, he was like, we're ready to be able to market. We're ready to tell people who we are and where we're going. And so it was, the timing was very intentional. You know, healthcare in general, but Emory Healthcare is evolving rapidly, you know, clinically and digitally and geographically. And you know, our brand really needs to reflect who we are today, but really where we're going and who we are going to be in the future. So it really, I want to make sure people understand it wasn't just about aesthetics. You know, we were clarifying our role in the communities we serve and signaling a strategic direction, more access, more integration, more innovation and really a stronger, you know, connection between that academic and academic medicine and then the, you know, the clinical practice. So the refresh brand, I have told people, reflects really a system that's confident, compassionate, increasingly patient centered. But because we're part of a larger organization with Emory University, we really want to make sure that we're honoring our past and our legacy, but we're actively building what healthcare must become.
- [05:19]
B
That makes so much sense, really. How do you show the full value that you can offer your communities both on the clinical medicine side and also in terms of academics and research and innovation and more. Talk about how this refresh brand was launched. I think it's so interesting, really leaned into the large scale community experiences for those listeners who might not be familiar with what those are. First, can you tell us what you did and then love to know the thinking behind activating the brand in such a, like, public, experiential way?
- [05:53]
C
Yeah. So I'll tell you so on the internal side first, we, you know, we really wanted to get our employees and, you know, really on board because they're our best brand ambassadors, right? So with our new tagline, the front line of care in the forefront of discovery, they're on the front line. So we really, that was a really important stakeholder that we brought along. But, you know, externally, you know, we, you know, we're known throughout Atlanta, but we really wanted to let people know that we are here to stay, that we are taking a bold, differentiated, declarative approach to who we are and who we want to be. And so, you know, we, we were kind of exploring ideas and when we first started, you know, talking about, well, you know, with the new green, because that's, you know, innov green is one of our new brand colors. We wanted to light up all of our buildings. But then as people started, we started talking to community partners for various things because we're very involved in the community. They decided that they wanted to help. And so there was, there were companies and organizations around Atlanta, 40 of them, that wanted to help us celebrate in solidarity with Emory. And, you know, being new to Atlanta, that was very humbling and just very profound for me that, like the Carter center, they lit up their, their building in green and actually posted on LinkedIn, we had the Mercedes stadium, we had the State Farm arena, we had. So it was, it was very endearing to me how much Emory meant to people that these organizations wanted to help us celebrate. The other thing that we did, we have, we're, we have a very distinctive. You know, I've been, I've been saying it's our Nike swoosh and it's called the Aurora. And so what we did is so people could really start to understand, you know, who Emory was. We installed these amazing and huge Aurora portals throughout Atlanta. So there's four of them that are 10ft by 15ft and they, and there's a QR code so you can learn more about, you can learn more about Emory. But we put those around the city and then we're going to be moving them, you know, and so people can experience Emory and, and learn more about them. And it's been really fun to watch because I was at one of the locations and people were queuing up to take a picture with the Aurora. And, you know, we've had a jogging club pass through one of the parks that it's in, and they all took a picture for it or with it. So we're going to move those around into high traffic areas In Atlanta, just again, for people to really understand who Emory is and who in where we're going. So they'll find a permanent home, maybe in a year.
- [08:46]
B
Yeah. How exciting. I mean, to hear how many organizations wanted to participate. And, you know, the green lights lit up across the city. It's like such a visual reminder of community. It really is amazing. And I think it makes sense if you're thinking about not just having a bold brand and wanting a bold rollout, but also thinking through health systems and their experience with, you know, community engagement, building trust with their patients. It makes sense to launch the brand in the community like you did as well.
- [09:15]
C
Well, and you know what? You touched on a word that's really important. I mean, obviously, that kind of visible solidarity is really powerful, but it really does speak to the trust that Emory has built together and the role that we play really beyond our hospitals and clinics, you know, as a neighbor and as a partner, and really being in Atlanta, a shared source of pride.
- [09:38]
B
I think trust is more important than ever right now in healthcare.
- [09:41]
C
Sure.
- [09:42]
B
You mentioned earlier in our conversation, you know, what makes Emory a differentiator. Curious. How do you think about brand as a differentiator right now? You know, more on the strategic side as you're operating in Atlanta, very busy, competitive healthcare market.
- [09:57]
C
Yep. You know, today I would say brand marketing and communications. It's not a communications layer. It's really. It's a strategic lever or a driver returning ROI to the bottom line. And so I look at it as absolutely one of the, you know, the quivers in our. In our pack. You know, it certainly helps in competitive market. I think brand shapes patient choices, talent, recruitment. You, you know, you kind of want to go, you know, and where you can make a meaningful difference, but with a comp, you know, with an organization that is trustworthy and, you know, and partnerships, opportunities, and even really, you know, if done right, philanthropic confidence, that where. Where they are investing their dollars, you know, we're going to make the most of. And so I think brand really clarifies why you matter and how you're different. And especially when clinical quality alone really is no longer enough to differentiate. I mean, we're talking, you know, we're talking about the patient experience, and we're, you know, how. How are we bringing discovery, you know, into practice, you know, faster and better than everybody else. And so, you know, Emory certainly has some differentiators that, quite honestly, I don't necessarily know that we've leveraged as much as we have, and we will now. We are going to now
- [11:26]
B
exciting things ahead, which is what I want to end on hearing from you. As you're looking into 2026, what are going to be your biggest focus areas when it comes to marketing and brand leadership? And how do you see the role of marketing chiefs really continuing to evolve based on these needs?
- [11:43]
C
You know, we talk about that every day. I mean, it's, it's really something. And you know, I know that all healthcare companies, frankly, all organizations are really talking about market intelligence. What, you know, in terms of more information on the consumer and the patient and you know, how can we personalize the service and what offerings can we make? You know, that they're gonna, that they're gonna start engaging with this. So I mean, I would probably say, hon, it's going to be integration and the intelligence. So after we get all this intelligence and you know how AI is even playing in it, you know, how, how are we going to make that integration? So what does that digital front door and that end to end patient experience look like? Right. I think a lot of people, you know, physicians, both at Mayo and I haven't really heard it here at Emory, but they're like, well, I have my patients, you know, they have my mobile number. Of course it's a wonderful patient experience, but we need to look at it more broadly. Right. End to end. I would, you know, as we talk about personalization, it absolutely needs to be grounded in trust and data stewardship. What are we doing with their data? Are we making sure that it's protected? Right. More of an integrated experience. So thinking about that alignment across our hospitals and our service lines and academic partners, we don't want to be a federation of different, you know, hospitals or clinics or whatever. We really want that patient to feel a seamless experience. Experience. And then, you know, I guess if we do all of that right, really brand is a platform not only to help the organization grow, we get more strategic partnerships that, you know, with alignment in terms of helping the community and really the community, the impact to the community. I'd say probably from a cmo, broadly, I would say innovation is going to be required in experience, design. And again, this isn't unique to healthcare. Right. AI enabled personalization and really enterprise leadership. We're not just storytellers anymore. I mean, we're really systems thinkers, we're growth strategists. And I would say we're a good connection point. And that thread throughout the organization taking
- [13:58]
B
it even beyond storytelling into a more higher level strategy. And then of course, acknowledging the rapid transformation technology is playing in all areas of healthcare, including in brand and marketing.
- [14:09]
C
Yeah, you know what? And with all of that, I would still say, you know, as healthcare or any organization continues to change, we still, and one of our differentiators that we is now in our tagline even, it's got to stay deeply human at the same time. Right. So we're going to continue to raise the bar on innovation and access and impact. But it's still at the basic level, you know, it's that one to one connection. And you know, we believe that that's our secret sauce and that how, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna really lean into it in the months and years ahead.
- [14:46]
B
At the end of the day, it's all about the patient and that connection and community. Well, Molly, this has been such an interesting discussion. I appreciate you taking the time to join us on the podcast, share more about some of the strategy behind the brand rejuvenation. So thank you so much for your time.
- [15:03]
C
Well, thank you very much. We are very proud of the work and we are really excited, you know, to share the new brand with everyone. And like I keep telling my team, we're just getting started, so.
- [15:15]
B
Well, we can't wait to see what's coming down the pipeline as well. Thanks again, Molly.
- [15:19]
C
Thank you so much.