Celebrity Endorsements Don't Win Fans for Brands

Think a famous name touting your product or service will impress customers? Think again. Brand endorsements by celebrities and athletes are trusted less than all other methods of brand promotion, including digital ads, traditional ads and company-sponsored social media, according to a new global study by The Boston Consulting Group. Consumers put the most store in what family and friends say offline about a brand, followed by product reviews, expert opinions, and information from Google and other search engines. One reason trust matters: Brands that show their customers that they can be trusted are able to gather at least five to 10 times more information about customers to fill the Big Data marketing mill. Still, marketers must tread carefully because consumers are choosy about what info they entrust to companies, and financial and health data definitely rank higher on the privacy scale than brand preferences, age and gender. Millennials, despite a social sharing addiction, are about as concerned with data privacy as their elders. As a result, the data practices of financial institutions, social media, search-engine companies, and government arms garner more than twice the consumer concern than do branded manufacturers, airlines, hotels, cable providers or retailers offering loyalty cards. For more, see MediaPost's Marketing Daily story at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/212917/endorsements-dont-earn-trust-for-marketers.html

Fundraisers Face New HIPAA Opt-out Obligations

Health care fundraisers face important new obligations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), including opt-out provisions. A new Omnibus Rule, which went into effect Sept. 23, did not take away the ability of a hospital or health care organization, or its institutionally related foundation or fundraising vendor, to contact patients for fundraising purposes, but it did make important changes in the type of patient information that can be used or disclosed, and it provides for greater patient control--notably new opt-out obligations for fundraisers. Fundraising efforts now must include an opt-out provision, written or oral, with each fundraising communication or material delivered to former patients, including telephone solicitations. In describing how the former patient can discontinue receiving fundraising materials and solicitations, the opt-out statement must be a clear and conspicuous part of the materials sent to the patient; must be written in clear, plain language; and must describe a simple, not unduly burdensome means to opt-out from receiving any further fundraising materials or communications. For details on changes to what patient information can be used for fundraising without prior authorization, the required notice of privacy practices, fundraising opt-out rules, and Business Associate Agreements covering fundraising vendors, go to http://www.ahp.org/advocacy/us/HIPAA/Analysis/Pages/default.aspx.