Follow-Up Questions: Team Response

What's in scope: digital strategy and support for both LTACH and Community lines, channel strategy and ongoing support (SEM, SEO/AEO, display, web conversion), campaign design plus journeys plus activation, research plus analytics plus insights, and attribution plus performance reporting. Out of scope: creative production (per the RFP, your team handles this) and any non-digital media buying handled separately.

Cost drivers are forecasted manpower hours: direct salary, overhead, and margin. The ramp period (months 1-3) is priced higher than steady state because the early work (onboarding, account builds, audits, framework design) is heavier. Media spend passes through at cost.

We're privately owned. No large holding company, no private equity ownership. That structure lets us be flexible. If price is the only thing standing between Tandem and the work, tell us. We're motivated.

What we typically outsource when scope expands beyond digital AOR: web development (when major site work is needed), traditional broadcast and OOH media buying (depending on existing client partner relationships), production work (video shoots, photography, voiceover), and specialized primary research. Either we bring trusted partners we've used for years, or we work with partners you already prefer.

Our role as Digital AOR is to lead strategy, coordinate the ecosystem, and hold accountability for the outcome regardless of who's doing what. When partners are in the mix, selection is based on fit and performance, never financial relationships. Governance is the same model regardless of org chart: weekly operational reviews, monthly performance analysis, quarterly strategic reviews. One framework, one measurement standard, one source of truth.

Planning, buying, optimization, brand safety, and reporting all run inside Tandem, with paid media specialists having hands on keyboard for all campaigns. Across programmatic, paid social, paid search, endemic platforms, and traditional media, we evaluate all media partners based on their audience targeting abilities, scale of specific audiences, transparency of reporting, pricing, ad format opportunities, proven case studies for reaching a specific audience successfully, and the ability to adhere to brand safety.

In addition to paid media properties, data and measurement partners (LiveRamp, Experian, MRI-Simmons, NPI lists, Nielsen, comScore) are also evaluated by both the analytics and media teams, based on the data they are able to provide, identity graph (if applicable), matching abilities to audiences (if applicable), and transparency with the data. They earn share by performing. No relationships protected by inertia.

For ScionHealth, the Triple-Funnel framework drives the channel mix. CTV and contextual programmatic for awareness. SEM-led paid plus retargeting for crisis search. A mix of endemic platforms for B2B referral.

Members of our media team bring direct personal experience activating Doximity, Medscape, and similar platforms in prior healthcare engagements at other agencies. That hands-on knowledge sits with our team today. While Tandem doesn't currently run a healthcare client on these channels, we manage similar B2B endemic work today in the tech space, with the same targeting, messaging, and optimization frameworks that translate to HCP-targeted media. Within our healthcare discipline, we have a client launching a referral program later this year. We'll be developing campaigns that include healthcare endemic placements as part of that.

In addition, we apply proven audience strategies across programmatic and direct placements, ensuring precise targeting, strong engagement, and measurable performance. Our approach focuses on aligning messaging to the mindset, optimizing based on real-time data, and continuously refining channel mix to drive results. Because the core principles, approach and ability to optimize remain consistent, we are confident in our ability to quickly apply these learnings and deliver strong outcomes for this engagement.

Doximity for narrow-band physician reach with NPI-validated sponsored content, news feed placements, and direct email to specialty-targeted lists. Medscape for broader clinician reach through sponsored CME, contextual display, and disease-state hub sponsorship. We measure NPI-level engagement and cost-per-engaged-clinician, not impressions. These are great channels to build awareness and be referral drivers as well.

For ScionHealth in Year 1: sustained presence across both, targeting the specialties that drive LTACH referrals (pulmonology, infectious disease, cardiology, neurology, hospitalists, case management), concentrated in DMAs around Kindred facilities. Layered with LinkedIn for case managers and discharge planners and NPI-targeted programmatic for retargeting.

One integrated media team plans the full mix, partnering with the strategy team to create an effective and impactful media strategy. All digital placements are managed fully by the Tandem team, with traditional media channels (broadcast, print & OOH) purchased by a partner agency. Our partner agency has direct relationships with national & local market broadcast reps, OOH operators (Lamar, Outfront, Clear Channel, etc) and print vendors. We negotiate, traffic, steward, and reconcile.

Texas Health Resources, Rent-A-Center, and Daikin run on this model today. For ScionHealth: hyperlocal digital & print around facility footprints, facility-proximity OOH, local broadcast and CTV for awareness, drive-time radio for caregiver reach. We provide full transparency on what was paid and where it ran.

Positioning is not just a marketing exercise. It's a foundational business exercise. We know how to ask the right questions and manage stakeholders to discover, create, and deploy new positioning and branding. In fact, we've built proprietary tools around it: Northstar research that challenges internal assumptions and sizes perception gaps; a Brand Positioning Workshop, full of intentional and deep exercises, designed to align anyone with the power to disagree; distillation into a single ownable position (the one thing that makes you, you), validated across multiple audiences and operationalized across every touchpoint where the brand is lived, not just advertised.

Our brand development work follows three steps in sequence: establish category clarity so the brands have a foundation to stand on; define the role each brand plays in customer minds; then enforce that positioning consistently across every digital touchpoint. Each step depends on the one before it. For the ScionHealth consumer specifically, the right rebrand starts by answering whether the category itself is understood. LTACH has a category problem before it has a brand problem, and the rebrand has to solve both, in sequence.

Our approach is centered on selecting and supporting the best tools, platforms, and partners for the specific objectives at hand, rather than steering clients toward proprietary solutions or preferred vendors. We believe this leads to better performance, greater flexibility, and stronger long-term outcomes. We don't push proprietary products, gate-keep, or earn margin on platforms you're already paying for. The IGP and Eloqua decisions you've already made are the right tools for the work. We'll operate inside them.

We regularly collaborate across media agencies and buying platforms, technology vendors (CRM, CDP, marketing automation, analytics), and creative and specialty agencies. Our role is typically to orchestrate strategy and execution across these partners, ensuring alignment, transparency, and measurable performance. We're comfortable integrating into existing partner relationships, leading cross-functional coordination when needed, and sharing data and insights openly to optimize collective results.

Governance keeps everyone honest: one measurement framework, one performance dashboard ScionHealth controls, every partner reporting into the same outcome metrics (tours, referrals, admissions). We see ourselves as a strategic layer that enhances, not replaces, best-in-class partners.

The reason we can hold this posture is structural. Privately owned, no large holding company, no private equity ownership. Same principle that runs through how we partner: we morph to our clients' needs, not the other way around.

The framework in five steps: 1) get alignment and anchor in business outcomes by line of business; 2) define audiences and journeys; 3) current journey and campaign audit; 4) prioritize by impact; 5) build, measure, adjust.

Stakeholder alignment is built into the operating cadence: up front alignment and consensus building, weekly operational reviews at the working level, monthly performance analyses with marketing leadership, quarterly strategic reviews where investment shifts get decided. Decisions made with data on the table, not opinions in a vacuum.

With multiple partners in play (your internal teams, WebMD, AEM partners, Reputation.com, retained agencies), Tandem leads coordination as the digital AOR. One framework, one dashboard, shared measurement. Your team sees one truth, not three vendor decks.

Members of our martech and CRM practice have direct personal experience designing and deploying in Eloqua from past engagements. Today the team is actively building in Salesforce, Klaviyo, Braze, Zeta, Iterable, and Segment, plus several custom-built CDPs. Across those platforms we deliver the same capabilities Eloqua provides: visual journey design, background data orchestration, lead and engagement scoring, behavioral triggers, real-time decisioning, suppression logic, and closed-loop integration with paid media. Eloqua's Campaign Canvas, Program Builder, and scoring models are different syntax for the same underlying work we ship every week. The conceptual translation is days, not months.

On the IGP side, the parallel is even cleaner. IGP's core value is condition- and household-level propensity scoring, which is an analytics output rather than a platform-unique capability. Our advanced analytics practice builds propensity models, look-alike models, and multi-touch attribution architectures using first-party behavioral data, CRM data, and third-party signals. Those scores feed directly into journey logic in whatever activation platform sits downstream. IGP is one source of that intelligence; we have built and operated the rest of that stack many times.

WebMD operates the IGP platform. We would partner closely with them on platform-specific execution and ramp quickly on the syntax. What we bring that is harder to find is the strategic and analytical layer: translating condition-level propensity signals into journey logic that moves outcomes, building the attribution architecture that ties IGP exposure, Eloqua engagement, paid media, and operational data together, and orchestrating cross-platform integration. The 4/16 note about real-time response paths for crisis-moment families is exactly the kind of architecture we have built in Braze and Marketing Cloud, and would validate with WebMD before launch in the Eloqua/IGP environment.

As you saw in the portal, we led with consumer thinking by design, but the strategy was always built to lead with provider referrals once we were past first-impressions territory. Funnel 3 is where most LTACH volume actually originates. The principle that runs through all of it: be an extension of what referrers already do, not a vendor knocking on the door to solicit.

For Physicians: layered presence in the environments where they spend professional time. Doximity for specialty network reach, Medscape for clinical content authority, NPI-targeted programmatic for retargeting, LinkedIn for select specialties (hospitalists, pulmonology, infectious disease, cardiology, neurology). Messaging emphasizes outcomes data, admit criteria clarity, and ease of referral, not brand polish.

For Case Managers: LinkedIn is heavier here, plus clinical-utility email (bed availability, common admit conditions, quick-reference guides). Direct relationships supported by digital, not replaced by it. We also recommend printed materials with patient reviews that case managers can have available for patient families.

For Discharge Planners: closest to the referral moment. LinkedIn plus tools and content that make their job easier: printable admit-criteria cards, ScionHealth local location brochures featuring patient reviews, real-time bed availability, fast electronic referral submission. The agencies that digitize this experience first will have a structural advantage.

What we know not to do: healthcare regulations restrict how providers can be incentivized, with caps on referral compensation and significant enforcement. The strategy stays inside those rules: education, credentialization, and easy referral mechanics, never commercial pressure or compensation tied to patient steering.

The strategic opening you held open on 4/17 (broader nurture or outreach journeys, which you said are not yet planned) is a Funnel 3 program we can architect, build in IGP and Eloqua, and operate as part of the AOR engagement. Digital can't replace the clinical liaison relationship. But it can scale it, measure it, and feed the relationship with intelligence the liaison didn't have before.

Unlike LTACH, where physicians initiate the journey, Community care is typically patient-led, immediate, and local, often driven by urgency. As a result, we prioritize accessibility and proximity in messaging.

The strategy for community hospitals centers on capturing demand at the moment of need, primarily through SEM and local SEO, ensuring strong visibility for searches like “ER near me” or “urgent care open now.” We complement this with paid social and programmatic to maintain always-on local awareness. Service line marketing is critical: campaigns are structured around key drivers like emergency care, orthopedics, cardiology, and primary care access. CTV and broadcast for broader brand positioning. Geo-targeting is tight (15-25 mile facility radius).

Conversion optimization plays a central role, with a focus on frictionless access, mobile-first experiences, click-to-call, and seamless online scheduling. Content is designed to be clear, actionable, and trust-building, helping patients quickly decide where to go.

Measurement is more immediate than LTACH, focusing on appointments, ER visits, call volume, and cost per acquisition, allowing for real-time optimization. Budgets are managed at the market level and adjusted dynamically based on demand, seasonality, and competition.

Ultimately, Community Hospital marketing is about winning the moment of need, while LTACH focuses on influencing complex referral pathways. Both require distinct but complementary strategies.

Year 1 RFP guidance for Community Hospitals was maintenance: keep what's working, fix what's broken, build measurement and infrastructure. Year 2, with LTACH stabilized and platforms mature, Community Hospitals receive the full framework activation across all six hospitals.

The portal you saw is one example of how AI agents work in practice for our clients. They handle the heavy operational lift: research, content production, campaign optimization, and reporting, faster and more cost-effectively than human teams alone. What that really buys you is time: lower agency cost, faster speed to market, and our strategists freed up to focus on proactive business-building ideas that drive growth for ScionHealth. It's how Tandem delivers enterprise-scale output at mid-market pricing. Humans and technology working together, paired to a need.

A current example: for one of our retail clients, we're using a regression-analysis agent this week to build a media mix model. Their primary KPI recently shifted from total transactions to new customers, and they asked whether the channel mix should change. A traditional media mix model takes months. The agent compares the mix that best delivers new customers against the mix that best delivers total transactions, and does the heavy analytical lift in two days. The client gets a defensible answer in time to act on it.

For ScionHealth specifically, the same kind of work would apply at the scale of your footprint. Agents could continuously monitor competitors (Select Medical, PAM, Vibra, Encompass), generate content and SEO assets at scale across the 63 specialty hospitals and 6 community hospitals, handle daily campaign optimization (cost per tour request per facility, budget reallocation recommendations), and produce reporting and insight (anomaly detection, natural language report narratives). AI generates drafts; humans approve everything. No PHI in AI tools. No black box.