All Your Questions Answered: The University of Maryland Medical System’s Creative Strategy

The University of Maryland Medical System’s in-house creative team knows how to catch an audience’s attention, explain tough medical concepts with clarity and heart, and prove the value of high quality visual storytelling.

In our new on-demand webinar, The Strategy Behind the University of Maryland Medical System’s In-House Creative Team, we asked Director of System Creative Communications Mike Ruddock and Production Manager Chris Lewkovich to share their secret to producing a massive amount of compelling content on a tight deadline.

Watch now to learn:

• Why the University of Maryland Medical System invests in an in-house creative team
• How the team churns out thousands of projects a month for stakeholders across departments and across the state
• Why patient stories are a top priority for the organization

All Your Questions Answered

Thank you to everyone who submitted a question during the Q&A! Since we didn’t get to all of them, we asked Mike and Chris to answer them for you here. Check out their answers below!

What is the #1 thing that slows you down with photo/video shoots?

1. Talent arriving on time / all talent arriving when needed (group shots)
2. Scheduling: Physician and clinical staff schedules change quickly so we tend to schedule them early in the day before their day gets hectic; Patients change their schedules often and usually at the last minute. We do our best to accommodate their schedules.
3. Sudden changes with location by senior staff that don’t understand that setting up lighting and equipment takes time

Are you experimenting with drones or 3d?

Yes, we recently purchased the DJI Mavic Pro 2 with the 1-inch sensor on the Hasselblad camera along with the DJI racing edition goggles. We are just now learning Cinema 4d.

Have you experimented at all with medical technology when it comes to photography and visual storytelling?

We do document a lot of medical break-through’s in the OR and have photographed and filmed a lot of equipment including robotics and virtual tours of locations with equipment and medical technology.

What kind of files do you put in Libris?

JPEG for photos, PDFs for creative, and EPS and JPG for logos / branding. Libris supports all file types, which enables us to upload nearly any kind of file.

In a typical spot, how many shots are new, vs your own personal ‘stock’ of previously shot footage?

We have only begun shooting our own “stock” videos and photos in the last four years so the majority of our video spots and photos are newly created. That said, our goal is to continually build on our stock collection. Server space and IT support is a challenge in this area, specifically for video.

Great makeup! Did you use a stylist?

Thanks, we do hire make-up artists for higher profile shoots, but that’s only about 25% of the time. When we do, we ensure that we have enough to shoot for either a half or full day. As for clothing and props, we handle that on our own.

There are a lot of participants on the webinar who seem to have in-house teams. How have other organizations received buy-in from leadership to invest in creative marketing departments?

• Go above and beyond on a project
• Mock-up more than is asked for
• Redo a project after it is completed to showcase how it could be better if more time or resources were put towards it
• Wow them once and you are in!

Up Next: It’s Time for Your Annual Content Checkup!