Online Press Rooms …

Releases (about Barnett Marketing Communications)

For 20 years, Barnett Marketing Communications has been run and sustained by referrals and on word-of-mouth.  I have not needed to undertake personal agency PR, and I saw no need to inundate the media without a real purpose. 

Rather, I like to focus my PR efforts on behalf of my clients and employers.

Here’s a sample:

Notch / Bradley

The Healthcare Marketing & Communications Company

Chattanooga-Las Vegas

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release                                                                                       For More Information, Contact:      

Frank Bradley, 423-756-8647

Notch/Bradley Senior VP/Partner Nominated for PR Week’s

Top 100 PR Professionals of the 20^th Century

Chattanooga, September 14, 1999:  “Ned Barnett, our Senior Vice President and Partner at Notch/Bradley has been nominated for PR Week’s Top 100 PR Professionals of the 20^th Century,” according to Frank Bradley, Chairman of Notch/Bradley, one of America's oldest healthcare-only Marketing Communications agencies.  “He is currently one of the finalists for this award – and that in itself is a signal honor for Ned, and for the Agency.”

According to Bradley, he and Barnett first worked together 26 years ago as PR Copywriter and Editor at Chattanooga’s Provident Life and Accident.  Later, they both gravitated to hospital PR, and for two years were “friendly competitors” at two South Carolina hospitals.  When Frank returned to Tennessee to head up HCA’s growing Corporate PR and marketing division, as Chairman of Tennessee Hospital Association’s PR Committee, he encouraged the THA to recruit Ned as their new VP for PR and Marketing; in that role, Ned worked with Frank for four years.

In the mid ‘80s, Frank left HCA to form Notch/Bradley; and Ned left THA to become the first Marketing Director for the fast-growing Republic Health Corporation.  In need of Agency support, Ned hired Frank’s new agency – and was Frank’s first client – to handle the marketing communications needs of 16 of the 18 hospitals in Republic’s Eastern Division.  Two years later, Frank returned the favor – when Ned left Republic to create his own Agency, Notch/Bradley hired this firm to promote Notch/Bradley.  “We were so busy at that time,” Frank explained, “that we didn’t have time to promote ourselves.  But we knew Ned was a natural, and put his new firm on retainer to handle our promotions.”

In the intervening years, Ned had been a frequent subcontractor to Notch/Bradley, writing two Addy-winning TV ads for the Agency and starting a national healthcare newsletter that is still in publication, more than four years later.  In addition, Ned had hired Notch/Bradley to provide advertising services for several hospitals. 

Finally, in 1995, Ned became a permanent fixture at Notch/Bradley as a near full-time consultant on PR and internet promotions, and in 1996, he was named Senior Vice President for the Agency.  In that role, Ned is in charge of public and government relations, investor relations and internet promotions.  He also manages Notch/Bradley’s Western Division Office in Las Vegas, which has just moved into larger quarters – the second growth-move in three years.

During his career, Ned has published eight books on public relations and marketing communications; and he has taught PR/Marcom at two universities and two colleges – all while maintaining his professional practice.   In 1978, after a grueling series of written and oral exams that saw an 80% failure rate, Ned became the youngest person (to that date) to earn the coveted Accredited in Public Relations (APR) designation from the Public Relations Society of America.  In 1984, Ned became the first person to earn Fellowship designation from the American Society for Hospital Marketing and Public Relations, a division of the American Hospital Association.  His Fellowship paper, on the interrelation of public relations, advertising and marketing in a hospital environment, is still referenced for it’s keen insights into the way these practices integrate in a highly-regulated industry.

Barnett is also the only person to earn four consecutive MacEachern Awards for healthcare communications excellence.  He earned an PR degree with Honors from the University of Georgia, and did his graduate work, in Advertising, at the University of South Carolina.

From Las Vegas, Barnett serves a diverse client base of Notch/Bradley clients, located in Texas, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee. He is married to Karal Ayn Barnett, and together they have three children (and three cats).

"I'm proud to have been singled out for this honor," Barnett said.  "To be nominated by my peers for such outstanding recognition is truly an exciting moment for me, as well as the culmination of 26 years of hard-won, professional experience in public relations.  To have been nominated while a part of the exceptional Notch/Bradley team is the icing on an already very sweet cake!"

- N/B -

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