Movers and shakers: Paul Lyrek, StoneArch

A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:

Paul Lyrek is helping to define content marketing strategy for businesses responding to health care reform as director of digital strategy and development for Minneapolis creative agency StoneArch.

Lyrek leads development and execution of content marketing plans in digital formats for the agency's clients. His responsibilities include working with health care and medical companies and providers to adapt their digital and mobile platforms to market changes driven by the advent of health care exchanges and the Affordable Care Act. That increasing consumer involvement is generating greater demand from clients for content that educates and engages consumers, Lyrek said.

"When we do a strategy, it is all about having valuable and relatable content," he said. "It's exciting to move into this new role where I get to formulate the ways that we can reach people."

Because of the agency's health and medical focus, the strategic goal often is to build relationships between a medical device company and its customers or between a provider and a patient with whom he or she is seeking to develop a lifelong relationship, Lyrek said.

Video content is an increasingly popular way to forge those connections, Lyrek said. The agency's video production department, however, emphasizes developing content that supports "holistic relationship marketing" rather than "big splashy TV commercials."

Lyrek joined StoneArch 15 years ago. The agency, founded in 1984, has helped launch or market more than 500 medical devices.

A: The biggest thing that is important to our clients … is the fact that we do focus on health and medical. We really understand the implications of the health care law. We have it covered on both the device and provider sides and understand the pressures and the opportunities of the health care market.

Q: How has reform affected marketing strategies?

A: With the [Affordable Care Act], patient outcomes and patient satisfaction are part of how providers and hospitals are compensated. With marketing automation, you're collecting information on each interaction with marketing and automating the process of continuing to follow up.

Q: How has changing technology affected your work and the agency's?

A: One thing that keeps me motivated is how quickly this digital world and marketing world can change based on the tools that are coming out. Each time that happens, it kind of feels like a new career. StoneArch has changed, but what hasn't changed is that we feel like we're doing something important here.