Heart Hospital Celebrates Victories

Physicians and staff at OSF Saint Francis Heart Hospital saw every patient who recovered after a life-threatening heart disorder as a victory, and they wanted their community to know it. The 107-bed, Peoria, IL, hospital launched an integrated campaign to do just that.

"When we sat down to talk with OSF Saint Francis Heart Hospital, one thing that impressed us was a shared feeling from their caregivers—that every person who walked out of their hospital after a life-threatening heart disorder was a 'victory,'" says Shan Neely, creative director for Muller Bressler Brown, Saint Francis' Kansas City, MO, creative agency. "A victory over a lifestyle choice or a family history or, more often than not, time itself. That same sense of victory was even evident in the mountain of letters we read from grateful patients."

The agency worked with Saint Francis marketers to create a campaign using print, outdoor, direct mail, and radio advertising. They also launched an internal microsite where Saint Francis team members could share stories about how fellow staff members contributed to their many victories.

"The goal of the Victory campaign was to share that emotional high that we feel at the Heart Hospital when we've saved a life," says Pam Thompson, marketing manager for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. "Those lives represent dads, and moms, and sons and daughters, and each one is a victory for OSF and for the patients we care for. This campaign asked staff members and patients to share those victory stories and successfully helped us celebrate the many lives we've touched through the Heart Hospital."

At the start of the campaign, each employee received a pin designed like the heart icon in the hospital logo to remind them, and their patients, about their quest for victories.