When you visit MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center's bariatric surgery page you don't see before and after photos of previous patients. You don't see images of the robotic surgery tools used for the procedure. And you certainly don't see smiling doctors holding vibrant fruits and vegetables.
(Yes, unfortunately, I have seen all of these things depicted on bariatric microsites before.)
What you see is a happy young woman pushing her bicycle down a wooded path.
This choice of photography is not unintentional. When MFSMC's bariatric surgery program received its designation as a Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, it decided to create a campaign focusing not on weight loss, but on health and lifestyle gained.
"We are proud that we are helping those who have struggled for years to lose weight without success, but our program is not just about appearance," says Trina M. Adams, assistant vice president of marketing and communications for MFSMC. "Our mission is to improve the health and lifestyle of those we serve. That is what is helping to position us as one of the premier bariatric programs in the area."
This campaign direction has really resonated with consumers because above all, bariatric patients just want to get back to living a healthy, active life. To drive this point home, the Baltimore, MD, medical center used images of real patients and wrote carefully crafted messaging.
"We knew that people don't only seek bariatric surgery to lose weight, it's just as important that they get healthy," says Maria Stearns, healthcare team director for creative agency ab+c, which worked with MFSMC on the effort.
"So we wanted to connect the campaign that it's not just your dress size that's important, what's important is that your cholesterol is lower, your blood pressure is lower, your blood sugar is healthy. These numbers are just as important as your weight or size."
Uniqueness of a bariatric campaign
When creating the campaign, marketers kept in mind that bariatric patients often have a number of other health problems in addition to, and as a result of, their weight. Unlike other service line patients, bariatric patients are often dealing with diabetes, high cholesterol, sleep problems, and mobility difficulties.
Taking this into consideration, marketers decided campaign elements should include print, radio, web display ads, and web paid search, targeting obese adults over age 45 in the Baltimore market. Adams and her team also determined that the ads' call to action would be to register for an information session, which would introduce potential patients to the program.
The call to action resulted in many inquiries.
"Once we knew they were interested, they received a follow-up letter [and] they were invited to other programs that covered topics related to diet and nutrition," Adams says. "Some were scheduled to have a private consultation with the surgeons. We also had a good number of physician referrals as a result of the campaign."
Importance of an online presence
The online ads and paid search elements were the cornerstone of the bariatric campaign, partially because many obese patients have difficulties getting around, Adams says.
"An important factor in this campaign was to have a strong online presence," Stearns says. "Research has showed us that bariatric surgery patients are investigating programs to decide which is best for them, so a strong web presence was crucial."
By utilizing online ads and radio spots, MFSMC reached potential patients where they often spent their free time.
"The radio effort was designed to provide a foundation of broad message reach across the market, and was complimented by print ads in Baltimore Sun and the Aegis, a community newspaper with strong readership in the MFSMC service area," says Bob Cerasoli, president of Cerasoli Stafford Media Management.
"To build further targeted message frequency against our intended audience, web display ads were added to reach our target via their active use of the web for both entertainment and medical-related information pertaining to bariatrics."
Results
The web mix included Pandora, HealthAdNet and Adnetik, which allowed MFSMC to follow the target both behaviorally and contextually across their web use. Combined, the ads produced nearly 20 million targeted impressions for the campaign.
The campaign also garnered 306 class registrations, four physician referrals, 5,401 pages views, and 4456 unique visitors. The campaign resulted in 40 scheduled cases in the first quarter of 2013, versus 27 scheduled cases in first quarter 2012.
"Obesity is a major health issue and many people are seeking solutions," Adams says. "This program is clearly meeting a need to improve people's life and health."
Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.