Seeking a Bump in Maternity Services

Ellis Medicine's new maternity campaign focuses on mothers rather than babies, and recognizes pregnant women's social media presence as an avenue for promotion.

The very first photo of my cousin's new baby, posted minutes after his birth, generated 239 likes on Facebook in just under 24 hours. I'm sure readers have seen similar occurrences on their newsfeed each week, with new moms or moms-to-be posting app-filtered photos of sonograms and teething rings and tiny Chuck Taylor shoes, all generating a significant social response.

While some may dismiss these sorts of posts as meaningless oversharing, Ellis Medicine, a 438-bed system in Schenectady, NY, recognized pregnant women's social media presence as an opportunity to promote its Bellevue Woman's Center. The system launched a maternity campaign on Monday and sourced its message and models from—you guessed it—Facebook.

"Bellevue Woman's Center is a destination hospital for expectant mothers from across our region, and this campaign aims to build on its reputation in a modern, memorable way," says Jennifer Susko, director of marketing and communications for Ellis Medicine.

The campaign, which was created to drive volume to Bellevue's maternity program, features actual patients and their baby bumps.

It was an obvious choice to go to social media for a maternity campaign, Susko says, especially since 78% of Ellis' 4,671 Facebook followers are women.

"We felt social media needed to be a key element of this campaign in order to reach the young women of childbearing age who are the target of our messaging," she says. "Expectant mothers tend to enjoy sharing their thoughts about the motherhood journey and social media gives them that platform. Engaging them in a medium they are already utilizing was essential for us."

Marketers posted a casting call on their Facebook page for pregnant women to feature in the TV spot and the response was "immediate and enthusiastic," Susko says.

"Many pregnant women share baby bumps online, so it was a natural choice to include it in the campaign," says Mark Shipley, cofounder and strategy director of healthcare marketing firm Smith & Jones, which created the campaign. "We wanted Ellis to participate in something women were already doing. This is a nice connection between the hospital and social trends."

The look and feel of the campaign creative was designed to celebrate all the positive aspects of pregnancy.

"Pregnancy tends to be associated with negatives, such as bloating, discomfort, and hormones, but it is a beautiful, natural process that we want to associate with joy and lightheartedness," Shipley says. "So much maternity marketing is related to the new baby, and our research has shown that women who are pregnant aren't really thinking about the baby, they're thinking about themselves. When it comes to choosing who is going to deliver their baby, they choose who is going to give them the birthing experience they want, not who is going to give them the baby they want."

The campaign, which is slated to run through June, is using an array of media placements, including broadcast, cable, print magazines, shopping cart advertisements, pay-per-click, display ads, Facebook newsfeed ads, and in-stream video.

"We designed our media plan based on which outlets would allow us to target women and pregnant women specifically," Shipley says. "Display, search, and Facebook ads were our first choice because we can target very specific demos and individuals. Through TV, we are able to cherry-pick programming that appeals to women and pregnant women to reach a high viewership, and through print, we are able to choose local, specialty publications for women and new moms."

And, to bring the social media theme full-circle, marketers are asking moms-to-be to share their bumps on the Ellis Facebook page—an idea that has already resulted in positive feedback.

"This campaign has generated a lot of excitement not only from mothers-to-be, but also from our staff and doctors who have commented on how fun and sweet the creative pieces are. It's been a collective feel-good moment for those who have viewed the TV spot," Susko says. "We feel the campaign celebrates women and will resonate with potential patients because 'the bump' is symbolic of the beautiful process of childbearing that people can really relate to in a positive way."