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Small Budget Cancer-Screening Campaign Pays Off

 |  By Marianne@example.com  
   April 10, 2013

More than six months after the launch of a breast imaging campaign targeting hospital employees, the results are in—screenings have increased by double digits.

Back in August, I wrote about the internal mammography campaign that was just getting started at VCU Medical Center in Richmond, VA. The organization launched the effort when it discovered that only about 38% of female employees over age 40 were getting regular breast cancer screenings.


Marketers hoped that by targeting employees, they would not only improve the health of their workforce, but also create an internal sales force that would use first-hand patient experience to promote the organization's services to family and friends.

A fresh creative approach
From the start of the creative process, it was clear the campaign would be unique. "Employees are bombarded with information, so it was imperative that this campaign break through the clutter," said Cynthia Schmidt, chief of marketing for VCU.

Working with Richmond-based agency Neathawk Dubuque and Packett (ND&P), the medical center created a campaign revolving around hot pink X-ray specs.

"We wanted to do something more conceptual—not the typical pink ribbon or photo of a woman," said Chereen Baramki, senior art director for NDP. "And we wanted to have a little fun with creative. What could be more fun than X-ray glasses—in pink, of course—to represent breast imaging."

Marketers chose a play-on-words tagline, "We'll be seeing you now," and used a bold, simple, and clean design. "This approach broke through the clutter in several ways," Schmidt said. "First the creative was fun and fresh. Second, we mailed piece to their homes, which was a nice personal touch."

Targeting employees via Facebook
Direct mail was only one way of getting the message across. Marketers knew that the elements they chose to get the campaign message through would be key to its success. The marketing team disseminated the message via e-blast, posters, and the direct mail pieces. And using a tactic that is uncommon for an internal effort, VCU created an employee-focused Facebook campaign.


"Employees are inundated with information—memos, emails, notices, flyers—and the information you want to convey has to be able to crash through all that clutter and hit its mark," said Susan Dubuque, principal for ND&P. "It is also important that employees trust that their employer really has their best interest at heart. This is particularly true when it comes to any kind of health promotion or prevention message."

The Facebook ads, targeting female, VCU employees, came a few months after the print run to give the campaign a little boost.

Facebook ads tend to "wear out," especially when targeting the same audience over a period of time, so ND&P's creative team came up with several iterations for the social network ads. The initial Facebook ads featured simple representations of the pink x-ray glasses. The next leg featured the glasses on a woman's face.

The current version has the glasses sitting on the faces of animals, still using play-on-words taglines. (A sunglass-wearing elephant with the tagline "Make sure you don't forget," for example.)

Small budget, big results
Another noteworthy aspect of this campaign was its ability to achieve impressive results on a minimal budget. Having a narrow, well-defined audience allowed VCU to accomplish a lot with a little, Schmidt says.

"The use of internal channels—mail blasts and posters—proved to be very cost effective," she said. "Our direct mail was highly targeted. Our only paid media was Facebook ads—which cost a pittance. And the creative captured people's attention quickly—and made them smile."

ND&P was also able to help the medical center cut costs by retouching the photo of the pink glasses to ad the x-ray lenses; creating a single visual that was used for all elements of the campaign made it cost-effective.

Despite the low budget, the campaign delivered significant results. From May to December 2012, there was a 26% increase in mammograms, compared to the same period for 2011.

Additionally, for the first quarter after the program's implementation, there was a 40% increase, with many employees responding to the reminder that they were due for a mammogram. Total Facebook impressions from May to December 2012 nearly reached 600,000.

"There are three keys to successful internal campaigns, Dubuque explained:

  1. The information must be breakthrough and believable.
  2. It also has to be actionable so you can measure outcomes.
  3. And, in order to determine the effectiveness of your campaign, you have to provide employees with a fast and easy way to respond.

All three of them were in place in VCU's breast imaging campaign," she added.

Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.

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