HealthLeaders Media Marketing Awards 2007: Winning Campaigns

"We wanted to give employees the opportunity to quit smoking and appeal to them on an emotional level," Farrimond said. The advertisements featured the stories of employees who had successfully kicked the habit and provided encouragement for those who had been thinking about it.

The advertisements got a great response rate, Farrimond said. When the advertisements were first launched in January 2006, 37 people were enrolled in the hospital's smoking cessation programs. A year later, there were 275.

One audience member asked whether the campaign prevented what many hospitals experienced when they implemented smoke-free policies: patients in their hospital gowns dragging IVs across the street to have a cigarette. Farrimond said the 15-hospital system's police have been extremely effective in enforcing the no-smoking rule and providing patients they find smoking in the vicinity with information about the policy.

-Maureen Larkin

Roundtable Panelists

Deb Laughery
Vice President of Public Relations
WakeMed Health & Hospitals, Raleigh, NC

Dorothea Bonds
Director of Creative Services and Marketing Communications
Duke Medicine, Durham, NC

Grant M. Farrimond, MBA
Corporate Communications
Baylor Health Care System, Dallas, TX

John Luginbill
Founder and CEO of The Heavyweights (agency for Clarian West Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN)

Christine Gorey
Manager of Communications and Marketing
Lodi Community Hospital, Lodi, OH

Elizabeth Blevins
Account Supervisor
Finelight (agency for Covenant Health System Lubbock, TX)

Deb Sydnor
Senior Market Advisor,
Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, Christiansburg, VA

Matt Moynihan
Director of Marketing
Cogent Healthcare Brentwood, TN

Kimberly Cheuvront
Assistant Vice President
Fairmont General Hospital, Fairmont, WV

Marla Mayer
Director of Marketing
Queen of Peace Hospital, New Prague, MN