Representatives from 10 winning organizations participated in roundtable discussions about the creative and strategic work that went into each marketing initiative. They also talked about the return on investment they saw from the campaigns and how they communicated that to hospital executives.
When you think of healthcare . . .
"We do market research every three years, and the first question I ask is 'Name a hospital in your area,' " said Kimberly Cheuvront, PhD, assistant vice president at the 169-bed Fairmont (WV) General Hospital. "Our top-of-mind awareness was at 47 percent. Our marketing had taken a dive because of a few years of bad profits, but there was a lot to talk about at Fairmont General."
To remedy this problem, Cheuvront and her staff launched the "Talk" campaign, a series of television advertisements that emphasized the good things offered at the hospital. The award took home the Best Marketing Quality, Medium Hospital, Bronze Award. Cheuvront said the campaign was an "aggressive media blitz" that showed results. At the end of 2006, a survey of area residents showed that top-of-mind awareness had increased to 60 percent. "Television is a powerful source. It has tremendous reach, and I really feel that TV is the best way to get the word out there," Cheuvront said.
Like Fairmont General, Duke Medicine in Durham, NC, needed to get into the minds of its community members. Known as a large academic medical center, the hospital seemed out of reach to many community members, said Dorothea Bonds, director of creative services and marketing communications for the system, which admitted more than 60,000 inpatients in fiscal 2007.
" 'This is Duke Medicine' sought to enlarge our brand and speak to two messages," Bonds said, "that Duke Medicine is in your communities and that our physicians, while knowledgeable, are real, caring people. Duke had a perception problem because of its excellence. We're seen as remote and arrogant, but that's just not the case."
Using television and print advertisements, the health system's campaign featured compassionate caregivers and the tagline "This is Duke Medicine."
"The campaign was dedicated to saying to people, 'For 75 years people have been coming to Duke, but now we're coming to you,' " Bonds said. It worked. The campaign ran for six months, and at the end of its run, Duke used a phone survey to measure the results.
"Seventy-nine percent said they could find Duke care close to their homes," Bonds said. "We believe we got our first message across."
The campaign, which took home the Best Branding, Large Hospital, Silver Award, was just the first part of the "This is Duke Medicine" series, Bonds said. Its success has paved the way for a second leg, focusing on advertising specific service lines.
Appealing to women and families
Queen of Peace Hospital in New Prague, MN, is located in one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, said Marla Mayer, director of marketing for the 25-bed facility. In 2005, the hospital opened a women's health center and immediately launched a campaign to bring patients into its labor and delivery center. For years, women from the area had been traveling to hospitals in other counties to have their babies, but when Queen of Peace's Women's Center opened, women had an option much closer to home. The mission of Queen of Peace's Women's Health Center Campaign was to bring the local women back to New Prague to give birth.
"Getting a new OB/GYN is like buying a new swimsuit," said Mayer. "You don't want to do it unless you have to, so we had some work to do in terms of getting women to come in and see our clinics."
Using a natural look, the billboards, print advertisements, and fliers encouraged local residents to come into the new center and see what Queen of Peace had to offer. Once inside, women were told about the warm robes worn by all patients and the spa-like atmosphere. Mayer said the campaign-which was given the Best Direct-to-Consumer Campaign, Small Hospital, Gold-also carried a strong word-of-mouth component.
"If someone had a good experience delivering a baby at our hospital, we encouraged them to tell others," she said. "We included patient stories in our newsletters, and in a small town, word of mouth can make or break you."
Bringing simplicity back to medicine
Matt Moynihan, director of marketing for Cogent Healthcare in Brentwood, TN, said his organization believes strongly that physicians are tired of the bureaucracy that goes along with practicing medicine. This is why, he said, the professional hospitalist organization found so much success with its "Pure Medicine" recruitment campaign. The campaign earned the gold award for Best Campaign Marketing to Physicians, Medium Hospital.
"We wanted to stand out among the clutter," Moynihan said, speaking of the print advertisements that featured colorful fruits, the boots of a hiker on a scenic trail, and children daydreaming. In the typically gray journals read by physicians, "everyone has a doctor in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck," Moynihan said.
"This campaign really brings the physician in . . . It shows them that they can simply care for patients, with no administrative headaches. [With Cogent], all of that stuff is taken care of, and you can just be a physician," he said.
Encouraging hospital health
One campaign in particular was the subject of several questions from the audience during the morning's roundtable discussions. The "Because Your Health Matters" campaign-which was given the gold award for Best Internal Communications Campaign, Large Hospital-announced Baylor Health Care System's decision to make its Dallas campuses smoke free. The campaign targeted both hospital employees and visitors and not only spread the word about the new no-smoking policy, but encouraged those viewing the ads to get healthier and quit smoking, said Grant M. Farrimond, of Baylor's corporate communications office.
"We wanted to give employees the opportunity to quit smoking and appeal to them on an emotional level," said Farrimond. 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, there were 37 people 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 information about the policy to patients they find smoking in the vicinity. The award-winning campaign was the result of a marketing department that wanted to create a campaign different from other hospitals'. "We wanted collateral that would get people's attention," he said. "We knew that smoking is a choice, and to be effective, you need to catch people at the right time."
Sharing ideas, honoring the best
The ideas shared during the roundtable discussions were valuable for all marketers, Mayer said.
"It was nice to hear, in depth, what others are doing," she said, "and to develop relationships that I can use going forward. It's so great to have these kinds of connections."
Julie Graham is director of marketing, PR, and communications for Catholic Healthcare West's Chandler Regional Medical Center and Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. The two Arizona facilities captured three HealthLeaders Media Marketing Awards for her organization: Best Internal Communications Campaign, Small Hospital, Gold; Best Internal Communications Campaign, Medium Hospital, Bronze; and Best Marketing Quality Campaign, Small Hospital, Gold. Graham said she traveled to New York City knowing that the three campaigns had been honored, but "we were very surprised to win two gold awards."
As she packed up her awards, Graham said, "We're already planning which campaigns we'll submit next year."
Editor's note: Watch for information about submitting campaigns for next year's HealthLeaders Media Marketing awards at www.hlmma.com.
Maureen Larkin is the editor of Healthcare Marketing Advisor. She may be reached at mlarkin@hcpro.com. This story first appeared in the January edition of Healthcare Marketing AdvisorHCPro Inc. For information on all of HCPro's products, visit www.hcmarketplace.com