If you ever happen to be watching the local news on a Wednesday evening in the Atlanta suburbs, keep an eye out for Southern Regional Health System's "Healthbreak." The 90-second spot isn't a commercial—it's a sponsored educational health news piece featuring physicians from the Riverdale, GA, health system that blends seamlessly with the newscast.
"The genesis of the campaign was to really figure out a way to feature our physicians in a prominent way—not only to their peers but to the community," says Marcus Gordon, strategic marketing manager at SRHS. "About 95% of our physicians are affiliate physicians to the hospital, so we wanted to cover a wide variety of topical areas that have relevance to the services that we provide and what the physicians provide in the specialty areas."
The "Healthbreak" spots are supported by a Facebook page, which has 97 fans, and a YouTube channel, which has more than 1,400 channel views. The two-facility health system launched the campaign in May and plans to run it for one year. SRHS uses MBC & Associates to produce the spots.
Each "Healthbreak" has a call to action that drives callers to the organization's new Web site for more information and to a call center for physician referrals. Since the campaign launched, call center traffic is up 55% from last year, and site visitors and unique visitors for the Web site have each increased about 50%.
"The response from physicians and community members has been extremely positive and viewed as a real enhancement to the overall marketing objectives of the hospital," Gordon says.