I recently found myself clicking on a link that opened an online video—one in a series of humorous ads urging men to check themselves for testicular cancer. The person who forwarded the link to me didn't even know I cover healthcare marketing—he just thought I'd get a laugh out of it. Because, you know, there's nothing funnier than testicular cancer.
One of the ads is a bouncy "sing-along" to the tune of the popular Boy Scout song "Do your ears hang low?" with lyrics comprised of the many different slang terms for testicles. Another is a take-off of a 1950s public health film—the kind they used to show in school to warn children about the dangers of poor hygiene and other life-threatening issues. Dr. Harold Rounds deadpans his lines: "Gentleman, there is an important issue you and I need to discuss," he intones. "Your balls."
The whole series of ads is designed to titillate. In fact, the ads are funny, in a bawdy, irreverent, adolescent way. They almost look like a spoof, a campy skit that might appear on a late-night comedy show.
Still, I wasn't sure how to react. Should I be offended? Or impressed?
In the end, I decided to be impressed. Here's why:
The organization behind the ads clearly knows its audience, males ages 15 to 40. I hate to generalize, but I'm guessing that the ads will appeal to 98% of them.
The ads are unique and they take a risk—something that's rare in healthcare advertising. Instead of dire warnings or heart-wrenching stories of survival, the campaign is upbeat. Punchy taglines include lines like "Be a man, self exam" and "Do your testicles feel OK?"
The ads have gone viral—a difficult accomplishment when the "product" is not the latest action movie or a brand of beer.
And finally, they grab your attention long enough to deliver the serious message and call-to-action. The bouncy sing along, for example, ends with the line: "If your balls are feeling lumpy or they're tender or they're grumpy . . . Go see a physician."
So what can you learn from this edgy campaign? A few things:
Take a calculated risk. It's OK to try something different as long as it is appropriate for your target audience. You might not want to try a similar approach when marketing an assisted living program, for example. (Then again knowing what today's "senior citizens" are like, maybe you would.) Knowing your audience is the key to success in any campaign.
Intentions count. The Kimerling foundation's mission statement is about as simple as it gets: "Raising public awareness about testicular cancer and the importance of self-examination." It's kind of hard to be offended once you've read that.
Let your audience do your marketing for you. A campaign such as this one is much more likely to go viral, spreading your message for free.
Define your boundaries. The main foundation site has a totally different look and feel and has a different URL than the site where the ads are posted. The main foundation site has pages with serious and straightforward information about testicular cancer, such as risk factors, how to perform a self-exam, and what you should do if you find a lump. There's no joking around here.
One last thing: Go ahead and click through to watch the ads—as a healthcare marketing campaign it's job-related after all. They're not exactly PG, but they're not rated X, either.
Still, you might want to turn the volume down on your computer before watching them.
Gienna Shaw is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at gshaw@healthleadersmedia.com.
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The last time the nation's capital was abuzz with major healthcare reform talk the initiative came from the White House. This time around, Capitol Hill is already leading the charge—even before the new president takes office in January. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) has been hosting meetings with a wide variety of healthcare specialists as he gets ready to present a new universal healthcare proposal in the fall.
Kennedy, who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer, is hoping to build a bipartisan coalition in support of a major initiative and possibly add major healthcare reform to his legacy. According to The Boston Globe, Kennedy has been meeting with leaders from both parties, as well as business and labor, providers and insurers.
Though Kennedy is getting the headlines, he is not the only one eyeing healthcare legislation. A bipartisan effort to make private insurance accessible to all Americans is also on the table. And that doesn't even count the numerous bills in state legislatures, most notably California.
This is not Kennedy's first foray into healthcare legislation. The senior senator backed the Massachusetts healthcare reform plan in 2006, helping gain federal funds to subsidize the program.
That program has been a mixed bag. Costs have exceeded the state's expectations, partly because more people than expected (most notably the elderly) have signed up for the state's subsidized program. There have also been concerns raised that there aren't enough primary care physicians to care for the influx of the newly insured.
Policy and health leaders from throughout the country have been monitoring each rise and plunge on the Massachusetts health reform rollercoaster, but it's doubtful that any federal healthcare legislation would mirror The Bay State's individual mandate—a controversial, but critical, component of the program.
Having the Kennedy name attached to federal legislation could be just what major healthcare reform needs—especially given the senator's serious health concerns. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, his successor, Lyndon Johnson, used the legacy of the fallen president to win support for his Great Society legislation—most notably, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
That same momentum is there for healthcare reform now, and the next president will put healthcare at the top of his domestic agenda.
Liz Boehm, principal analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA, says the ultimate reform will depend on who wins the presidency and the level of collaboration between Capitol Hill and the White House.
"It's just the question of the degree and the approach, and then it's a question of how much agreement can you create between the legislative and executive," says Boehm.
No matter which reforms are implemented, Boehm says, the process will take time given the complications and fundamental problems in the healthcare system.
"I am hopeful that something will happen in the first term of the new president, but my expectation is it will be a lot harder than it looks," says Boehm.
The fact that Kennedy has included health insurers as part of the discussion and that the Massachusetts reform incorporates health insurance as a key cog to its success are two positives for the health insurance industry. Whether meaningful healthcare reform can happen at the federal level is questionable, but through this broad coalition Kennedy has at least started a healthy discussion.
Les Masterson is senior editor of Health Plan Insider. He can be reached at lmasterson@healthleadersmedia.com .
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Children's Hospital in Omaha, NE, found itself in an unusual predicament. The facility had been in the market for a while and had good community brand awareness. Now what? Deciding to take advantage of a unique situation, Children's chose to move beyond basic, local, messaging for the first time in order to highlight specific patient stories in new ways.
"We were utilizing existing creative, we had been in the market for a fair amount of time and we needed something new," says Martin W. Beerman, vice president of marketing and community relations for Children's Hospital. To obtain "something new" Children's needed to move beyond its prior institutional focus to a message that was a little more personalized. "We decided to tell the stories of the [the children] that we have helped," says Beerman.
In order to meet its primary campaign objective, featuring its patient's stories, Children's looked to its agencies (Bendtsen & Company and Daake Design) for assistance. With a full team and a central concept in mind, the next step was to find the children to showcase and get their stories. "Children are funny, dramatic, heroic, and never boring," says Jeanette Bendtsen, president and creative director for Bendtsen & Company. "With the children featured, all of them, there was a natural heroism that kind of inspired us all."
Though traditional media options were used to ensure coverage of local outreach, Children's was ready to take a leap. "Being pediatric our prime audiences are younger women with children," says Beerman. "For that [target audience] the Web is the fabric of their lives and we knew that because of that Web very much had to be a part of this campaign." "Marty is a savvy marketer," says Bendtsen. "Internet advertising is the newest frontier in this market and it's growing exponentially. Marty was a leader in tying in the advertising and traditional media we do into the Web."
The Web portion of the campaign included banners and skyscraper ads, and a Web site redesign that incorporated the overall feel of the campaign into Children's Web site. According to Beerman, going forward with the Internet portion of the campaign wasn't the real challenge.
"The challenge has been in deciding where the right placement spots are to reach our target audience. We've tried placing banner ads on media outlets' sites, local TV station Web sites, and newspaper sites. So far the World Herald has had the most traction," says Beerman.
Due to the response thus far, and a sense that the public would like to know more, Children's has incorporated longer versions of each child's story on its Web site, www.ChildrensOmaha.org, along with "outtake" photos from the photo shoot.
Kandace McLaughlin is an editor with HealthLeaders magazine. Send her Campaign Spotlight ideas at kmclaughlin@healthleadersmedia.com If you are a marketer submitting a campaign on behalf of your facility or client, please ensure you have permission before doing so.
Those who make their living composing news releases say there is an art to strategic word selection. This easily dismissed craft can catapult an announcement about a study, a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to its usual destination—the spam folder or circular file.
The story of needless errors being committed at hospitals around the country is not news to healthcare marketers, but many have probably never considered that they are partly to blame. Hospital marketers are so concerned about damage control that they rarely take the time to share their hospitals' successes.
The daughter of a woman who died unnoticed on the floor of a Brooklyn hospital's psychiatric unit has called for criminal prosecution of the workers who did nothing to help her. The family notified the hospital, New York City, and the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation that they intend to file a $25 million lawsuit. Surveillance footage showed the death of Esmin Elizabeth Green, 49, who collapsed face-down on the floor of the Kings County Hospital Center's psychiatric emergency waiting room, where she had been for nearly 24 hours.
Chemotherapy patients have not lost access to care despite federal legislation that has reduced reimbursements to their doctors, according to researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Critics feared the passing of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 would make treatment more difficult, but investigators found little difference in the distance chemo patients traveled to be treated and the time between diagnosis and start of treatment.
NASHVILLE—Scripps Health, Griffin Hospital, Lakewood Health System, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center, CareSource Management Group, and HealthTexas Provider Network are the winners of the 2008 Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare awards program, which recognizes the best leadership teamwork in hospitals, health plans, and medical group practices.
The HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program, sponsored by Cejka Search, CIT Healthcare, HealthGrades, and Pershing Yoakley & Associates, is designed to celebrate the outstanding teamwork that occurs in healthcare organizations each day, to share what makes top leadership teams successful, and to encourage other healthcare leaders to learn from the best practices of top leadership teams. Winners are judged on the leadership teams' overall leadership culture, their ability to overcome challenges, and their ability to demonstrate successes that result from outstanding leadership teamwork. Only one winner per category receives this national honor each year.
The 2008 honorees are:
Large Hospitals and Health Systems—Scripps Health, San Diego. Scripps Health, with five hospitals and some 2,600 affiliated physicians, has seen a turnaround in financial performance, physician satisfaction, and patient satisfaction in recent years under the direction of Chris D. Van Gorder, who has been CEO since 2001. One of the foundations of outstanding teamwork created by Scripps was the Physician Leadership Cabinet, an advisory group of physician leaders. Since the cabinet's founding, 100% of its recommendations have been accepted. Leadership teamwork is further enhanced by the Scripps Leadership Academy, a management training program that encourages understanding among managers of different units within Scripps.
Community and Mid-Sized Hospitals—Griffin Hospital, Derby, CT. Griffin Health has been on an ambitious journey to become a model for community hospitals. Under the direction of CEO Patrick Charmel, the longstanding leadership team has led Griffin Hospital from a declining facility in the 1980s to a hospital that is nationally-recognized for its patient-centered Planetree model. Griffin has been among the top hospitals in the nation for patient satisfaction and has received numerous awards for clinical quality initiatives.
Small Hospitals—Lakewood Health System, Staples, MN. Lakewood Health System has grown from a small community hospital to a regional health network that includes a 25-bed hospital, a 100-bed care center, a 40-apartment senior service facility, and a senior behavioral health unit. Under the direction of President Tim Rice, the leadership took a community-centered approach to the design and functions of a new $42 million facility that opened in 2006. In order to reach benchmarks for construction of the new facility, the leadership team had to increase new income by 300% to ensure long-term financial viability in an economically challenged area.
Global Hospitals—Bangkok Hospital Medical Center, Bangkok, Thailand. The inaugural winner of the global hospital category for the Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center has four hospitals with a combined 550 beds. Under the direction of CEO Chatree Duangnet, MD, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center has been on a journey of transformation with a core value of "work well together."
Medical Group Practices—HealthTexas Provider Network, Dallas. HealthTexas Provider Network consists of more than 450 physicians providing care at more than 100 practice sites, and is the physician employment organization for the Baylor Health Care System. HealthTexas has taken an active role in bringing the community chronic disease management and preventive health services. By investing in the tools to collect data—including an electronic health record system—HealthTexas physicians can better manage patients with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.
Health Plans—CareSource Management Group, Dayton, OH. CareSource Management oversees public sector healthcare programs in Ohio and Michigan. The nonprofit organization is the fourth largest Medicaid HMO in the United States, managing the healthcare services for approximately 600,000 members. Under the direction of CEO Pamela Morris, the CareSource Management Group leadership team has been able to create a medical services model that includes comprehensive medical care, dental care, and home healthcare.
HealthLeaders Media Editor-in-Chief Jim Molpus says the 2008 Top Leadership Teams share a commitment to make their leaders mutually accountable for reaching high measures in areas from patient satisfaction to financial performance. "Healthcare is moving toward an era where transparent results will become increasingly crucial for survival," Molpus says. "Those leadership teams who are already preparing for that era in their own culture will have an advantage in the times ahead."
The 2008 honorees of the Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare will be featured speakers at the annual Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare Conference and Awards, to be held Oct. 16-17 at The Drake Hotel in Chicago. Along with the winners, more than 40 healthcare chief executives and team members will share their secrets of teamwork success in focus areas including financial strategy, quality improvement, technology, and physician relations. For more information, visit www.topleadershipteams.net.
About HealthLeaders Media:
HealthLeaders Media is the premier publisher of information resources for senior-level healthcare executives, reaching more than 100,000 healthcare decision-makers nationwide every month. In addition to its flagship monthly journal, HealthLeaders magazine, HealthLeaders Media distributes relevant industry information, practical advice, case-study solutions, and innovative strategies through newsletters, e-mail publications, live events, and state-specific healthcare business news services.
The interim CEO of Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital has a two-year, $1.2 million contract that was put in place shortly before a new hospital board was formed with a mission that included selecting a new chief executive. The new board has announced the four finalists to lead the hospital. The interim CEO, Pam Stephenson, had applied for the position but was not among the finalists. News of the contract has raised questions as to what happens to Stephenson when the new CEO comes on board, which is expected to occur by the end of summer.
New Jersey expanded a government health-insurance program to cover more low-income families and all children in the state. The bill signed by Gov. Jon Corzine mandates that children have insurance through the government or a private provider within a year. The move is viewed as the first step toward ensuring all New Jerseyans have health insurance by 2011.
