Community Hospital
There’s a lot more to medicine than miracle drugs and million dollar machines. There’s Kevin. He’s a member of the community. Why doesn’t healthcare advertising reflect that?
Meet Kevin. In another hospital, he’d be patient #77345. Kevin’s an expert in dinosaurs. Unfortunately, he’s also an expert in hospitals. He has a congenital heart defect, and has been in and out of the hospital for much of his young life. While he’d rather talk about his favorite dinosaur, the Stegosaurus, he will tell you without question that his favorite doctor of all time is Dr. Mike Rodgers, from Community Hospital.
About the Community Hospital campaign.
It’s amazing how these things start, and it’s even more amazing to see how they develop. We had a meeting at MediaCross to talk about healthcare advertising. What works? What doesn’t? What is it for? How can we do it better?
Our goal was, ultimately, to produce a speculative campaign for a possible new business pitch.
First, we profiled our “client.” Community Hospital (a fictional facility) is not a market leader. Anyone could do a cool, attention-getting ad for a huge hospital with superstar doctors, the latest gadgets and the most prestigious national accolades. We made Community Hospital a #3 or #4 player, a longstanding, neighborhood facility with smart, competent people on staff.
We looked at a lot of ads for a lot of hospitals. Some really, really nice ads… and some, not so much. They told stories. They tugged at our heartstrings. They tried to sell us on the importance of this rating or that ranking. Some made us smile. Others brought an admittedly saccharine-tinged tear to our eyes.
In one meeting, we were talking about an ad campaign we really liked, from a design and copy standpoint. But we all agreed conceptually, there was something missing. We just couldn’t connect with it. And that set the wheels in motion.
For all the technology in the world (and especially in medicine), it’s still all about a personal connection. The connection a patient feels with his doctor. A doctor, with his or her patient. A community, with its hospital.
Contributor: Jennifer Umali
