Launched and Celebrated, a Campaign for a New Hospital Service Got Great Attention Before Everything Changed
by Peter Hochstein
Yesterday’s irresistible news, the old saw used to go, is today’s bird-cage liner.
A few striking advertising campaigns don’t suffer such fates, owing to advertising annuals and industry halls of fame that enshrine some nationally known promotions. But small regional campaigns, even if they do a great job and win awards, are more likely to slip through the net of celebrity into oblivion.
Such is the case with a campaign created for the Northeast Back Institute at Albany (NY) Memorial Hospital, part of the Northeast Health network. In fact, not only is the campaign a thing of the past, so is the Northeast Back Institute, although not on account of its award-winning advertising.
Therein lies something of a tale.
Mark Shipley, president and chief strategic officer of Smith & Jones, the Troy, NY, health care marketing firm that created the campaign, picks up the story. The campaign ran in the autumn of 2005 for Albany Memorial Hospital, he recalls, “because at the time it was launching a new area of practice,” and there were “a number of physicians who had recently committed to the hospital.”