Resurrected and Renamed, a Hospital Reintroduces Itself to Its Neighbors by Going Folksy

Notable Health Care Advertising

// By Peter Hochstein //

St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers in Poughkeepsie, New York, wasn’t the first hospital to find itself drowning in a sea of financial troubles and it probably won’t be the last.

Having filed for bankruptcy, “It was accepting bids for full acquisition from other hospitals,” recalls Barbara Kram, Senior Director, Corporate Marketing and Communications of Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York. “And we were the winning purchaser.”

It’s hard to imagine any two hospitals being more different. The acquired institution had been a 243-bed community hospital with a church affiliation and a lackluster medical reputation. It served primarily the mid-Hudson Valley, well to the north of New York City. Depending on how you define the region, it might include parts of well-off suburban Westchester and Rockland counties. But it also most certainly includes lots of small, less prosperous towns, some with a countercultural ethos, some with pockets of poverty. The region’s economy relies heavily on farming and tourism.

On the other hand, Westchester Medical Center, roughly 60 miles to the south, is a 652-bed regional Level I trauma center and the teaching hospital of New York Medical College. It has a strong reputation in specialties ranging from neurosciences and oncology to organ transplants.Telephone interviews with Kram and with Doug Bennett, President of the Bennett Group, a Boston advertising agency that now creates the advertising for both hospitals, indicated that Kram and Bennett were wary of how St. Francis should be renamed and positioned. They worked hard to get a sense of the community’s perceptions and feelings, largely through focus group sessions with staff and the local community, before they worked on the advertising.

As a consequence of the research, Bennett says, “we made a concerted effort not to come in and create the impression that here’s a big academic medical facility acquiring the hospital to teach you guys how to practice medicine. We wanted to reflect the market in a way that people would connect with it. We wanted this to sound like a place where you get your community health care, but better.”

Kram adds, “We really wanted to be true to the community, and they wanted this hospital to survive. We found that the staff in particular, but also the community overall, was very, very supportive and relieved when we came in and kept our word that it was going to remain a community hospital.”

The hospital was renamed “MidHudson Regional Hospital of Westchester Medical Center,” with a solid line graphically separating the regional hospital’s name from the parent hospital’s name.

But it was the advertising itself that’s especially worthy of notice. It originally contained not a single picture of a doctor, nurse, high-tech device, or testifying patient. The only image of the hospital itself was in the final frame, behind the new logotype.

Instead, the advertising, in television, print, and outdoor, is a kind of regional “selfie,” filled with images of local shops, landmarks, and individuals. In television, a soundtrack sets the mood, using background music that seems to be emanating from two guys playing guitars in a local music shop.

The voice-over language appeals to local pride, even as it heralds the hospital’s new association with the stable and prestigious parent organization to the south. It mentions “everyone from New Rochelle to Newburgh, Ramapo to Rhinebeck, and all the Hudson Valley Towns in between…”

Broadcast would have wastefully spilled into the New York City and Albany markets, so the television buy for the campaign’s single TV spot was limited to cable. Kram purchased time on women’s programming, sports, health, lifestyle, and cooking shows, all of which she regards as “very standard hospital cable buys.”

She also bought space for four-color ads, most of them full pages, in local newspapers and lifestyle publications, as well as billboards. She bought some radio time as well. Additionally, the hospital’s website was scrubbed of its old Saint Francis nomenclature and imagery. MidHudson also launched a Facebook page and purchased some digital advertising that clicked through to its new website.

Nevertheless, Kram estimates that media expenditures were initially less, and more recently about the same, as MidHudson’s rival community hospital, Vassar Brothers Medical Center, also in Poughkeepsie. Her marketing budget has been limited in part by the need for funds devoted to improving and upgrading MidHudson Regional’s infrastructure and medical services, she says.

Even so, Bennett points out, the spending level needs to be put into perspective. Previously, Saint Francis Hospital wasn’t doing any paid advertising “because they were basically broke,” she says. Therefore, the new management has “dramatically increased their ad buy.”

The hospital has recently been recruiting additional physicians, adding and upgrading staff, and doing the same for infrastructure. By the time this story is published, the hospital and agency will likely have launched “a new campaign that’s going to take it to the next level,” Kram says. “It was not our intention for this soft sell to go on forever.”

She also expects a forthcoming round of research to reflect that the campaign has been an impressive success. “That was our feedback,” she says. “‘You’re part of the community.’ That was the message we wanted, that we are you, we are your neighbors, we’re solid, we’re strong, we’re going to be here. We’re taking care of you.”

Little wonder the advertising has adapted a new slogan: “We’re feeling better already.”

Peter Hochstein is a direct response advertising consultant, business journalist, and author. He is the author of “Lessons from 9 Innovative Health Care Marketing Campaigns,” a white paper from SHCM, which you can download for free. Reach Peter through his website, http://peterhochstein.com.