Could a Celebrity Spokesperson Be an Advantage for Your Organization?

Sheri Scott, associate vice president of marketing and communications at Edward-Elmhurst Health

In 2014, Edward-Elmhurst Health, a newly merged two-hospital system in the Chicago suburbs, wanted to find a way to differentiate itself from the dozens of other hospitals in the area.

“We are in a very crowded health care market. We knew it would be a challenge to break through all that clutter,” says Sheri Scott, associate vice president of marketing and communications at Edward-Elmhurst Health. “We ended up creating a brand position called ‘Healthy Driven.’ We spent a lot of time trying to think about where we could take this idea of driving health forward. The idea of a celebrity spokesperson came up and Danica Patrick’s name came up.”

Danica Patrick, the only woman to win the IndyCar Series, seemed like a natural choice for the health system. With more than a million followers on Twitter, the Roscoe, Illinois native had the reach and cachet that the fledgling health system was looking for.

Increasingly, brands are turning to influencers like Danica — people who have the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience — to connect to consumers.

Having a national champion as a celebrity endorser may not work for all organizations. But health care organizations shouldn’t shy away from the influencer marketing space.

In our new story, Scott shares Edward-Elmhurst Health’s experience and offers advice for others considering this approach. Plus, we look at new guidance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on sponsored content, updated in 2019.

Read it now: How Edward-Elmhurst Health Used Influencer Marketing to Speed Ahead of Its Competition

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Matt Humphrey
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