Oops? Ouch! How One Urgent Care Center’s Advertising Sets It Apart

Words used as a visual call attention to Crystal Run’s urgent care facilities. Outdoor and radio were chosen for the urgent care advertising because “With many residents commuting to and from work each day for 30 minutes or more, they in some ways become a captive audience,” says Mark Trocino, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Crystal Run Healthcare.

Copywriter and SHCM columnist Peter Hochstein recently spotted an interesting advertising tactic for an urgent care center: A billboard displaying the word “OOPS?” in an upward-slanted, rounded rectangle, along with the word “OUCH!” in a similar but downward-slanted rectangle. Adjacent to OOPS? and OUCH! is a headline that says “Crystal Run Urgent Care!”

Hochstein was curious to know how the “OOPS?/OUCH!” advertising was working.

But a subsequent exchange of questions and answers with the people who speak for Crystal Run Healthcare, headquartered in Middletown, New York, and its advertising agency, PCI in Alexandria, Virginia, indicated that there’s a lot more to the story—and to Crystal Run.

It might all, Hochstein concluded, be part of an emerging trend toward marketing fully integrated health care.

What did he discover? Read our full article to find out: From Urgent Care, to Managed Care, to “Thought Leadership,” Crystal Run Health Keeps Its Corner of the World Covered.

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President