Who says print is dead? That’s far from the case in the health care field, where “publishing magazines is starting to seem as commonplace in many hospitals as taking patients’ temperatures. Well, almost,” says veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “The data collected over the last ten years shows that approximately 60 to 70 Read More
Notable Healthcare Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // It’s getting to the point where publishing magazines is starting to seem as commonplace in many hospitals as taking patients’ temperatures. Well, almost. “The data collected over the last ten years shows that approximately 60 to 70 percent of all hospitals send out a printed magazine or Read More
“Sickness, pain, and mortality, the matters that hospitals deal with, are pretty grim stuff. Yet every so often, hospitals find an opportunity to do humorous ads. And while this can raise eyebrows, it also can raise awareness and patient traffic,” notes SHCM writer and master copywriter Peter Hochstein. “[One] success story worth exploring is a TV Read More
Notable Healthcare Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Sickness, pain, and mortality, the matters that hospitals deal with, are pretty grim stuff. Yet every so often, hospitals find an opportunity to do humorous ads. And while this can raise eyebrows, it also can raise awareness and patient traffic. In my last column we looked at Read More
“As the health sciences have advanced, pressure to see more patients in less time has also grown. Little wonder that doctor-patient relationships often seem less personal—and consequently less satisfying—than they once were,” notes veteran copywriter and regular SHCM columnist Peter Hochstein. “It was just this kind of society-wide malaise that provided a branding opportunity for Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // This story is a departure from what you usually find in this space. It’s about television advertising for the services of a single practitioner, not a group practice or hospital. It’s also about a rare occurrence—real knee-slapping humor in a spot supporting treatment for a medical Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // As the health sciences have advanced, pressure to see more patients in less time has also grown. Little wonder that doctor-patient relationships often seem less personal—and consequently less satisfying—than they once were. It was just this kind of society-wide malaise that provided a branding opportunity for Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // In most other markets, the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center would be in the catbird seat. The 94-bed hospital is part of a larger teaching hospital. It’s connected to a prestigious medical school. And it has won its fair share of awards and Read More
When new CEO David Feinberg, M.D., arrived at Geisinger Health System in May 2015, he saw a large system with a great reputation for medical innovation and outcomes. “But its reputation among its patients based on their hospital experiences? Not so great,” says copywriter and regular SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. Hochstein notes that the hospital regularly surveys employees, patients, Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // How fast can you turn a ship around—a really big ship? Here’s what happened at Geisinger Health System, with 12 hospital campuses; 1,472 licensed beds combined; over 2.6 million outpatient visits annually; two research centers; 30,000 employees; 1,600 employed physicians; plus a 510,000-member health plan. All Read More
Peter Hochstein, our crackerjack marketing writer, likes to interview hospital marketing departments and their advertising agencies for his column. “And I often ask them identical questions. I justify this with an analogy concerning two people viewing an elephant from opposite ends,” he notes. “One party tells you the animal’s most notable feature is a skinny tail. Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // What’s the most important part of a print ad? The headline? The story it tells? The news it contains? The offer it makes, if it makes one? A unique selling proposition? A few years back, the Little Company of Mary Hospital, a 298-bed institution on the Read More
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 Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // I usually try to interview hospital marketing departments and their advertising agencies for this column. And I often ask them identical questions. I justify this with an analogy concerning two people viewing an elephant from opposite ends. One party tells you the animal’s most notable feature Read More
A phenomenon you might call “big synergy” is powerful stuff. If you have the resources to somehow combine several strong elements of human interest seamlessly into one emotionally touching marketing and advertising campaign, each element can support, reinforce, and energize the others. This creates efficiencies of exposure and impact that eclipse most traditional advertising. And Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // This somewhat complicated story starts, at least for me, with a clever graphic trick on a highway billboard. The billboard displays the word “OOPS?” in an upward-slanted, rounded rectangle. And then the word “OUCH!” in a similar but downward-slanted rectangle. Adjacent to OOPS? and OUCH! is Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // All right, time to fess up. The headline above this story skips a few critical details. The campaign you’re going to read about had the voluntary participation and support of the New York Giants football team, and especially of its star quarterback Eli Manning. The players Read More
For One Florida Hospital, It Was the Smart Way Out of a Marketing Conundrum. Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // For people trying to market the maternity services at Jackson Memorial Hospital, a huge institution in Miami, Florida, with more than 1,254 beds on its main campus alone, it must have felt Read More
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, notes veteran copywriter Peter Hochstein. Having filed for bankruptcy, “It was accepting bids for full acquisition from other hospitals,” recalls Barbara Kram, Senior Director, Read More
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 Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // There’s nothing new about testimonial advertising campaigns for hospitals, right? Well, not so fast. Sometimes factors ranging from how the testimonials are executed, to the community where they’re broadcast, to even the media strategy, can make a striking difference. A case in point, the testimonial campaign Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Old and familiar hospital names sometimes die hard. A case in point: In 2007, the former Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in New York’s borough of Staten Island changed its name to Richmond University Medical Center. Three years later, the hospital hired Wax Custom Communications of Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // This is a story about hospital advertising that’s also very substantially about numbers, all of them very nice numbers for a hospital to have. In the small city of Peoria, Illinois (population 116,513), OSF Saint Francis Medical Center (609 beds) used a very small media budget Read More
Early this year, says copywriter Peter Hochstein, “a group medical practice called the Toledo Clinic in Toledo, Ohio, got what must have seemed like a bright marketing idea. “With the help of a mom-and-pop advertising agency called Modern TECHnique in Avon, Ohio, the clinic ran a full-page ad in the daily Toledo Blade. The ads Read More
In the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, Ochsner Health System bought up several of the independent hospitals in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge area. It rehabbed and upgraded them, and incorporated them into Ochsner’s system. But even by 2007, the newly acquired hospitals had not been branded as part of Ochsner. “When we got involved Read More