by Peter Hochstein In recent months, this column has discussed several hospital advertising campaigns whose creators would sooner impale themselves on a scalpel than show a piece of medical equipment or a doctor wearing scrubs or a white coat. A typical defense of their position is that one advertising campaign featuring doctors and equipment looks Read More
by Peter Hochstein You may think of the remote control that operates your TV as a useful device. Peter Connolly, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System in New Brunswick, NJ, regards it a landmine. “Probably the most powerful tool out there is the remote control,” Connolly says, clearly respectful Read More
by Peter Hochstein If you read between the lines of what Wayne Clark says, you might conclude that when he arrived as vice president of community relations and marketing at Legacy Health in 2008, the most prominent local candidate for life support was the system’s branding. Clark commissioned a perception research study for the Portland, Read More
by Peter Hochstein The big idea happened because Rick Ender sometimes takes his work home. One evening Ender, the creative director at Atlanta advertising agency Frederick Swanston, was working on concepts for a new campaign for Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, KY. Meanwhile, his kids were watching “American Idol” on television. “Just then,” recalls Ender, Read More
by Peter Hochstein Even with the sound turned off, three 30-second spots created for Scripps Health in San Diego suggest human interest stories. For example, one spot portrays an overturned kayak, seemingly floating dead in the water. Suddenly the kayak seems to right itself. The camera reveals that the kayak is under the control of Read More
by Peter Hochstein Quick, who’s your target audience? Some health care marketers might say, “Adult women. They’re the primary decision makers when it comes to family health care.” Or “I’m building traffic for our pediatric unit. So it’s young mothers.” Or “Couples who’ve had trouble conceiving – for our fertility center.” But if you’re selling Read More
by Peter Hochstein Just as the advertising agency and its client intended, some new animated TV spots created for the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance limit use of doctors, white coats, and hospital corridors. Some would consider this treatment a departure from “typical” hospital advertising campaigns. But something else makes the campaign even more of an Read More