Beneath the Surface Frivolity of UCHealth Ads That Promote the Denver Broncos, There’s a Strong Dose of Marketing Horse Sense
Notable Health Care Advertising
// By Peter Hochstein //
Intuitively, you’d probably think that advertising for UCHealth should reflect nothing but gravitas. After all, it’s a 1,620-bed Colorado health care system with seven campuses (and three more under construction as of this writing), more than 2.5 million annual outpatient visits, and the University of Colorado’s highly regarded academic medical center at its core.
You wouldn’t be entirely wrong about gravitas. Many of the hospital’s newest regional branding ads are about life-and-death matters, intended to tug hard at your emotions.
One of these emotional paid media TV spots starts with a woman on her way to visit a stranger. We hear her voice-over saying, “I want you to know that I’ve been dreaming of meeting you for so long. I’m not looking to disrupt your life. Nor do I want to open old wounds. But I do want you to know I’m grateful every second for the life you gave me.”
A bit later in the spot we hear her say, “I desperately want to make you proud. So, I promise never to squander this gift, a gift your daughter gave me.”
Only at the end does the spot reveal that it’s about a heart transplant that happened at UCHealth. If you want to have a good cry, just watch the 90-second internet version below. It’s part of UCHealth’s “Your life. Your story” campaign.
But then there’s a different kind of UCHealth advertising. This kind, done by an in-house advertising agency, is all fun and games. Specifically, football games.