Health Care Institution Discovers There’s Now an “Advertising Season”—At Least for Some Kinds of Health Care Marketing
by Peter Hochstein
Is there a best time of year for health care marketers to advertise?
In light of current events, the answer may be yes. That special time is the open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act. During open enrollment season, even people in good health have reason to pay extra attention to their medical needs. In addition, providers may want to urge consumers to make sure they chose insurance that covers the providers’ services.
Michelle Quinn is Regional Director of Marketing for an institution that has decided to take advantage of this seasonal opportunity. Mercy Health Physician Partners is the physician network of a health care system with 804 licensed beds on four campuses in western Michigan. She believes that the Obamacare open enrollment period, from mid-November through mid-December “is the most important time for the Mercy Health Physician Partners brand to be in the marketplace.”
So Quinn saw to it that during open enrollment in 2014, the system’s advertising focused on the doctors in the network and on the relationships patients experience with those doctors. “The primary takeaway is that Mercy Health Physician Partners is in it for the long term, for the patient who wants a trusting relationship with their physician,” she said during a telephone interview that took place in November, while the campaign was in full swing.
Quinn turned to Hart, an advertising agency in Maumee, OH, to fine-tune the marketing and media strategy and to develop the creative work. Leslie Veral, Hart’s Director of Account Services, also saw the open enrollment period as a time to keep her client’s doctors top-of-mind with existing and potential patients.