In 2014, Edward-Elmhurst Health, a newly merged two-hospital system in the Chicago suburbs, wanted to find a way to differentiate itself from the dozens of other hospitals in the area. “We are in a very crowded health care market. We knew it would be a challenge to break through all that clutter,” says Sheri Scott, Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Can simple charm compete for share-of-mind in a hot health care marketplace? Yes, if the charm is really charming enough. Here’s how it works in Richmond, Virginia. This probably isn’t the first time you’ve seen a bicycle treated so callously. It stands in a dusty garage, surrounded by other carelessly Read More
// By Althea Fung // Increasingly, brands are turning to celebrity endorsers with loyal and aligned audiences — and large social media networks — to influence consumer behavior. As social media has evolved, the Federal Trade Commission has also evolved its guidance on disclosure of relationships between influencers and advertisers. In 2014, Edward-Elmhurst Health, a Read More
When you have a great story to tell, you need great storytellers. Skip Hidlay came on board as senior vice president, chief communications and marketing officer, at the University of Chicago Medicine in 2016. His 30 years in journalism prior to making the transition to health care has served both organizations well. Hidlay was one Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Sometimes there’s more to hospital advertising than recruiting and reassuring patients. One thing’s fairly certain. When a hospital with facilities that are pretty much limited to the Boston area starts advertising in New York and other major metropolitan centers around the nation, they must be doing something other than trying Read More
View from the C-Suite // By Jane Weber Brubaker // Under Skip Hidlay’s leadership, UChicago Medicine launched a new brand and a new website that helps the organization stand out in a crowded market. When you have a great story to tell, you need great storytellers. Skip Hidlay came on board as senior vice president, Read More
“If you didn’t know the whole story, you’d think last October 20 was a less-than-glorious Sunday in Seattle,” writes SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “It was a football day, of course, and the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Baltimore Ravens 30-16. But for two local hospitals, Virginia Mason Health System, with about 600 licensed beds, and Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Properly done, the participation of sports teams can create impressive visibility and emotional involvement for a cancer awareness promotion. Here’s what it produced for the State of Washington’s Virginia Mason Health System and CHI Franciscan. If you didn’t know the whole story, you’d think last October 20 was a less-than-glorious Read More
“You can do terrible things to a puppet for popular amusement that aren’t funny when they happen to real people,” says veteran copywriter and SHCM contributor Peter Hochstein. “You can make him horribly ill. You can afflict him with a swarm of bees. You can break off his leg, or worse. Almost no matter what Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // Meet Bebo. He’s preposterous. He’s orange. He’s always sick or injured. And he’s helping Patient Plus clinics in Baton Rouge, Louisiana carve out a strong identity in a highly competitive market. You can do terrible things to a puppet for popular amusement that aren’t funny when they happen to real Read More
// By Peter Hochstein // How brave do marketers have to be to use humor in a spot for pediatric emergency care that shows kids flirting with danger? Uh oh! Trouble in the backyard. On a steeply sloping patch of lawn, three girls who appear to be the right age for middle school have erected Read More
“[A]s part of an ongoing rebranding effort, Adventist Health in Roseville, California has found a powerful technique for getting across a message of caring,” writes SHCM contributor and veteran copywriter Peter Hochstein. “Notably, the subject of the advertising is neither the hospital, nor the technology, nor what the doctors and staff do for the patients. Instead, Read More
Here’s a new approach to hospital advertising that turns an old technique on its head. // By Peter Hochstein // It’s difficult to sift through hospital advertising month after month without regularly coming across some variation of the phrase “We care about you.” Little wonder. As hospital systems grow larger and busier, they also can Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // “Hyperlocalization” may not be a real word. But NYU Langone has made it a real advertising thing. And it turns out to be an amusing, identifiable, and highly effective technique. There’s nothing new about hospitals giving their advertising a distinctly local flavor. We described one successful Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Fighting words and images may be just the thing some hospitals need to break through the miasma of inattention. In an upcoming issue of this publication, a fellow contributor, James A. Gardner, will write about a campaign for the Canadian pediatric hospital, Sick Kids. The campaign Read More
What can radio deliver for hospital advertisers that other media can’t? It’s more than just another way to reach your target market. Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // As often as not these days, radio advertising is an afterthought — part of the creative mix that gets done after someone has written Read More
For well over a century, Flagler Hospital has gone to great lengths to care for the physical health of residents living in St. John’s County in northeastern Florida. But while its commitment to health has remained constant over the decades, in recent years its focus has broadened beyond the physical aspects of providing inpatient care Read More
// By Lisa D. Ellis // What happens when a health care entity outgrows its name? One Florida-based health system recently tackled this challenge, reinventing its brand to better reflect its identity in an exciting new way. For well over a century, Flagler Hospital has gone to great lengths to care for the physical health Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Here’s a powerful technique for building emotion into your advertising. If you dare to use it. Advertisers in almost any business — and the advertising agencies that service them — usually hate negativity. They look for emphasis on the upbeat. They like to portray, as the Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // How can a hospital facing lots of local competition successfully undo commonplace misperceptions in a fresh way? For Children’s Minnesota, it involved taking one approach in print advertising and another in TV. There was a good reason for the inconsistency. Sometime ago, Children’s Minnesota, a 381-bed Read More
Notable Health Care Advertising // By Peter Hochstein // Sometimes, showing some “attitude” can sell your expertise better than simply presenting all the things you’re expert at. Here’s a case in point. What’s with the peculiar convictions some health care consumers have about teaching hospitals? They’ll seek out a top-tier school for their kids, and Read More
When you take the time to develop compelling calls to action (CTAs) tied to measurable outcomes, you can effectively engage people you want to reach on a very personal level. This can be key to your marketing efforts’ success. “Health care organizations must provide altruistic, valuable content to consumers in order to build engagement over Read More
The answer to this question dictates success — and failure — in Norton Healthcare’s efforts. // By Lisa D. Ellis // When you take the time to develop compelling calls to action (CTAs) tied to measurable outcomes, you can effectively engage people you want to reach on a very personal level. This can be key Read More
// By Wendy Stark Healy // One of the themes of this article is that brands evolve. We covered the Hackensack Meridian merger back in December 2016. The consolidated health system’s first-generation brand has now been replaced with a new brand, built on consumer research and a solid brand strategy. Two-and-a-half years after two large Read More
In the testimonial-heavy world of hospital advertising, is there a fresh way of doing a testimonial campaign? How well can it perform for you? And what can you do to increase the impact of the advertising? In our new article, SHCM contributor and veteran copywriter Peter Hochstein looks at a new type of testimonial that Read More