Wayne UNC Health Care Brand Campaign: “When we get better, you get better.”
When assessing the greater community, internal research was showing unremarkable awareness levels and mostly neutral attitudes toward a number of service lines and the overall brand. As a long-standing community resource, the client knew they could do better. And they were doing just that—adding services, staff and amenities to meet the community’s needs. Yet, the community hadn’t noticed.
Digging in, we discovered the community at large had become desensitized to the messaging of the hospital. Having been in the community for so long, any messaging was either viewed as strictly promotional or inconsequential. Further questioning revealed pockets of appreciation among patients and their caregivers — people who were ready and willing to share their stories. We wanted to get these individuals out sharing their stories with their neighbors. We just needed to provide the stage.
We needed to address several creative and channel issues to ensure the campaign accomplished the marketing goals without compromising or exploiting authentic patient stories. While we knew the hospital had added capabilities and amenities, we needed a way to encapsulate these benefits so the community would take notice. We arrived at a statement that became the headline and tagline for the entire campaign: “When we get better, you get better.”
Our pledge to these advocates and ourselves was to tell their stories well. If we did that, we knew the value provided by the client would come through. Our mantra? “These are their stories—not ours.” To follow through on this promise, we held in-depth interviews with the patients themselves, any appropriate caregivers, and the physicians and staff that were involved in delivering care. Stories were then crafted around information captured during those conversations. Our advocates were invited to review and provide direction on the copy drafted, as well as provide input and ultimate approval of the images used in the campaign.
Long-form blog posts were determined to be an effective platform for sharing these important stories, as well as “teaser” posts and ads on social media. While these channels would be exceptional at reaching some audiences, we knew they would not reach all of our critical constituencies. This was a broad-reaching campaign meant to educate the community as a whole as to the remarkable service and capabilities of Wayne UNC Health Care. To reach our core audience in a “media-challenged” market, we recommended a few problem-solving tactics in addition to other more traditional methods.
- Digital Radio
We knew digital radio could be a powerful way to reach some important audiences in a tough media market. However, buy minimums are typically too high for smaller budgets. This was the case for our client. To solve this issue, we recommended AudioGo, a relatively new digital radio service that offers much lower minimums while providing placements on digital giants like Pandora and iHeartRadio. AudioGo proved to be a highly effective vehicle from both a reach and cost perspective. - Be Your Best In-Home Magazine
While modern media channels prove exceptional at reaching some demographics, much of our audience trended to the elderly—those who may not be as active on social media or digital radio. To ensure we reached this specific segment, we published a 12-page “mini-magazine” and mailed it directly to over 23,000 residents in Wayne County. This publication became the flagship vehicle for the campaign. First, we interviewed the patients and ghostwrote their stories for this publication. Then, we employed information from these stories to pull copy and images to build out the rest of the campaign. - Digital Display Ads
We wanted a way to meet people where they are—which is online. Because these testimonials were human interest stories, we felt Facebook Ads offered the right platform to reach our targeted audiences. Google Display Ads also offered an opportunity to generate engagement with the stories online. To create the ads, we paired images of each advocate with a short powerful testimonial quote. These directed the user to the appropriate landing page, where they could read more and even share their own experience with Wayne UNC. We worked with the client to geo-target the ads to ensure they reached the desired audience. - Digital Outdoor Ads
With the decline in readers and viewers of traditional media and the fragmentation of audiences online, it can be complicated to reach a large number of people in rural areas. Out-of-home/outdoor advertising can deliver well on this goal, especially in markets with limited traditional TV and radio options and where OTT (over the top)/streaming services are yet to gain significant reach. In addition, with advances in programmatic technology, digital outdoor has caught up to online offerings. Using advanced measurement software and real-time data, ad sales are automated and can be highly targeted, served, tracked and measured. Finally, the media is more affordable and offers quicker turnaround (no paper to print), and the LED displays look incredibly sharp day and night.
The campaign accomplished virtually all of the goals set and exceeded expectations in many areas. Some successes include:
- Over the life of the entire campaign, Facebook and Google Ads together had more than 1,850,000 impressions and 13,000 clicks in Wayne UNC Health Care’s targeted area.
- Our digital radio ad had over 189,000 impressions and a listen-through rate of 98% for the full 30-second spot.
To discuss the campaign, our process and the results in more detail, please drop us an email.
