Junto ("june-toe") is sponsored by Franklin Street, a branding and full service advertising agency specializing in health and wellness. We call the blog Junto in homage to Benjamin Franklin, who created the first "Junto" brainstorming group, which established the first American public hospital.
During the recent Wisconsin Healthcare PR and Marketing Society (WHPRMS) webinar, “Inspiration Interception: Brand Lessons from the Super Bowl,” we discussed three “truths” from the country’s splashiest ad season that can be applied to healthcare marketing.
1. Be real time
Strive for advertising that takes into account the moment we’re in (job loss, real estate decline, rising gas prices), and how people’s lives are being impacted – in order to create branding that is relevant and impactful.
2. Know your audience
Even by just using sweat equity, you can learn more about your audience – their lives, values, aspirations, and struggles – and create campaigns that connect with them on a deep level. Try informal groups, hanging out in the waiting room, even going to a competitor’s ER and sitting/observing.
3. Connect a bigger truth
We’re in the business of life and death, and our branding should reflect that. We should strive to connect our hospitals with a larger story, which is ultimately more meaningful to our audience.
One participant asked which would be the most important “truth,” given the reality of limited marketing budgets.
That’s tough. Each one could resonate more strongly than another, given your specific market influences, audiences and conditions.
All things being equal, Real Time might seem to have the edge – as we discussed. There’s a reason Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” spot remains one of the most memorable and discussed as from this year’s big game.
But maybe the real answer isn’t just one answer. The GE “Stories: Healthcare” spot shows the Bigger Truth of connecting to something more important than the feature of an imaging machine – but it also blends in a Real Time idea (that in a tough economy, seeing that your good work matters can be powerful.)
The idea of Maturialism also underpins our second “truth”: know your audience and talk up to them.
We also reviewed three different brainstorming exercises, such as This or That, Picture Comparison, and finding Linear and Non-Linear parallels. Chrysler chose to do a unique length (two minutes), subject and timing (halftime).
Steward Healthcare in Massachusetts launched a brand campaign with a regional buy during the 2011 Super Bowl and they plan a similar buy during this year’s Summer Olympics.
Some say we’re experiencing an “era of disruption” in healthcare. How can we challenge our thinking or challenge the way we’ve been doing things? What might you do next to push your hospital’s brands forward?
If you need a little more inspiration, look for lessons from these leading brands.
Imagine that you have a terrible cough. Your nose is runny, you’re running a mild fever, and your throat feels a little constricted. What do you do? Call your mother? Contact a medical professional? Drop by your local clinic? If you’re anything like the average American adult, the first thing you would do is go online to research symptoms.
Although the Internet has long been the go-to source for health and wellness information, most hospitals are notably absent in the online arena, often treating the web as an afterthought to traditional media. Here are seven key statistics that suggest that a smart web presence is more important than ever for every hospital and health system:
Just as men and women are different, so is the style and delivery of how to calibrate messages that respond best to men. Here are 5 best practices to grow male engagement with your healthcare brand:
Offer the lure of control. Men like to think they’re in control. (It’s a guy thing.) Position your brand or offer as a means for men to feel like they are in control of their healthcare – for example, a simple screening to rule out prostate cancer, or web-based content to help men know the right questions to ask their physician during their next checkup.
Men find the humor in their stereotypes. This is why shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons and King of the Hill have been so successful among men. It’s okay to use humor to sell your healthcare brand, and may even help to alleviate a guy’s worry over getting a screening that he’s put off. But, there are limits. (Read this blog post on brands that failed the humor/stereotype test.)
Cater to the male disposition to hierarchies. Emphasize your physicians’ expertise, training and recommendations. According to Reyn Kinzey of Kinzey & Day Research, men respond more to authority figures than women, which is one of the reasons why men don’t ask as many follow-up questions to their healthcare provider as women. Accordingly, featuring your physicians in advertising efforts can be an effective tool for engaging guys.
Use the Internet as a “safe zone” for men to learn and ask questions. We all know men don’t like to stop and ask for directions, and that mindset applies when learning about healthcare. The Web is a great vehicle for men to intake healthcare in a controlled environment without having to give the appearance that they are confused or need further explanation. Invest in your health system’s website and enrich it with content that will help men make the right decisions regarding their healthcare choices.
Market to the man, appeal to the woman. While it’s important to develop a plan for marketing your health brand directly to men, it’s important to remember that his spouse, partner or family member is a crucial secondary audience. She’s the one that will nudge him to attend that screening or make the doctor appointment. So, when developing a direct mail piece, write it to appeal to both male and female audiences. For the guys, give him the facts and emphasize technology and expertise. For women, reinforce the positive benefits of early detection/treatment and the simple steps to take action.
We’d love to hear from you – what have you found that works well when marketing to men?
We all know women tend to be the primary healthcare decision-makers in the home, yet recent trends indicate men are becoming more knowledgeable and engaged with healthcare decision-making.
When we develop branding and service line marketing campaigns for our clients, we use primary research to get insights into the hearts and minds of our audiences, segmenting by geographic area, income levels, co-morbitity factors and psychographic qualities. This results in a customized approach that works best in unique markets.
But, when we talk big picture about marketing healthcare to men, we find there is a simple way to illustrate the three unique male audiences that can benefit from our healthcare communications. As TV and pop culture junkies, we can’t resist a nod to three of our favorite guy TV characters: Homer Simpson, Frasier Crane, and The Fonz.
Healthcare Male Audience 1: Homer Simpson
Homers lead sedentary lifestyles and are at high-risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and are often good candidates for metabolic surgery. (Did you know 33% of all men 20+ are obese?) Homers are among the growing numbers of stay-at-home dads – doing more and more of the cooking, cleaning, errands, and managing the family’s healthcare. (After the Great Recession, men constituted most of the job losses, and today, 1 in 5 men are unemployed.) With some nudging, Homers can be encouraged to participate in their own health care. Opportunities for health providers include screening events, seminars and events, and web-based content like search marketing campaigns. (Web-based video is popular with Homers, too.) Since Homer runs the kids to doctors’ appointments, they are also good candidates for health providers to communicate pediatrics messages.
Great mediums for reaching Homers: Television, radio, outdoor. Simple, direct messages work well with Homers.
Healthcare Male Audience 2: Frasier Crane
Frasiers are e-hypochondriacs – the guys who spent hours on-line researching ailments and illnesses, and don’t bat an eyelash about leaving town if they feel they can get better medical care elsewhere. This is the male audience who responds to quality ratings programs like HealthGrades and U.S. News World Report rankings, so fill your website with third party accreditations. Frasiers desire premium brand status – so emphasize your hospital’s reputation in key service lines like orthopedics, cardiac and cancer.
Great mediums for reaching Frasiers: The Internet, direct response. They are less likely to participate in event marketing (like screenings), unless they feel it is a VIP setting and have the opportunity to engage physicians directly.
Healthcare Male Audience 3: The Fonz
Fonzies are stoic, hard-working guys who never see the doctor, and when they do, it’s only because someone forced them to. (Namely a spouse or concerned family member or friend.) Fonzies prefer to “tough it out,” and as a result, are typically the guys who see the doctor only after the condition has reached critical stage. They may not have a spouse or partner in the home, tend to work long hours and often ignore healthcare marketing messages.
Great mediums for reaching Fonzies: Television advertising on male-dominated programs is effective (thinks sports programming or newspaper advertising in the Sports section). Fonzies don’t use the Internet for health searches with the same level of engagement as Frasiers, but they do go on-line. Web banner advertising on sites Fonzies frequent (news, sports, weather) are effective at reaching them. Fonzies will attend screenings, but only under duress from family or loved ones. As a consequence, consider promoting screening events to the female and encourage her to get Fonzie to attend the event.
Marketing healthcare to men is still in its infancy, and this approach to considering the male healthcare demographic does oversimplify several key nuances that will help you most effectively market your healthcare brand. But, it’s a step in the right direction, and we’d love to hear your questions or success stories.
In an earlier post, we showed you 3 ads that we think are spot-on when it comes to marketing to guys. Thinking about making dads the butt of your joke? Think again. Stay-at-home dads are increasingly more responsible for the products and services their household buys (including healthcare). We need to show our “dad moms” respect. Here are a few brands we think got it wrong.
1.Ragu’s “Mom’s the Word on Dinner” campaign was a definite flop. The YouTube videos featured wives complaining about their husband’s culinary skills and kitchen behavior. Ragu alienated men with these ads and sparked an online firestorm that tore apart the company’s message. C.C. Chapman, founder of Digital Dads, led the charge online with a blog post that detailed Ragu’s mistakes. It is definitely worth a read!
2.Huggies received major backlash over their “Dad Test” campaign. In these commercials Huggies claims the “ultimate test” for diapers is to leave children alone with their fathers for five days. There is too much insinuation about the quality of care that dads can provide.
3.This Verizon commercial was removed from the air after the company received backlash from His Side, a men’s rights organization. The petition against the ad claimed that it degraded fathers and men in general.
What do you think of these spots? Do they deserve to be placed in the Advertising Hall of Shame? Or were guys too sensitive?
Recently, there’s been an increase of ads targeted towards stay-at-home dads… and for good reason. Gender roles are shifting and Michael Keaton isn’t the Mr. Mom anymore. Several brands aiming to win dad over have been spot-on. We find this advertising smart, humorous, and doesn’t follow the stereotypical “dumb guy” routine. We also find that winning over dad isn’t enough – it’s important to win mom, too. These ads get it right.
1.Google’s branding effort for its Chrome web browser portrays a dad uses Chrome to create an online scrapbook for his daughter.
2.Tide uses humor to identify with stay-at-home dads (“Dad Moms”). Tide gracefully leaves gender stereotypes at the door and shows that there is nothing wrong with dads who do laundry or know the difference between a herringbone or fishbone braid.
3.Kodak shows that a little sentiment isn’t emasculating, but in fact heartwarming. Modern men aren’t bound by old stereotypes of being distant and reserved when it comes to their children. There’s nothing wrong with a little love and a major Kodak moment.
Have you seen any other commercials that do a great job appealing to fathers?
This spring, members of our Franklin Street team will be presenting a discussion on marketing healthcare to men at the Virginia and the New England healthcare marketing conferences.
It’s a fun presentation with lots of examples of great healthcare and non-healthcare marketing to men.
But it does beg the question: why would you want to market healthcare to guys?
After all, women make most of the healthcare decisions in the household, right?
It’s true: women have and still make most of the healthcare decisions. Women are more engaged with healthcare in general than men. But there are four key trends that are creating more male engagement with healthcare brands. If you’re a health system or provider seeking to grow volume and share, pay note.
Trend 1: The Great Recession Has Created Millions of “Dad Moms.”
With the Great Recession, about one in five men are unemployed. As a consequence, men are sharing more of the household responsibilities – including managing the family’s healthcare needs. Proctor & Gamble and other big brands have recognized this shift and have capitalized on it – check out P&G’s sponsored ManoftheHouse.com, a resource for dads to brush up on their ironing and cooking skills. According to Nielsen, one-third of primary shoppers in the household are men, up from 14% two decades ago.
Trend 2: Changes in Masculinity Have Created More Male Interest in Formerly Foreign Topics – Like Healthcare.
Leo Burnett Chicago published a study earlier this year on consumer trends, and one of their key findings is that traditional masculine roles are in the decline, which means men are more comfortable engaging in activities once alien to them. (Can you imagine Clint Eastwood folding laundry? Maybe not. But you could see Ross from Friends starching shirts.)
According to The New York Times, dads are spending 22 hours a week on childcare-related activities, double what it was 30 years ago. Given these changes, it begs the question: what are healthcare brands doing to reach and engage “dad moms”?
Trend 3: Age and the Internet are Fundamentally Transforming How Men Engage Healthcare Brands.
As men age, their inhibitions in discussing healthcare decline. In fact, according to researcher Reyn Kinzey (Kinzey & Day Research), by the time men are in their early 60′s, there is little difference between the sexes in their openness to discussing their healthcare situation.
In a related set of research, The Pew Internet Study finds that as men age, their engagement with health information on-line matches women. In the coveted 55-64 age cohort, 75% of all men who use the Internet do health searches, the same percentage as women.)
Trend 4: Men are High Healthcare Consumers.
Technically, this isn’t a trend, as it’s been the case since the dawn of modern medicine. Men are simply more likely to get sick, injured or die earlier than females. Consider these facts:
Men represent 50% of the work force, yet account for 94% of all on-the-job fatalities.
Worldwide, men have a life expectancy of 64.52 years, as compared to a life expectancy of 68.76 years for women.
Being a male increases the risk of heart disease by 17%.
Between 70% and 89% of sudden cardiac events occur in men.
33% of men ages 20+ are obese.
Given the fact men are high healthcare consumers, it makes sense to market to them. But the question becomes, how? What are the right messages and strategies to connect with guys? More on that later in blog posts to come…
Do you see men dealing with healthcare more in your own life? Do you agree this shift is taking place?
Conducting an RFP for an advertising agency-of-record can be a bit like reality TV matchmaking: an exhaustive exercise placed on a speed dating timeline and subjected to constant group scrutiny. Then, a big show around the final decision on the new agency. Yet, the process rarely produces a lasting match, leaving one or both parties to repeat the process.
Sound familiar? There are a few opportunities to make a search for a marketing firm partner less complex, more tolerable and productive for everyone involved.
1. Take a closer look
What are you looking for in an ad agency? Consider that agencies and their client share deep relationships that are completely unlike other business relationships. For example, while your supply vendor probably doesn’t care about your company’s mission statement, it’s the agency’s job to internalize and communicate that message to the public at large. Consequently, it’s important to clearly figure out what you want, and how a given agency can help you achieve those goals. The questions you ask beforehand can separate the wheat from the chaff, letting you know right off the bat whether the agencies on your shortlist will be a good match for you.
2. Consider smaller steps
If there seems to be a fit between your needs and a firm’s expertise, get together and find out – just 45 minutes in person or via video chat can determine if things are suitable enough to take a next step. Can you see your team and system benefiting from the outcomes and methodology implied by the ad agency? If so, consider a pilot project or phased engagement. You can tackle pressing challenges more quickly and kick the relationship’s tires without committing your entire budget (not to mention save staff time to write the RFP, determine who gets it, review lengthy proposals, take questions, schedule presentations and make decisions).
3. Streamline the process
Sometimes, conducting a formal RFP is a necessary evil. One way to help streamline the process is in the RFP itself. We once received an outstanding RFP that required agency response to be no more than 10 pages. It was short and to the point, for the client and the agencies. This RFP also asked each firm to submit anonymously, with an accompanying identifying document. Now that’s fair.
4. Remember the long haul
Not too long ago, clients and advertising agencies maintained relationships that could last for decades. However, modern client-agency relationships last between three and four years. In fact, half of those relationships won’t even last two.Part of the churn rate can be attributed to the clunky selection process practiced by many current businesses.
Picking an agency-of-record is a lot like dating – you’re going to meet a lot of duds before you find someone worth spending time with. So streamlining the agency-of-record selection process can save you a lot of time, work and heartbreak. By taking incremental steps like the ones detailed above, you can quickly and efficiently narrow the field to the agencies that work well with you. With a little luck, you’ll find your efforts rewarded with the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
How have you streamlined a selection process? Would your hospital’s leadership support a pilot project or the traditional proposal process? Got an RFP horror story? Please share!
Beyond the standard capabilities, case studies, examples of strategic approach, bios, client list and creative process, what do you really need to know about a potential marketing partner? Just like in dating, checking profile statistics is important first step, but you’ll want to dig deeper before a second date or the possibility of forming a valuable relationship. Asking these seven questions could make the decision easier:
1. What is the future of healthcare marketing?
Sounds esoteric, but it’s important to know if the firm has a perspective on best practices across the country, not just in your backyard, including benchmarks for expected return on investment for campaigns. More than that, they should be on the pulse of consumer trends that can help keep you ahead of the competition. Be sure the agency’s answers show they understand all aspects of marketing, not just advertising. And watch for jargon. To paraphrase Einstein, if they really get it, they can explain it simply.
2. What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?
Another good way to find out how the agency thinks, according to Edward Boches. Did they seek and recommend the most effective strategies for the challenge? Or did they take a safer, easier or self-serving route? How are they addressing trends and applying best practices? Look beyond the most clever or creative tactics. If they didn’t hit goals, does it matter how great the idea was?
3. What size client would we be?
Naturally, you want your hospital to be considered special and worth attention from the firm’s A Team. Determine if a small, medium-sized or large agency will best fit your needs. Inc. cited Horn Group and Kelton Research that found 66% prefer agencies with less than 50 people because there are “fewer hoops to jump through, more consistency in account teams and more intimate partnership, regardless of budget.” Generally you want to be in the top third of an agency’s client base. Too large and the firm may not have the staff or resources to help you effectively. Too small and you may be ignored or handed off to junior staff. Ask if the firm limits its client base to guarantee high levels of attention and service. An agency’s rapid growth could mean a shift in your level of importance.
4. What do you look for in your team?
Who doesn’t want incredibly talented people on the job? But if you’ve got to work together when stakes are high, budgets are under fire, deadlines are looming and you need to share honest feedback, chemistry is critical. Beyond talent, check if the agency looks for similar qualities in its people as you do for your team. Are they proactive? Curious? Good listeners? Strategic thinkers? Passionate about continuous improvement? Buttoned up or showy? Bold? Team oriented? Collaborative? Knowledgeable about what drives revenue and decision-makers in hospital markets? (You don’t want them playing catch up.) According to Inc., “the more knowledge the agency’s people possess, the more creative they can be. That means a powerful agency asks questions, listens to answers, engages in tireless research, and never stops learning.”
5. Who (really) will be on my team?
Like the previous questions, how important is it have to have the full attention of agency leadership and seasoned staff? Ask how much access you’ll have and be clear what you expect. Try to meet or talk to the people who will actually be handling each part of your business. If possible, visit their office. See for yourself their culture, work in progress for other hospitals, and enthusiasm for creating health and wellness marketing that works.
6. Describe my brand.
A great way to find out if the firm has done its homework. With limited access to your hospital’s vision or operations at this stage, no answer will be perfect, but did they notice unifying messages or previous marketing efforts? Did they offer insight into your positioning or competitive situation? What – and how – they discuss these points may reveal if they’re good researchers, independent thinkers and truly interested in your situation.
7. How have your clients grown? Inc. notes the best firms grow based on the growth of current clients and their ever-increasing marketing investments – a better benchmark than growth from lots of new clients. A similar question: What’s your longest-running campaign? It may not be among the first examples the firm mentioned or the sexiest creative, but chances are it’s very successful. Find out why.
Other Considerations:
Does the location of the firm matter? (Should key audiences in your market choose the most convenient hospital?) You can work together on expectations for personal attention. Ask how often an out-of-market firm works with local vendors to maintain those relationships or cost efficiencies.
What do you think? What are other questions you should ask your next agency?
A few months ago, I was talking to an acquaintance about his recent experience in an ER. (It had something to do with his son believing he was Superman.) Then the topic turned to a local hospital’s billboard campaign advertising its ED wait times. He thought it was silly for a hospital to advertise an ER.
Is it?
More and more hospitals are advertising their ER services. Drive down most any highway and you’re likely to see a billboard advertising an Emergency Department, and more frequently, advertising the wait times or a promise of treatment in 30 minutes or less.
Hospitals, traditionally conservative when it comes to advertising, aren’t likely to throw money away on ads that have no return.
HCA of South Florida was the first in its market to post ER wait times. According to Nicole Baxter, spokeswoman for one of the hospitals in the system, HCA saw a 15% increase in ER visits after launching the ad campaign.
But who’s selecting a provider while presumably en route to an ER in a moment of need?
According to Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association, “Consumers who select a hospital based on what they’ve seen on a billboard are probably not experiencing a critical need emergency.”
That’s probably true. After all, people experiencing real emergencies – think trauma – have others making the hospital decision for them, namely EMS or family members.
So why are hospitals spending money on an ER message that may not impact someone’s choice when it come a real emergency?
Bayonne Medical Center’s CEO, Daniel Kane, believes it’s a great way to market the hospital’s commitment to care. Emergency Departments also offer an important “front door” to a long-term relationship with health audiences. In other words, win mom over with a great ER visit, she’s likely to choose your health system when there’s another medical need in the home.
Then there’s the issue of over promising and under delivering.
Most people expect to wait in an ER. But the with rise of health systems advertising ER wait times, it opens the door for high expectations – especially when most ER “Wait Time” campaigns involve door to starting to care for the patient, not door to sending a patient home bandaged up and healed. Dr. David C. Seaberg, an American College of Emergency Physicians board member and Dean of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga, says he worries that the wait time campaigns may be sending the wrong message to patients. “Frankly, my opinion is that it’s a very bad idea to put waiting times up on a billboard. When you get seen is a very complex process. . . . To put out a number can be misleading.”
Even dangerous. “The most significant risk deals with patient safety,” said Jay Kaplan, MD, a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians’ board of directors. “I can imagine a patient with chest discomfort or pain going on the Internet and finding that the hospital closest to him has a 40-minute wait, and a hospital that is 15 minutes farther away has a three-minute wait, and deciding to drive across town to that other hospital and suffering a heart attack during the trip.”
Then again. Healthcare communications, at its heart, is the action of letting people know where to go for medical care. By keeping a hospital’s ER top-of-mind, it allows health audiences at time of need a greater likelihood of recalling the advertisement and acting on it.
Healthcare is a complex topic with varying opinions, and ER advertising is no exception. Following are a few examples of ER wait time advertisements. Even if providers can’t agree on the pros and cons of advertising ERs, it looks like there is some common ground on design and pithy headlines.
Do these billboards affect your decisions regarding hospital selection? Would you text a number or visit a website to get hospital wait times? Has your hospital developed an ER Wait Time campaign? What has been the response? We’d like to hear from you.
