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.
Huntington Hospital, established in 1916, is a well-respected 408-bed nonprofit community Hospital located in Huntington on Long Island. Huntington Hospital has been a member of the North Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System (NS-LIJ) since 1994. NS-LIJ is one of the nations integrated healthcare networks, and the largest in New York state.
This past autumn, Huntington expanded its advanced cardiac program. The hospital’s cardiology services include diagnostic cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology and radio ablation. They are in the process of building a second cath lab and will soon offer elective angioplasty, a huge development for any hospital.
Huntington Hospital will be able to provide most invasive cardiac procedures short of open heart surgery. Additionally, 2011 hailed a new designation as a teaching hospital for Hofstra.
In short, the cardiac program is comprehensive.
So what could be the problem? Consumers in this area have an abundance of choice. There are about ten hospitals within thirty miles of Huntington, and New York City is just about an hour train ride away.
Our job? Show residents in this area that they are lucky to have Huntington as their local hospital offering both state of the art services and a caring staff.
After extensive market research, we discovered that residents there wanted to be educated on how to stay healthy, so we focused our campaign on preventative care urging residents to develop a relationship with a local cardiologist. By creating a strong tie to both the Huntington Hospital and a specific doctor, we knew locals would stay in town for major and minor heart care alike.
To answer this call, our creative team developed work that promoted the urgency of heart care and the benefits of preventative care through direct mail, newspaper advertising and flash banners. With a strong call to action and a dramatic viewpoint from an emergency care patient, the ads offered a strong incentive to choose Huntington and choose early.
So what is the lesson? Creating ties through preventative care may result in long term relationships. And a big fish may still need to strike the right chords if the pond is big enough.
According to a study from Deloitte, 80% of people will travel outside their community for perceived higher quality of health care.
Many community hospitals are challenged with the perception that they are good for the common illnesses and broken bones, but can’t handle the major stuff.
Satilla Regional faced a similar quandary when they asked for our help in marketing their cardiac services program. Despite outperforming 75% of all hospitals nationwide in the emergency treatment of heart attacks, many locals believed they needed to go out of town for heart needs.
Using research on how and why consumers choose and evaluate healthcare providers, we developed a solution that spoke openly and honestly to Satilla’s audience. When it comes to your heart, use your head, became the campaign theme.
We featured one of Satilla’s cardiologists as a spokesperson for the campaign. Based on research we’ve conducted in markets all over the country, we knew physicians can be excellent spokespeople for hospitals, creating a halo effect for providers. Consumers feel that physicians can choose to practice medicine at many hospitals, so if they are choosing this particular hospital to practice, it must be of high quality.
We also featured testimonials of former cardiac patients and the life-saving care they received at Satilla. Television and web videos wove the softer, more emotional factors that lead to trusting Satilla for cardiac services.
We’re still tracking results for the campaign, but early numbers suggest the campaign is reaching our audiences’ hearts and minds.
What’s your take on using physicians as spokespeople? Curious about our clients’ take on STARK laws? Drop us a line — we’d love to hear from you.
Our client, Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, just launched the second phase of their cancer marketing campaign a few weeks back. As a healthcare marketing agency, it’s not uncommon for us to focus on either doctors or patients to highlight a hospital’s strengths, since both audiences can be credible spokespeople for healthcare brands. Claxton-Hepburn is unique because their program has such support from both patients, physicians and the community-at-large. Accordingly we opted to tell their story from every viewpoint.
Knowing how powerful web videos are for patients making decisions about healthcare providers, we know it was especially important to bring every aspect of the program together for the piece. Their patient navigator, specialists, patients, technology and even the beautiful facility all play key roles.
We’ve helped create new celebrities in St. Lawrence county – telling stories that friends and neighbors had already been sharing. In tight knit communities like those in St. Lawrence county, authenticity is critical so that word of mouth continues our momentum.
