Hospital Marketing Journal

The Pitch for the 2013 Addy Awards

Ten Adams had the opportunity to see how our work stacked up against the competition last Friday night at the 2013 American Advertising Federation’s ADDY Awards. This year’s theme involved yet another AMC original television series, The Pitch, offering companies in the Tri-State a chance to compete head-to-head for recognition for their work in advertising. Ten Adams was honored with eleven Addy Awards for hospital advertising campaigns for The Christ Hospital Health Network in Cincinnati, OH, St. Mary’s Health System in Evansville, IN, and Logansport Memorial Hospital in Logansport, IN, as well as self-promotional work. The AAF’s annual Addy Awards recognizes the best and brightest advertising representatives of true creative excellence from media and companies of all types, sizes and locations through the organization’s advertising clubs and districts. Ten Adams was honored with a Judge's Choice award for The Christ Hospital Health Network Campaign. “I chose that campaign because the concept resonated with me personally, which is the first sign of an effective campaign. Hospital marketing is typically an inward expression; you see a lot of marketing that communicates who the hospital is and what they offer. They talk to themselves a great deal. This campaign aimed to buck that trend by bringing the hospital to the community rather than bringing the community to the hospital. The strategy feels genuine and the execution solid. I felt the concept authentically and that emotion is the calling card of quality communication.” - Stefan Mumaw Ten Adams was honored with golds for The Christ Hospital Health Network TV Campaign and for the overall campaign. Two silvers were awarded for self-promotional work - Ten Adams’ Muscle Ad and the Brains AND Beauty promotional video.  One silver was awarded for St. Mary’s Health System – Heart “Choices” TV Spot and another for the Logansport Memorial Hospital Newspaper Campaign – “Well and Good”. As for the bronzes, all were awarded for self-promotional work – the Merry + Bright Campaign and Christmas card and the Ten Adams promotional campaign and Tervis tumbler. [view winners here]  A special thanks goes out to our clients for letting us create outstanding work!

Experiencing the Brand

I am emotional. So are you. And this is okay. Because humans are emotional creatures. Sure, the rational side takes over every now + then (good thing, otherwise we’d all be driving Ferraris we can’t afford). But the 2012 Olympics have been proof of the power our emotional brain has. We didn’t see many TV spots promoting a product or service. (Those that have, tanked…hello, McDonalds.). What we have seen are brands doing their best to tug at the heartstrings of their consumers — connecting their brand experience to this 17-day experience we share together with the rest of the world. Nike has inspired. Visa has celebrated. P&G has connected deeply with their critical mom audience. (Confession — those ‘Thank You Mom’ spots made me tear up nearly every single time. Like I said…emotional.) Appealing to emotions is a smart move. Because we will always remember how we are made to feel. And hearing about a brand is nothing like experiencing a brand firsthand. Brands that hold no personal connection to us are easily replaced. I am not personally connected to my brand of toothpaste. But P&G has worked very hard during these Olympics to make me feel connected to their brand (which includes toothpaste) in a different way. As the proud supporter of Moms, P&G has hit a home run with their TV spots. But P&G has made an even smarter move, letting consumers experience their brand in a tangible + meaningful way. Their 65,000 square foot Family Home caters to parents of Olympians — they take care of the laundry, the meals, there’s even a salon for mom makeovers. This is a rare + valuable opportunity for parents of Olympians to experience the P&G brand, not just read about it, think about it or talk about it. And P&G has embraced this opportunity. It's no longer enough to have a transactional relationship with consumers, not enough to provide basic and rational value in a product. Those types of relationships are one-dimensional, forgettable (and easily replaced). Not easily replaced are the emotions generated through brand experiences like what P&G is building. This is where brand loyalty starts. Ten Adams recently launched The Christ Hospital Health Network brand, (which you'll see more of in this + future newsletters). A component to this launch was giving consumers (which includes both patients + employees) the opportunity to interact with + experience the brand on a personal level. For a brand launch like this, the internal audience is just as important as our external audience. We hand delivered sneak preview kits to inform employees about the rebranding efforts + to display the new brand with pride — making them feel like a valuable + critical component to the rebrand (which they are). We also developed an interactive video kiosk that allows patients + employees to speak about their experiences with the brand (and giving us terrific content for social media propagation). Experiential marketing like this is gaining momentum — and with good reason. Because experiences are what make us truly fall in love with brands. (And cry during the Olympics, from what I’ve been told.)

Effectiveness of Emotional Hospital Advertising

by Kris Laufer

When your hospital has only a 30-second television commercial to position itself, what angle should you go for?  Do you use that half minute to discuss how caring and compassionate your nursing staff is, or do you go into great detail about the technological advances you’ve recently made? Should you discuss how your employees strive to deliver a personal touch, or do you highlight the state-of-the-art surgical equipment installed last month? You go with the message that allows you to show emotion.  Emotional marketing resonates. It is remembered.  Individuals are more likely to connect to emotions than advanced technology. That’s just human nature. Patients want a hospital that gets them – that will be empathetic to their situation and strive to make them as comfortable as possible – and part of that comfort comes from an emotional bond. Your audience will not remember sterile equipment or physicians in stark white lab coats.  It is going to walk away remembering emotions. I am not suggesting that we do away with all tech-heavy campaigns.  Advertisements that highlight cutting-edge technology or top-notch physicians play an important role in the marketing world, too.  Once a hospital has positioned itself as thoughtful and empathetic, it would be prudent to highlight some of the technological features that make it unique. But the reality is, technological ads cannot stand on their own effectively.  They need the emotional support to garner the desired impact. For additional insight on emotional advertising, click here to view the HealthLeaders Media article, “Emotional Advertising is Still Most Effective” http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-2/MAR-250897/Emotional-Advertising-is-Still-Most-Effective