Agency's Self-promotional Paper Airplane Campaign Soars
To spark new business interest, BGMHealth Communications is promoting its own agency healthcare expertise with a campaign strategy based on a bold marketing paradox. The Venice, Calif. agency is telling potential clients to "take your business elsewhere."
If this seems foolhardy, that's the desired effect the agency is trying to create. The catchy ads articulate the agency's breakthrough business philosophy by playing on various creative themes that are tied to a paper airplane taking flight under the umbrella theme "the cure for the common."
The attention-getting creative copy reads "give your brand an altitude adjustment" and "departures daily."
Self-promotional campaigns are rare in healthcare. Joseph Doyle, BGM's president, estimates that only about 10 percent of healthcare agencies promote their marketing services this way. These campaigns are rare because they're tough to create and costly. To work, the messages must seem credible and not too self-serving, says Doyle.
BGM had debated the idea of a self-promotional campaign five years ago.
In 1997, the agency made a formal decision to promote its services and it still took most of the year to plan the campaign because the staff had to squeeze the effort into other client projects, which took top priority.
Doyle leveraged the competitive spirit of the agency by making the campaign into a contest that four creative teams pitched.
The approach was a hit because creatives thrive on peer recognition and developing winning campaign ideas, says Doyle. Two women created the airplane concept, which not only got BGM's approval but industry kudos from MedAdNews, which selected the effort as the Best Self-Promotional Ad Campaign of 1999, and netted an international award of excellence from IN-AWE.
The campaign cost $200,000 and included direct mail to 50 healthcare companies and trade advertising in industry publications like MedAdNews, Medical Marketing & Media and Pharmaceutical Executive.
Although the campaign has not paid for itself yet, the effort has been a worthwhile investment in positioning the agency as a marketing resource for cutting edge solutions, says Doyle.
So far, the campaign has generated 35 leads and three new business pitches. If BGM lands one new client from these prospects, the campaign will easily have paid for itself, says Doyle.
(BGMHealth Communications, Joseph Doyle, 310/314-1001)