Experts in science and medicine are well versed at reaching the public with numbers - statistics intended to spotlight treatments, breakthroughs and new research. But a recent campaign headed by Miller/Geer & Associates for the Center for Surgical Treatment of Obesity hung its hat on putting a human face to some very grave facts about obesity.
The center sought out patients who could best convey to the media the plight of being severely overweight. In 1996 and 1997, four patients with exceptional stories were given pro bono surgeries.
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The Face of the Campaign
The MillerGeer team, which included Jay Geer, president; Geoge Pappas, account supervisor; and Leona Christenson, account coordinator used classic PR to feed a national media appetite for information about obesity. The campaign used:
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Starting with a 547-pound Los Angeles woman who wanted "her life back" and concluding with a 600-pound former fisherman who was "capsized by obesity," the stories provided reporters with unique insider perspectives on not only what it means to be obese, but how the surgery offered these people new, slimmer, trimmer bodies they didn't think were possible.
To drive awareness of the surgical options available for seriously overweight people, specifically positioning the "Fobi Pouch" procedure (developed by Dr. Mal Fobi), and to trigger patient referrals to the Bellflower, Calif.-based center, MillerGeer launched a media relations push in June 1996 that used patients as hooks. The PR campaign cost $77,000 (fully utilized) and marked the first time the center had ever used a PR agency.
Tugging at the Heartstrings
The patient strategy focused on how Fobi Pouch surgery gave patients new life and new hope and resulted in more than 250 broadcast interviews, including CNN, "Prime Time Live," "Extra," "Hard Copy," and "The Jerry Springer Show" as well as numerous regional programs.
The campaign also resulted in more than 100 print placements in newspapers including the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. The media coverage generated more than 25 million impressions at the first-year mark and close to 50 million impressions after 18 months, according to Geer.
But getting to that point meant personalizing a medical condition that has arguably received more ridiculing talk-show-styled coverage than serious mainstream news reporting.
As part of the campaign, Miller coordinated media interviews with the center to provide reporters full access to these patients as well as the surgeries they would undergo. TV crews captured these patients leaving their homes for the first time and reporters were able to ask intimate questions about their health, diet and overall lifestyle.
The media attention generated more than 10,000 patient inquiries during the campaign, averaging more than 1,000 calls per month to the center. Compared to its advertising campaign (which involved a $250,000 television/newspaper regional buy), the PR effort yielded two-thirds more leads. And surgical volume went from 15 procedures per month to more than 25.
The Numbers on Obesity
Although obesity (defined as being more than 100 pounds overweight) causes more than 250,000 deaths each year and affects more than 4 million in the U.S., awareness of treatment has been extremely low. "There wasn't a whole lot known about the [gastric bypass operation], a 20-year-old procedure for obese people," said Jay Geer, president of the Cerritos, Calif.-based agency.
In the end, the patient approach also served to reverse some long-held stigmas about obesity: these people eat too much and need to go on a diet. The campaign conveyed that sometimes obesity is caused by a genetic condition, and in the case of the Fobi patients several diets were attempted with unsuccessful results.
The campaign also had to raise awareness in the medical community about obesity treatment options, according to Lieu Nguyen, marketing coordinator for the center. "Many family doctors do not know how to treat their severely obese patients or where to send them."
Last year, Dr. Fobi went to more than 10 conferences to educate physicians on obesity. There are only a handful of physicians who specialize in treating this high-risk condition; the American Society of Bariatric Surgery has about 100 members, according to Geer.
After the first story came out about the obese woman in Los Angeles, the coverage gave a voice to the embarrassing condition that has many of the campaign's target confined to their homes.
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Miller/Geer
Headquarters: Cerritos, Calif. |
One of the pro bono surgery cases involving a 586-pound Whittier, Calif., man on an oxygen tank was inspired by an earlier pro bono case involving 557-pound Las Vegas man who had been housebound for more than five years. The campaign also hit on other high-profile stories like the Phen-Fen scare and movies that dealt with the topic of obesity, namely Eddie Murphy's "The Nutty Professor" and Stephen King's "Thinner" films. (Miller, 562/467-2020; Obesity Center, 562/866-6501)