Relying on broadcaster charity is becoming less of a crapshoot and more of a marketing certainty for healthcare public service announcement campaigns.
As long as the spots boast high-quality production, timely issue coverage and format/length flexibility, they will likely get aired in enviable time slots. Increasingly, local
radio and television stations are becoming a louder mouthpiece for community causes, donating $8.1 billion to charitable efforts from August 1998 to July 1999, up from $6.25
billion the previous year, according to the most recent public service poll by the National Association of Broadcasters. Of that amount, PSAs accounted for an equivalent
advertising value of $5.6 billion - up $1.3 billion from the past year.
Broadcasters are showing a growing interest in PSAs that have a local focus which allows them to respond to the social needs of their communities. For instance, nearly 65% of
radio PSAs and 56% of TV PSAs were on local issues.
While healthcare organizations - particularly those that deal with cancer, women's health and children's issues - are a top beneficiary of this charitable trend, the
competition is as fierce as ever for the donated air time that media outlets make available.
For this reason, if your PSA campaign is more than two years old, now is a good time to sharpen its creative edge. Consider exploiting health topics that:
- have recently generated high-profile news coverage;
- compel people to take immediate action on an urgent issue; and
- provide actionable ways to achieve disease prevention.
These were some of the tactics the Coalition on Organ Donation (COD) used when it overhauled its PSA print and broadcast campaign in April with messages that focus on the
latest myths and life-affirming benefits of organ donation.
Its previous "Share Your Life" broadcast campaign had run for four years and had become stagnant both in message and usage, says Bob Spieldenner, COD's communication manager.
It averaged about 3,000 placements per month on TV and radio stations. The new campaign is upstaging those results. During April the broadcast PSAs generated 4,000 broadcast
placements and in May (the most recent results available) they commanded 4,400 airings. The results of the print campaign are not available yet.
This time around, COD relied more heavily on research to develop relevant, hard-hitting PSA messages that address the latest concerns and fears people have with organ donation,
says Spieldenner. The Arnold Agency provided pro bono research and creative services for the current "Donate Life" campaign.
Its research of potential donors found that COD needed to debunk popular myths like the assumption that signing a donor card is sufficient (when families also need to be aware
of a donor's decision) and celebrities are given top priority for organ transplants. The print component of the campaign tackles these issues.
The research also indicated that COD needed to play up the life-affirming benefits of organ donation to combat the fatalistic images that often overshadow the process. These
benefits are highlighted in the broadcast effort.
To get the attention of PSA directors at radio and TV stations, the campaign is using a witty marketing approach, multiple length formats and opportunities for the commercials
to be tagged with information on a local organ donation group. Reminder cards that accompany the PSAs read: "We need your liver." on the front and on the back: "but we'll settle
for some airtime." The PSAs are available in 15-, 30- and 60-second formats.
This flexibility is resulting in choice airplay and airtimes. The 60-second format, for instance, is the most popular, generating 1,600 placements. Forty percent of the PSAs
are aired in the 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. time slot with 33% aired from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Giving broadcasters multiple PSA options also is helping to reinforce the "hospital without walls" image that the ALSAC St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis
promotes. Its national radio effort that launched in February is available in four formats, including 60-, 30-, 20- and 14-second commercials.
The campaign, which uses patient stories to herald the benefits of research for attacking childhood cancer and other chronic conditions, is resonating with radio stations, says
Bonnie Cameron, ALSAC's marketing communication specialist. In June, 461 stations aired the PSAs more than 69,000 times reaching an audience of more than 224 million people,
according to Radio Access, the firm that produced and distributes the spots.
(NAB, Dennis Wharton, 202/429-5350; COD, Bob Spieldenner, 804/327-1432; ALSAC St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Bonnie Cameron, 901/522-4516)