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| The Community Festival at the new Elmhurst Memorial Hospital featured fine Father’s Day family fare, such as musical entertainment and a French farmer’s market. Photo courtesy of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital |
Organization:
Elmhurst Memorial Hospital
Timeframe:
Dec. 2010 - June 2011
In the highly competitive healthcare market of suburban Chicago—where six hospitals are within six miles of one another—promoting the opening of the new location of a hospital requires going beyond turning on sirens and ambulance lights for a motorcade procession from one location to the next.
The new Elmhurst Memorial Hospital created a layered communications approach—via print, radio, broadcast, the Web and social media—around 12 lead-up events to communicate to the surrounding community that it was uprooting to a new, nearby location on June 25, 2011. Throw in having to plan a series of events at a building still under construction and being locked into a less-than-ideal Father’s Day date for a final Community Festival, and you have some PR drama fit for ER or House.
A five-person Elmhurst PR team began planning 18 months before the new location’s opening. The campaign’s specific objectives were to host a series of 12 grand opening events that would:
• Raise awareness of the new Elmhurst Memorial Hospital—its services, new location and the timing of the opening
• Attract at least 10,000 attendees
• Provide an opportunity for community members to tour the hospital
• Drive visitors to the Web site to both RSVP for the final Community Festival and to learn more about Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare.
HEALTHY CHALLENGES
Elmhurst’s own market research showed that the women age 30-40 are the key decision makers when it comes to healthcare. Data also showed that Elmhurst’s market share had been slightly declining over the past several years due to the stiff medical competition the hospital sought to differentiate itself from. Elmhurst needed to make a splash.
But, how do you plan a series of events at a hospital that’s under construction? Christine Doucet, PR manager for Elmhurst, says the team didn’t want to host an event too far in advance of the hospital’s opening and confuse community members. “We didn’t want to say, ‘Welcome to our grand opening event! But sorry, we don’t actually open for three weeks,’” she says.
In any case, a week would be needed to sterilize and clean the hospital between any event and opening day. The organization’s moving consultant chose June 25 as opening day, so the team was locked into the weekend prior to that date for its Community Festival event on Father’s Day—not their first choice.
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TIMING IS EVERYTHING
“Our past experience in doing community events told us that if you offer free food, they will come,” says Doucet. “We also learned that if you have children’s entertainment or a local musical group, you will draw young families and parents: our key audience.”
We had to make sure we were clearly communicating the full scope of the situation, says Sheri Scott, executive director of marketing and public relations for Elmhurst. “We weren’t just opening a hospital, we were moving from one to another. What if someone needed an ER on June 25? People needed to know there were a few hours of overlap when both facilities ran simultaneously,” says Scott.
To communicate that message and more, Elmhurst executed the following strategies:
â–¶ Cast a Wide Net: In a community where the age of the local residents is very diverse, a wide variety of communication vehicles were needed to reach the largest possible audience. The team would pitch for earned media placements; run ads in newspapers, and on radio and TV; and use Facebook to get the word out.
â–¶ Embrace the Holiday: The team would leverage the Father’s Day date for the Community Festival by crafting an event that served as a special family experience.
â–¶ Get People Talking: Elmhurst would create buzz via word of mouth PR, propelled by special hospital tours for neighbors of the hospital, volunteers, board members, physicians, donors, vendors and employees.
â–¶ Leverage Employee Enthusiasm: Using a network of over 3,000 employees to spread the word—from wearing buttons that said “We’re Moving” with the move date, to the town hall meetings that were held to arm them with information—employees were encouraged to act as brand ambassadors. Employee volunteers were asked to staff the Community Festival and act as hosts for the “housewarming” Community Festival event.
â–¶ Drive Visitors Online: The final piece was to drive visitors to emhc.org, which housed information about the new hospital—from photos and timelines to service information. On all communication about the Community Festival, the team encouraged attendees to reserve a tour time on the Web site, where they could then print a ticket. In fact, Elmhurst didn’t allow any phone or mail-in reservations—they were to be made on the Web site only. “This allowed us to logistically know what to expect,” says Scott. “We we had to be careful to avoid long lines for tours and not let our visitors’ first experience be a frustrating one.”
GOING LIVE
Grand opening events were held for all key constituents on hospital grounds and included an opportunity to tour throughout the building, including the operating rooms. The Community Festival featured free fair-like food, a French market with wares from local farmers and vendors, and a main stage featuring the Elmhurst College Jazz Band, the Sweet Adelines and the Oak Park Symphony.
Children’s activities, including a “build your own first aid kit” event, were organized and staffed by Immediate Care nurses. The other 11 grand opening events—held over a period of 19 days—all included a meal, a tour and the general message of “thank you and welcome to our new home.”
MEDIA CONNECTION
Over a dozen press releases were disseminated throughout the 18-month project, and Community Festival information was included in the hospital’s Health Connections Magazine, which reaches over 150,000 households. Key media were offered one-on-one interviews with CEO Peter Daniels, along with personal hospital tours.
Daniels, who acted as host, was prepped with speaking points and highlights that differentiated the hospital from others in the area.
Radio and TV ads were run on stations with the highest female (age 30-40) viewership, which included morning news shows and on Lifetime. Ads were run in local newspapers and the team posted information on Elmhurt’s Facebook page and ran a contest encouraging people to like and share the page to win a Starbucks gift card. All of these vehicles had one call to action: Visit the Web site to sign up for a tour and learn more.
Printed matter was also key. Brochures and window clings with the theme, “We’re on the Move. You’re in the Know” were plastered far and wide at the old site. A sign on the new site and a banner hung on an underpass in the middle of town announced the Community Festival and the June 25 move.
TIME DRAIN OVERCOME
The biggest challenge for the team, according to Doucet, was keeping up with the other daily hospital communications demands while serving as the PR “U-Haul” movers for the organization. “We had two big projects running out of our PR department while planning the opening, and there were a lot of internal communications demands to keep employees informed every step of the way,” says Doucet.
Despite the workload, the grand opening initiative was a big success, as the 12 total events drew more than 13,000 participants. Other results include:
• The Community Festival drew over 10,000 attendees, and over 7,500 toured the building. Emhc.org saw overall visits climb to more than 797,000 from January-October 2011, up from 518,314 from the same time period in the previous year, including 7,094 online RSVPs for the Community Festival.
• Over 40 newspaper articles covered the lead-up events and grand opening, and ABC 7, the local affiliate, showed footage on its evening and morning news.
• There were no parking incidents, medical emergencies, or food shortages—a testament to the logistical foresight of the team.
Chicago is a market that’s home to some of the most prestigious academic hospitals in the world. For a community hospital’s opening to attract so much attention—from both the media and the public—was a major breakthrough.
At the new campus, construction is set to begin for a cancer center, and you can bet that the PR team will be looking for a repeat performance. PRN
CONTACT:
Christine Doucet [email protected], Sheri Scott, [email protected]; Zipporah Dvash, [email protected].
Follow Bill Miltenberg: @bmiltenberg