Company: MidMichigan Health Center-Midland
Agency: Bolger + Battle
Timeframe: 2006-ongoing
According to current statistics, every 45 seconds someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke, and every three minutes someone dies from one. Stereotypes notwithstanding, strokes can
strike anyone, regardless of gender or age.
MidMichigan Health Center, a family of organizations dedicated to providing healthcare throughout mid-Michigan, collected research data in 2005 that revealed that a surprising
number of people in the area didn't know how to recognize when someone was having a stroke; therefore, they didn't realize they needed to call 911, which increased the number of
fatalities dramatically.
These findings prompted executives at MidMichigan's flagship hospital (MidMichigan Health Center-Midland) to launch a stroke education initiative that would educate the
community about recognizing stroke symptoms and seeking immediate help to prevent lasting physical damage.
By reaching out to media, community events, schools, workplaces and other local organizations, the team hoped to build awareness of its campaign, which they dubbed "Smile,
Reach, Speech." The title of the campaign refers to the three simple tests that can spot a stroke:
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Smile: Ask the potentially afflicted person to smile. If they have difficult smiling, or if one side of the face droops more than the other, there is a chance the
person may be having a stroke.
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Reach: Ask the person to close their eyes and reach both arms out in front of them. If one arm drifts or droops down compared to the other, they may be having a stroke.
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Speech: Ask the person to sing a familiar song or report a simple sentence after you. Confusion, slurred words or inability to speak may mean they are having a
stroke.
According to Megan McHenry, marketing manager for MidMichigan Health, the program was fully launched in 2006 at MidMichigan Health Center-Midland and will be rolling out in the
other three hospitals that in the organization.
Although McHenry and her staff did work with several agencies in creating and executing the messaging and materials for the campaign, the primary agency of record was Bolger +
Battle, a local firm that helped flesh out the goals of the campaign.
Stop, Drop And Roll
"We had a two-pronged approach," explains McHenry. "We wanted to do a general communications campaign that would focus attention on how people can easily recognize symptoms of
a stroke, and how they should do screenings." She also found that when she and her staff surveyed the national literature on strokes, there was no mnemonic device on hand to help
people remember the warning signs.
"Megan came to us and said she wanted something more creative and attention-getting when it came to conveying information to the public about strokes," says Nina Paquette,
senior account executive, Bolger + Battle. "[Her team] wanted do something for the community and make a difference."
Bolger + Battle was instrumental in developing the slogan of the campaign--"Smile, Reach, Speech." The idea was to make it memorable for people.
"They based it on 'stop, drop and roll,' [which is what people are directed to do if they ever find themselves on fire]," says McHenry. "[Smile, Reach, Speech] has alliteration
and rhyming, so people remember it."
"It's a simplification," says Paquette in describing how her staff came up with the slogan. "But that's [the gist of the campaign] in a nutshell, and it's what the resource
material was telling us [we needed]."
The agency also played a key role in developing the collateral materials for the campaign, which McHenry says was based on bringing the messages directly to people.
Step By Step
To reach preschool children and tweens, illustrated books were created and distributed at the local schools. Here the aim was that three generations--children, parents and
grandparents--would be educated on this issue. Plus, because schools place a priority on reading, the book had an added benefit--getting kids to read--in addition to informing
people about the signs of a stroke.
For teenagers, the team developed a school kit that targeted children from grades 6 to 12. The kit contained a humorous DVD that not only satirized the youthful practice of TV
channel surfing but also "poked fun at the TV genres, while teaching them the warning signs of a stroke along the way," notes McHenry. Also, using the services of a local
songwriter, a rock song that centered on teaching listeners about the warning signs of a stroke was created for teens to download.
High school students interested in future healthcare careers who were doing work-study programs at the flagship hospital were trained to go back to their schools and teach
fellow students how to recognize stroke symptoms and the importance of getting care within the three-hour window following an attack.
Teachers were given an educational, do-it-yourself kit that came with everything one needed to spread the "Smile, Reach, Speech" message to their schools.
For the workplace, the campaign team developed a slightly modified version of the do-it-yourself kit--this one targeted older people. The same kit was sent to church groups,
companies and other organizations.
"We also sent out a mailing to all of the workplaces in our county," says McHenry. "We got a lot of organizations that responded to our letter [about sending them the kit].
They would show the DVD [at] their staff meetings."
Minimizing Emotional Distress
For McHenry, the main challenge of the campaign was overcoming the emotional barriers people have when it comes to strokes.
"They are full of fear," she says, referring to the reluctance by some to change their lifestyles, even when it may be perilous to their health. "[A lot of times when a stroke
is occurring], people will talk themselves out of it," meaning they're pretending it's not really happening to them, although it is.
Another snag was cutting through the clutter and getting people to address this serious topic, as well as overcoming the mental barriers many people have about calling 911.
It was also difficult to make make an entertaining DVD on a very serious topic. "This was an interesting challenge," says Paquette, "but quite fun for our team."
Beyond Return On Investment
Because the project was a community initiative based on a health issue, it was not designed to have a specific return on investment.
"The purpose of the campaign was for the hospital to invest in and subsidize the campaign," McHenry says. However, the downstream tracking did demonstrate considerable success
in meeting goals and reaching targets.
"We invested $100,000 in our campaign and recouped about $250,000 in downstream healthcare," continues McHenry, "but that was an unintended benefit." She also adds that people
who received their invitations for screenings were 25% to 100% more likely to use their services.
The campaign had three measurable goals that were fully realized:
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The project team wanted to increase the number of patients who arrive by ambulance when afflicted with a stroke as opposed to driving themselves from 40% to 75%. As of
the program's last benchmark, the figure was at 60%;
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They wanted to increase to 30% the number of people who would arrive at the hospital within the three-hour window. As of the last measurement, it was at 39%; and,
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They wanted 90% of those coming to the screenings to have a clear understanding of stroke symptoms. At this point, 91% have demonstrated this.
McHenry feels the program's success is attributable to one major factor: It represented a significant departure from the way things are often done in healthcare.
"People absorb information in stages," she says. "If you're cluttering up the emergency message with a lot of preventive lifestyle details, [people won't remember the message
so readily]. We resisted that healthcare urge to tell them everything at once."
Unconventional methods that diverged from the usual brochures and flyers, such as rock songs and DVDs interlaced with humor, were highly effective in getting the message out.
The Upside Of Jargon
For McHenry, the lessons learned were straightforward and clear cut. Firstly, to get people's attention about the Smile, Reach, Speech campaign, it was important to take the
various key points and translate them to everyday jargon while distilling it to a simple, memorable message. Consequently, it became very accessible by the general public. "People
were very willing and engaged to learn what to do in an emergency," she says.
Secondly, it was important for the project team to partner up with other organizations and build mutually beneficial messages to get the word out.
"We went to schools early on in the campaign and asked teachers to help us design the educational kit that they could use in their curriculum," McHenry says. "We stressed that
teachers should make sure the materials were age appropriate."
Also, partnering the campaign with myriad workplaces was essential in getting the message out with the idea that it could "save you a lot of insurance money and heartache for
families." The team also reached out to healthcare foundations and senior citizen groups.
The team also partnered with their local newspaper, the Midland Daily News. The paper offered exclusives on all the stories generated from the campaign, running articles
on people whose lives had been changed as a result.
"We told them it was the right thing for the community," says McHenry. "They really embraced it and saw its value."
Recently, the Smile, Reach, Speech campaign was honored with a 2008 International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill, which recognizes outstanding
achievements in communications. PRN
CONTACTS:
Megan McHenry, [email protected]; Nina Paquette, [email protected]
Simplicity Is Key
For other nonprofit organizations, particularly those with constricted budgets seeking to build awareness of an important issue, Nina Paquette, senior account executive at the
Michigan marketing/communications agency Bolger + Battle, has these best practices to share:
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"Try and leverage something you see out there already. Oftentimes people try to reinvent things. If you see something you like, ask people who did it. Do some
research."
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"If you can't find something you need and are going to an agency, bring examples of what you like and don't like."
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"Find out a lot about your audience so you know who they are and what you want them to do as a result of what you're putting out there. The more you do this, the more you
can measure whether you've been successful or not. If you can't measure it, then it's pretty hard to know."