Hospital campaigns designed to promote preventive care often target women, adults and certain ethnic groups. Rarely, however, do hospitals consider advertising to tomorrow's decision-makers.
Last April, a teen-focused campaign launched by the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals (MCV) at Virginia Commonwealth University became a rare exception to the rule.
Located in the heart of Richmond, this 161-year-old academic institution enjoyed a prominent reputation among the area's mature residents. But baby boomers and their children were not as aware of its extensive history as a high-quality, internationally renowned medical center. Teens, in particular, thought of MCV as a place to go for gun shot wounds or serious injuries, but had little awareness of its extensive research and technological achievements, says Bill Bergman, president of The Bergman Group, the Richmond advertising firm that launched MCV's teen campaign.
To challenge these limited perceptions, MCV and the Bergman Group enlisted the creative talents of high school students to develop "Medical Minutes," two television commercials that promoted wellness and prevention. This effort complemented a larger campaign that promoted MCV's Outpatient Surgery Center.
Though the campaign has only generated anecdotal results of being "cool" to teens and impressive to MCV physicians, the hospital is confident that teens are a worthwhile target to develop broad awareness and outreach.
"We're looking at [this initiative] as a long-term investment; we may not know what works for another four or five years," says Mandy Setliff, MCV's manager of print and video communications. Setliff also says it makes sense to target teens because they will become the country's next population surge after baby boomers.
Scare Tactics Don't Work
When Bergman's creative team began brainstorming ideas for campaign messages, they immediately thought of the typical topics - anti-smoking and drug prevention. But after running these ideas by area teens, they quickly found out how clueless they were, says Bergman.
"They told us that scare tactics [typically used in anti-smoking campaigns and other public health efforts] are too similar to everything else and they don't respond to a non-tolerant mindset."
Seeking expert advice, the agency and hospital turned to teens involved in a media program at Varina High School, located in a Richmond suburb. Four upperclassmen helped develop campaign strategies that were a drastic departure from the concepts the agency initially considered. Interestingly, the students were more interested in pursuing health topics with a positive outlook that were relevant to their everyday lives. They chose to focus on sleep deprivation and how participation in extracurricular activities affects a student's stress level. They also suggested that TV spots feature a member of the MCV medical staff to discuss these issues and provide credibility to the campaign.
Ultimately, the four high school students ran the show. They wrote, directed and acted in the commercials. Using a news format style, the students "reported" on how to handle sleep deprivation and overcommitment to school activities, with MCV physicians providing medical tips in teen-friendly language. The commercials ran exclusively within Fox teen programs, which also helped to produce the spots.
Keeping the Costs Down
Campaign costs for the teen portion of the overall television advertising effort were kept to $100,000 because production expenses were low, says Setliff. Varina High School allowed the agency and hospital to use its sophisticated communications center (with a studio), and to tap the talents of students well versed in news production, including script-writing, b-roll, shooting and editing, says Bergman. In addition, the marketing team was able to negotiate an efficient media buy with Fox as the exclusive media partner for the teen effort, and as a major network used in the larger advertising campaign.
Teen-focused campaigns work best as a collateral effort to a bigger promotion, says Bergman. In MCV's case, Medical Minutes helped break through the clutter among the market's seven other hospitals and position the hospital as a preventive health resource for teens.
It's important for hospitals to establish a baseline reputation with teens because they represent an untapped market, says Setliff. For this reason, she is confident MCV will continue its teen initiatives. In doing so, teen-to-teen messages resonate best, as MCV and The Bergman Group quickly learned.
While teens want health solutions, they don't want to be preached at or told what not to do. You get their attention by speaking their language and finding out what health issues are most relevant to their daily lives.
(MCV, Mandy Setliff, 804/828-4504; The Bergman Group, Bill Bergman, 804/225-0600)
Reaching Generation Y
Teens are an exciting group for hospitals to target for broad awareness of preventive health and wellness services. But don't expect to win their trust without a long-term investment. Bill Bergman of The Bergman Group, which launched a teen-focused campaign for the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in April, suggests:
- Collaborating with a high school or teen community organization for campaign strategies.
- Featuring teens in campaign materials and commercials.
- Incorporating the Internet into campaign plans.
- Partnering with media partners that have a strong teen focus.