Marketers at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine (NJCIRM) of Denver, more than doubled the calls into their toll-free information line this summer after they aired public service announcements (PSAs) on TV featuring an Olympian.
NJCIRM's toll-free asthma information line, Lung Line, went from 34 calls in the week of July 29 to 87 calls in the final week of the Olympics.
Unintentionally, swimmer Amy Van Dyken turned out to be a lucky strike for the center by winning four Olympic gold medals.
Months before Van Dyken even hit the pool in Atlanta, she had taped four public-service announcements for National Jewish to promote its toll-free "Lung Line" respiratory information service. When she won four gold medals in swimming, National Jewish was rocketed into public relations nirvana.
"Instead of running at 2 a.m., suddenly the PSAs were running at prime time," said David Tinkelman, vice president of health initiatives at National Jewish.
Van Dyken, 19, was born with asthma and began swimming because her physician advised her to exercise. She did 20-second and 30-second PSAs designed to be used by Denver television stations and another set for national distribution. The videos were shipped to 402 TV stations before the Olympics.
"For an Olympic athlete, breathing is really important," she said in the PSAs. "In the Olympics, a breath can mean the difference between winning and losing. For a person with asthma, it can mean a whole lot more."
Van Dyken's story had been picked up by major newspapers after her Olympic victories.
"It was incredibly fortuitous for National Jewish to use Amy (in their PSAs)," said Kyla Thompson of The Jefferson Group, a Washington, D.C.-based national government and public relations agency. Thompson also said it is wise, when doing medical PSAs, to use "real" people who have succeeded despite their health problems.
"That's probably one of the best marketing tools there is," she said. "It's a third-party endorsement of what you've been trying to say."
National Jewish tracks the calls it gets on its Lung Line from people who want information about respiratory illness. The numbers doubled after Amy started winning gold medals.
In addition to the instant recognition of the Lung Line, Tinkelman said the PSAs will translate into long-term recognition and public relations benefits. It may even increase the center's financial contributions, he said.
"Anytime there's a heightened awareness of lung disease, it plays a significant role for us, whether in direct care or because people become aware of our role in research," he said.
Tinkelman said National Jewish hopes to do more PSAs in the future using Van Dyken as a spokesman for asthma and respiratory disease research.
"We're still discussing what we might do with her," he said. "She's a wonderful spokesperson."
Thompson said Olympic athletes are among the few personality figures who companies feel safe about using as spokesmen any more. For the most part, it's risky to use a national figure as a "poster child," she said.
"You never know what's going to happen to that national figure: They get caught dealing drugs or beating their wives. Hertz lost a huge investment when its spokesman, O.J. Simpson, was charged with murdering his former wife, Nicole Brown. You invest millions in a personality like that. I doubt you'll ever see Hertz come out with a personality again," Thompson said.
On the other hand, she said, "associating with an Olympic personality is about the safest," she said. "They are thought of (as) being very pure."
(National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine 303/388-4461, The Jefferson Group, 202/781-9001)