Marketing Campaigns
Buses Drive Latest Maternity Care Campaign
The savvy marketers at the Seattle-based Swedish's Childbirth Center decided to stop traffic with a larger-than-life adorable baby campaign plastered on a local bus. Four-color, enormous depictions of 11 babies in various endearing poses now cover Metro bus #3038, with a tag line that reads "Ballard's Having Bundles of Babies."
The "Ballard Baby Bus" hit the streets May 1 and will continue generating second looks and endearing "awhs" throughout more than 12 area routes until December. "We wanted to do something fun and different to promote our childbirth center and involve the communities we serve," said Sally Davis, R.N., the center's clinical director, of the area's non-traditional, first-time hospital bus panel campaign.
To further ham it up and drive home the message that the center delivers state-of-the-art maternity care via birthing suites, on May 17, the real-life babies, their families and Swedish/Ballard employees will walk alongside the bus in Seattle's annual Norwegian Constitution Day Parade. (206/215-2000)
Marketers Grope for Survival Strategies in Heightened Hospital Ad Wars
The New York area is the latest contender in the fierce competition among the country's hospitals fighting for marketing identity. The ad wars, which arrived late to New York (compared to Texas, California and Florida), is heating up with aggressive ad campaigns by area hospitals.
"It's clearly a war of survival," said Art Levin, director of the Manhattan-based consumer advocacy group, Center for Medical Consumers. "The perception of hospitals is that unless they market, unless they merge, unless they acquire, they may not survive..."
The most recent face-off has North Shore Health Systems, a major not-for-profit 10-hospital player, vying for the leadership position in the market to the tune of $1.4 million. The fourth-highest ranked ad spender in the area, North Shore enlisted the expertise of marketing guru Jerry Della Femina, who gave us "Joe Isuzu," "Meow Mix cats" and "Ziploc's Talking Fingers," to put real-life faces on catastrophic medical problems. New Yorkers learn through a series of heart-wrenching testimonials - heart disease, leukemia, an infant with a hole between her abdomen and chest - that North Shore doctors save lives and that "treating cancer is an everyday procedure."
The biggest spender has been Staten Island University Hospital, part of the North Shore system, with an estimated $2 million earmarked for radio to flex its "breakthrough treatment of stereotactic radiosurgery" message.
Even financially-strapped Nassau County Medical Center, owned by the county, will launch a $750,000 TV, radio and print campaign this month. To align itself with the area's middle-class patrons and to blow its horn about high federal accreditors' ratings, a doctors' contribution funded the campaign. (NHS, 718/528-0434; Center For Medical Consumers, 212/674-7105; Staten Island University Hospital, 718/226-9000; Nassau County Medical Center, 516/572-0123)
Chiquita Bananas Gets AHA's Seal of Approval
Diet marketers can now recommend bananas, specifically Chiquita bananas, with an added sense of security. The American Heart Association (AHA) and Chiquita Banana North America recently announced that Chiquita bananas have recently become the first and, to date, only AHA-certified bananas to meet specific nutritional criteria. "Now the American Heart Association certification reinforces the fact that eating Chiquita bananas is an ideal way to make people feel better," Sherrie Terry, vice president of marketing for Chiquita.
Responding to rising consumer requests this past year, AHA introduced its Food Certification Program, designed to help consumers easily select heart-friendly foods. Using a red-heart check mark, the AHA signifies which foods are good for the heart in point-of-sale materials, advertising and packaging. (AHA, 202/ 686-6888; Chiquita Banana North America, 212/679-2233).
Awards
Sue Jablonski Named Young Marketer of the Year
Heralding her efforts to expose Ohio State University Medical Center's "human side," the Chicago-based Alliance for Healthcare Strategy and Marketing recently named Sue Jablonski "Young Marketer of the Year." As the center's director, communications and marketing, Jablonski and her staff swiftly strengthened the role of marketing in strategic decisions.
Under her leadership, the marketing team launched ad campaigns that featured redesigned graphic materials and compassionate photography highlighting physicians in caring roles.
The team also created highly targeted programs of community sponsorships, public classes and special events that encouraged face-to-face interactions between community members and Medical Center staff and physicians. (Alliance For Healthcare Strategy and Marketing, 312/704-9704)
New Ventures
Healthcare PR Firm Launches
A new PR company, HealthCounsel, has been developed by two principals of William Silverman & Company, Cleveland. The new venture, based in the Cleveland office, will be headed by Diane Roman Fusco, president and CEO, and Andrew M. Juniewicz, vice chairman.
HealthCounsel will concentrate on healthcare. About eight employees will be devoted to HealthCounsel.The Silverman firm will continue with its PR, corporate communications and crisis counseling and government services work.
(Health Counsel Ltd., 1111 Superior Ave., Suite 1700, Cleveland 44114-2507, 216/522-0070)