Every day, your potential patients are exposed to an increasing number of advertisements. Not just healthcare—which, most of the time, isn’t even relevant to their needs—but ads from every industry coming from all different angles fighting for their attention. Every day, it becomes more important to find unique ways to communicate with consumers.
With this in mind, SPM began its most recent project for Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC). Located in Bangor, Maine, EMMC has grown from a 5-bed hospital to a comprehensive 411-bed medical center serving central, eastern and northern Maine. It is a Level II trauma center, has more than 450 physicians on staff, and is committed to providing quality healthcare for the region.
For several years, the primary care capacity at EMMC had been completely full. As a result, the hospital had gained the reputation of long wait times for openings with their primary care providers. However, last July, EMMC hired several new providers that increased the hospital’s capacity for new patients.
Because of this, EMMC looked to marketing communications and SPM to differentiate its brand as a primary care provider. But, the perceptions developed by consumers were a difficult obstacle to overcome. Consumers no longer saw EMMC as an option for primary care.
Combatting these perceptions required an exceptional amount of collaboration by every department at SPM—something we do with every campaign we develop. Based on our extensive consumer insights, we knew that our target audiences, which include “busy moms” and “new movers,” have more than enough on their plates. Finding a doctor is just another necessary hassle. So we asked ourselves, how can we make their lives a little easier and connect them with best quality primary care provider? The account team, media team and creative team all weighed in on this question, and the answer became clear.
We developed an extremely user-friendly online tool called the MatchMe tool (matchme.emmc.org) that acts as an online matching service, pairing your family to your ideal provider who will make you feel comfortable and matches your needs and interests. All of our marketing efforts drive engagement with this tool.
Our media team worked together with our creative team to build executions that reached consumers in unique places and impactful ways. The creative demonstrated that EMMC makes it easy for you to find the best primary care physician for your family so you can feel good about your choice—and get back to that super long to-do list.
The campaign included a broad range of tactics, including radio, print, search, rich media, display and direct mail. In addition, creative media planning helped EMMC reach target consumers in unique situations through cinema ads, mall kiosks and banners, and video pre-roll messaging customized to the environment. Below you will find a selection of creative from the campaign.
Primary Care Polite Rich Media
Primary Care Digital Pre-Roll Video
Primary Care Cinema Spot
Results from the first six months of the campaign, which launched in July 2014, have been outstanding. EMMC recorded 550 new patients who can be directly attributed to the Match Me campaign effort. Specific digital results for search, rich media and display include a .16% click-through-rate, which far exceeds the healthcare average of .08%. Both SPM and EMMC expect these results to continue to improve throughout the duration of the campaign, currently planned to run through September 2015.
Shannon Curran
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