Hospice advertising evokes 'situations'
New campaign tugs at consumer heartstrings
A new advertising campaign developed by the Hospice Strategies Group of Buffalo, NY, for the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care in Cheektowaga, NY, uses a billboard-style approach for the simple, punchy newspaper ads with messages aimed at encouraging potential consumers to make the first call to hospice. The whole package of eight targeted ads and accompanying 10-second TV spots has been offered for sale to other hospices to use in their own outreach campaigns.
The hospice has been running the ads and TV spots in three-week segments, and has seen a significant increase in its census. "It's been great for us. Every time the ads run, our referrals go up," says the hospice's CEO, J. Donald Schumacher, PsyD. "We're trying to figure out if it will even impact on the dreaded length-of-stay problem, although it's too soon to tell."
"We try to reach people in language they're comfortable with, just get them to call," says Jock Mitchell with the Hospice Strategies Group, which is a joint venture of the hospice and the Mitchell DeTine & Neiler Marketing Group, also in Buffalo. "We debated forever whether to call it hospice, palliative care, or what. Potential clients don't care what it's called. What people respond to is situations. Hopefully, they'll see the ads and say: 'That's me,'" Mitchell explains.
Another key to this kind of outreach is to make sure that the people who answer the phone calls generated by these ads are well-trained and sound compassionate and authoritative, he adds. "We've wasted our money if an untrained volunteer answers the phone."
The crux of this campaign is its emotional pull, using small, relatively inexpensive ad placements. The eight ads, each with a photograph and a strong encouragement to call hospice, cover the gamut of the hospice's services and messages. Several ads are aimed at responsible family caregivers of seriously ill patients, most often middle-aged women. Others introduce the hospice's need for community support, its nursing home residence, its home care bridge program, and its Life Transitions Center. Still other ads run in magazines targeting doctors and lawyers. There's even one confronting the problem of late referrals. (A sample ad from this campaign is reproduced at left.) Other messages are:
· "I wish we'd called hospice sooner . . . much sooner."
· "He still misses his grandpa . . . we all do."
· "You've done all you can for your patient . . . now what?"
· "Your client is dying. What do you say?"
The hospice's census went up 20% after the campaign's first eight weeks, Mitchell says, adding that these ads could be used by any hospice, with even a modest advertising budget, to generate public awareness. His firm also offers a media planner to help maximize their impact. But he recommends "not starting in the middle" by just placing the ads. Instead, hospices should do a marketing and communication plan, based on a situation analysis and an understanding of their local competitive environment. The ads are available for $350 each or $1,500 for all eight, with modest customizing charges. Ten-second TV spots are also available. For information, contact Jock Mitchell at Hospice Strategies Group, 688 Delaware Av., Buffalo, NY 14209. Telephone: (716) 884-6144. Fax: (716) 884-1399. E-mail: [email protected].
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