NewYork-Presbyterian
NewYork-Presbyterian had been handled by a small New York agency for years. The impending new CEO wanted to do an agency review, but decided to first give the current agency a shot at doing something he liked. The agency brought in The Observatory to help save the business.
NewYork-Presbyterian was formed through the merger of New York Hospital and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. It’s the only institution that’s the teaching hospital for two Ivy League medical schools. As such, it plays a key role in important research and has some of the world’s most pioneering and talented surgeons. But, as we noted, people hate hospital advertising. They don’t want to hear about this stuff until they need it. Unless… it is really incredible stories of what is now possible.
When you see the annual issue of New York Magazine that talks about the stunning medical advances that were made during the year, people love to read those stories.
So The Observatory wrote a simple line, in what we call people-speak. “Amazing things are happening here.” And we let the stories be told by those who tell them best… the patients… in a documentary-like feeling.
The Observatory went on to advise on patient selection and did the patient interviews while co-directing and editing the commercials for five years, as well as working on the print and other work.
TV
ONLINE
MARKETERS TODAY TEND TO THINK OF THE PLETHORA OF MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES AS SEPARATE SILOS. THEY APPROACH EACH ONE SEPARATELY. WE TRY TO CREATE CAMPAIGNS WHERE THE MESSAGE CAN “CASCADE” FROM ONE TO THE NEXT.
In creating the TV commercials for NYP, we always ended up with about 2 hours of footage, which could then be used to create extended length interviews which we used online.
Viewers met the patients in the TV commercials and became intrigued. They were then able to go online and see what were essentially “mini documentaries” of these people.
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Whenever we create a campaign, we look for ways to extend the brand we have developed. We search for “touchpoints,” or, all the places we intersect with our prospects where (and when) they might be most impacted by our message. We also look for “free media,” such as ways to “art direct the real estate” and use the hospital structures themselves to deliver the message.
One of the most rewarding stories in this respect involved the massive banner featuring the “AMAZING THINGS ARE HAPPENING HERE” line that we hung from a skyway connecting two of the main NewYork-Presbyterian buildings.
A woman had been diagnosed with cancer and was coming in for her initial treatments. It was going to be a long process and she was scared. But she said, “I was worried and trying to have hope, without much luck. But as soon as we got to the hospital and I saw that huge banner as we drove under it, I knew everything was going to be alright.”
