In the field of healthcare advertising, it is an uphill battle. You work in an environment that is greatly regulated, limited with strict barriers. These barriers are difficult to navigate through, like a crowded highway with your off-ramp coming up. Miss your exit, and you’re in a bind.
All these restrictions will dampen your creativity, forcing you to feel defeated in the end, which in turn causes you to accept a less than quality ad strategy to call it quits.
You will be happy to know that it is possible to follow the rules laid out by the FDA, all while having an advertising strategy that stands out in the competitive healthcare industry. You do get to be creative with these ads, with the chance to make them meaningful with a message that hits home. You can make ads that the legal review team would approve with a single look.
We want to discuss some creative healthcare campaigns that were designed in the last few years. These clever advertising campaigns have brought several providers and non-profit organizations success. On top of providing examples of these campaigns, we will also discuss how you can make it your own. Enjoy the read, and we hope it helps you in your healthcare advertising campaign.
10 Creative Advertising Campaigns for Healthcare
From this point on, we will be presenting you with 10 of the most creative healthcare advertising campaigns that hit the bullseye. Without too much ado, here we go!
Banner Health
The infographic campaign of Banner Health is an example of success. They did this by capturing and retaining the attention of the reader with powerful imagery. They broke complex concepts down into digestible portions that linger on the mind of people. Nowadays, people only remember 10% of the information they gather a few days after learning it. That being said, if you pair your message with a relevant image, people will retain a great portion more of that information. On top of that, infographics are more likely to be shared between people.
Making It Your Own
If you want to use infographics as part of your strategy, it must:
Tell a Story With an Image- Images are a fast and simple way to capture the attention of the viewer. The process easy and tell the whole story with a single infographic. The entire ad should feel like a complete design that tells this story. All elements should be relevant to the theme.
Use Bright Colors- Powerful and bold colors attract the attention of the viewers. However, you don’t want to get too wild with this. While this strategy is ideal, too many colors can cause a sensory overload. This will discourage users from interacting and engaging with it.
Limit Text- The basic idea behind infographics is to relate to the consumer using imagery, limiting the text that you need. Simplified language, easy-to-read font, and ideal font sizes can communicate all the statistics and facts.
Cochlear
The campaign, “Does Love Last Forever?” was clever enough to trick its viewers into taking a practical hearing test. This campaign managed to win several healthcare advertising awards.
How it worked was the campaign ran in Australian movie theaters. What the ad said were two different stories. If you heard impaired, you heard a sad story about love fading away. If your hearing was good, you heard a heartwarming story of love lasting forever. In the end, there was a tagline stating that if you heard a sad story, you could be “Missing important moments in your life.”
Making It Your Own
What you can take away from this modern healthcare advertisement strategy is that advertising should enable the consumer to make a better decision about or actually receive better healthcare. If you have a strategy that doesn’t do that, you aren’t doing it right.
Oscar Healthcare
This is an ad that was hit out of the park for sure. It utilizes bright colors, it is engaging, and it is funny. The tagline is relevant and easily understood. It is a simple message with deep meaning. Basically, they infer:
Technological Capabilities- Oscar is a forward-thinking healthcare organization. They have teamed up with the digital healthcare revolution. Such as making themselves available on the devices you love the most.
Trust- This ad speaks trust to the viewer, showing that they have only the best interests in mind.
Relatability- This is a fun, laid back, modern ad. It speaks the language of the modern healthcare consumer, making it relatable with relevant imagery. Oscar nailed the “healthcare for the next generation” angle.
Convenience- This ad shows convenience in their services. An example of convenience is bringing the doctors to your phone.
Froedtert Health
On average, people see thousands of ads a day. A lot of people have developed filters, allowing them to scroll past without worry or interest. It is pretty rare that an ad catches the attention of the average person. When an ad manages to do this, it is a clear success. Take the ad from Froedtert Health as an example; it is an optical illusion that will cause almost anyone to take a second look.
Making It Your Own
To utilize this strategy, you need to alter your perspective for a new view. What interesting images can you come up with from your medicine field?
Macma
Like we said before, you will encounter barriers in healthcare advertising. As an example, breast cancer non-profits found it difficult to match up images to their campaign on social media because of the terms of use and code of conduct on imagery. So, they had to come up with a new way to build awareness while making ads that are based on real scenarios and stories.
In order to bypass this barrier, Davide Buenos Aires made a video for Macma that substituted the female breast with a man’s. The ad was a big success in several countries. It was, as a matter of fact, one of the single most successful advertising in the healthcare industry. It was real, funny, and bypassed the restrictions set by social media to offer humorous content.
Making It Your Own
Facing a barrier, be a rebel, and breakthrough it. Everyone has found a way to get around rules while staying within them; you are able to as well.
ZocDoc
The campaign “Unsick Day” by ZocDoc is a creative ad campaign that changed things up without changing them up. To elaborate, everyone has a sick day. This concept was taken and flipped over by launching a strike at the cause of sick days – a lack of preventative care. That is how the campaign, “Unsick Day,” was born.
Making It Your Own
Instead of focusing on treating the medical issue, launch an attack against the cause of the issue.
Amwell
This example of an ad from Amwell is a perfect definition of simplistic and good medical advertising. It tells a story without using any words. In the ad, a mother is at the bedside of her sick child. She is unwilling to leave the child’s side, so Amwell delivers services with a virtual doctor’s visit, which leads to a happy ending.
In this image, Amwell sends three important messages that persuade patients:
Care- One of the messages this ad sends is care. They show that they care for their patients, so much so that they would do what they can, so a mother doesn’t have to leave the side of their sick child. This is a considerate attempt that any parent can appreciate.
Convenience- Almost 80% of consumers prefer virtual health services. This ad communicates that you can stay where you are needed and still speak face-to-face with your doctor. Convenience is a quality that most patients look for. Healthcare providers need to be convenient for a patient to stick with them.
Trust- You will notice that the doctor on the foundation is clearly trustworthy. She is in the middle of explaining what the parent can do to make the child feel better. It hints at the possibility of the consumer’s ability to place trust in the doctor like the mother in the image does.
Making It Your Own
Your ad can tell a story without using words. The composition, imagery, and makeup that you decide to use can accomplish this. Make sure that there is plenty of story-telling in each ad that you create.
John Muir Health
Let’s face it, the human body is a gross and weird thing. Everyone knows this, and talking about the more unpleasant bodily functions has always been a bit of taboo. Daring Gen-Z and millennials broke that taboo in a spectacular way.
You find relief seeing your private wonders addressed in public. Whether it be a little pee when you sneeze or poison ivy on your private areas, these issues come with answers, and those answers are addressed to be made normal with this campaign strategy. And how is it appropriate to address these embarrassing problems? Humor.
With the John Muir ad, they offer real and unexpected humor for real predicaments.
Making It Your Own
Don’t be afraid to go against the grain, leaning into it as you go. Taking advantage of the taboo to normalize and familiarize people with their conditions is a great way to capture attention and help people at the same time. Get the gritty parts of your medical practice out to the public as a normal, everyday thing.
Hartford Healthcare
Hartford Healthcare crammed a lot into a short video. The video conveyed urgent care scenarios that were real-life events that people found themselves in. Also, it featured a digitally-forward, convenient attempt at setting appointments for urgent care. They also instill trust in the center in this less than 30-second video.
Trust and convenience are incredibly important to the modern patient. When you create an advertisement for healthcare, you must highlight the ways that life is made more convenient for the patient with your services. Give examples of people using your app or website, or give an idea of how long the short wait is to be seen. Lean into your leverage of convenience.
National Jewish Health
For any practice, a testimonial is a powerful driver. Over 70% of patients refer to online reviews when looking for a new doctor. Over 80% of people trust online reviews just as much as a recommendation. More so, almost 50% of patients will travel outside of the network for their insurance for a new doctor that has excellent reviews.
That is where testimonial ads come into the picture. These ads are pretty much how they sound, an advertisement for healthcare using a testimonial. As an example of this, we refer to National Jewish Health’s campaign, “Never Say Never.” They took the stories of patients, amplified the level of creativity, and presented it to the public. The imagery of this ad is eye-catching and to-the-point. It is inspiring in nature.
Making It Your Own
To utilize this strategy, you need to tell the story of your patients in a creative way. Give an example of how you helped, letting the story inspire others who wish to have the same experience. With a combination of the perfect ad composition, ideal wording, and right image, you are able to speak loudly to the viewers.
