My mom died of cancer when I was three years old. I didn’t understand the full magnitude of it until I became an adult and realized just how young 28 is to die. I probably still don’t fully understand, but as I grow in age and experience, I’m beginning to fully understand how precious each day of life is.
Cancer is one of the most profound, devastating and pervasive diseases in the U.S. I don’t know anybody that hasn’t been touched by it in some way. Cancer numbers are growing, but so are survival rates as new and better detection methods and treatments are developed. I get to work with Mercy Medical Center, which is in the process of building the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center – an amazing new facility that will provide world-class cancer care to Eastern Iowans. Equipped with the latest technology, dedicated staff, and amenities based on what patients and their families have said is critical to the treatment and recovery process, it will be an invaluable resource to current and future cancer patients.
Over the past 6 months, HRB has collaborated with Mercy to develop a marketing campaign to launch the center and promote the unique benefits it will provide. This campaign was built from the ground up, just like the center. We gathered input from Mercy and from patients and potential patients and developed concepts and themes around what they told us was important. The various creative executions were tested in focus groups and one rose to the top. “Expectations Met” is the name of our campaign and provides a promise of what the center will deliver: world-class, personalized cancer care.
Over the summer, we worked with a talented production crew out of Minneapolis to bring the campaign to life. We shot the TV spots over four days in locations all over town. We developed radio, print ads, outdoor boards, building signage and Internet marketing campaigns designed to drive patients and potential patients to a new, focused Hall-Perrine Cancer Center website. The campaign launched the last week in September, just in time for breast cancer awareness month.
I’m in advertising. My job is to create preference for brands and motivate customers to buy from my clients. This is extremely important; however, I’ve never been involved with something as personal to me as this. Having the opportunity to be a part of something that is truly meaningful to so many is incredibly fulfilling and an experience I will never forget.
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There is little doubt that the increasing fragmentation of audiences and the proliferation of advertising and media vehicles makes advertising more complex today than ever before. Our sources of news, information, entertainment and travel, and, thus, the number of places to advertise, have mushroomed.
