Campaign title: ***** Seminar Campaign
Category: Best direct-to-consumer campaign (award given)
Business objective: Drive volume to ****** bariatric surgery program
Campaign objective: Drive volume to the free seminar "Bariatric surgery: Is it right for you?"
Campaign elements: Media campaign consisted of two print ads strategically placed in the main city newspaper, a radio spot, Google AdWords, and direct mail. All elements were consistent with ******* brand image, invoking trust and confidence in this leading healthcare organization.
- The newspaper ads included information on seminar dates and registration, with seasonally rotating photo to maintain relevance to audience.
- Radio consisted of a sixty-second spot airing in quarterly two-week flights immediately preceding a seminar.
- Target Google AdWords campaign when triggers like "bariatric surgery", "weight loss surgery", "lap band" and "Roux-en-y", among others, were entered into Google from the regional market surrounding hospital.
- A direct mail was sent out on a monthly basis to a targeted *** audience. Using ***'s proprietary predictive model, which is heavily weighted towards females, patients and non-patients who had high disease indices for obesity and co-morbid conditions were targeted. These were adults (25-65) with an annual income of $40,000 or more, living in the primary, secondary, or tertiary service area. Different photos were used to target older women, older men, younger women, and younger men (specific version is identified in the provided samples). When the campaign ends in December 07, a total of 60,680 households will have received the direct mail.
Campaign results: Seminar attendance growth coincided with promotion. The program began with only 3 attendees in mid-November; however, after the radio campaign was launched, attendance spiked to 31 attendees. Seminar attendance remained high for the remainder of the campaign, with additional seminars added in early April. Attendance was 35 on June 18, the last day measured. Traffic to the website increased dramatically as well. When Google AdWords was added in May, hits to the main surgical weight management site jumped from 11 in April to 154 in May. Hits to the bariatric surgery specialty page jumped from 7 in April to 129 in May. Similar growth was seen at the program site, another specialty webpage, which grew from 4 hits in April to 63 in May.
The number of surgeries scheduled and performed since the campaign launched is impressive as well. Since the program began in February of 2007, 16 surgeries have been performed, and 7 more are scheduled to date. This is especially impressive given that **** requires pre-surgery assessments and most insurance requires documented weight-loss, sometimes with psychological, nutrition, and exercise components, all of which can last take up to a year to complete.
