DDB Seattle - marketing strategy for the Hutchinson Cancer Research Center - Brief Article

Brandweek, June 18, 2001 by Laureen Miles

Best use of radio

Rain or shine. In Seattle those words are the mantra for how people live their lives--and plan their media campaigns.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, DDB Seattle developed a "radio roadblock"--a one-day celebration in which 25 of the city's stations participated in a series of events--most of which were outdoors. And all of which were planned rain or shine.

The weather gods smiled on Seattle that day and the sun shone, making the roadblock an unqualified success and putting the name of the Nobel Prize-winning institute on the lips of just about everyone in Seattle.

Janice Merlino, senior vp/media director, wasn't fazed by the soggy possibilities: "When it's raining it's normal here, so everyone just goes on with whatever they were doing."

But, she added, when the sun does shine the city has a celebratory air about it, and that's exactly the way it felt on September 13, 2000, a.k.a. "Fred Hutch Day." Local celebrities, acting as "town criers," hosted the citywide party and spread the word of the events by way of recorded spots and live interviews.

In Westlake Park and at the Space Needle, the "Signs of Hope" exhibit spotlighted the stories of those on the front lines in the war against cancer. Panels covered with the heartfelt messages of cancer survivors and others touched by the disease were displayed at a sculpture garden.

For "Fred Hutch Day in the Workplace," 3,800 down-town-area employees from companies such as Pike Place Market, Starbucks, Briazz and Seattle's Best Coffee wore Fred Hutch T-shirts.

More than a third of the Space Needle's 2,000 visitors that day were treated to discounted elevator rides and greeted by John Curley, host of Evening Magazine and Brad Goode, KIRO TV anchor. The Seattle landmark was illuminated with a legacy light to commemorate the anniversary.

Half of FHCRC's dozen or so local volunteer organizations staged smaller events--ranging from bake sales to rallies--all of which received radio attention.

While the events themselves included a huge number of people, that just wasn't enough. The goal was nothing short of everyone.

"The whole concept was to involve the whole city in anyway we could," says Merlino. Still, not everyone in Seattle could attend the events, so that's where radio came in. With only $50,000 to spend in the medium, Merlino knew she had to get as big a bang out of her buck as possible: "We'd have to blow our wad and do the whole she bang at once."

And it worked. The campaign reached 92 percent of the target audience, adults 25-54, in the Seattle-Tacoma DMA. When all was said and done, the campaign delivered 10 million gross impressions. Only radio could have delivered those numbers on that budget.

"Radio is so promotionally oriented, and it has the arms and legs to go out there and do the live remotes," says Merlino. Neither TV nor out-of-home could offer as much added value as radio. In short, she says, "Nobody does it like radio does it."

For maximum impact, the bulk of the campaign was concentrated in morning drive time, but events trickled throughout the day.

When it was all over, Merlino and her team had managed to leverage $280,000 worth of free air time and remotes--more than five times the budget. The $50,000 was used to help stations offset the costs of live remotes and studio time. Spread across 25 stations, the $50,000 didn't amount to much per station, so it wasn't the money that persuaded stations to take part.

In fact, it was a combination of altruism and good business sense that convinced stations to participate. The radio stations wanted to be part of a good cause and associated with a research heavyweight like the cancer research center.

But getting local celebrities on air was certainly a factor. And as more stations signed on, the "peer pressure" to be part of the citywide festivities built.

And finally there was the agency's clout that won over any dissenting stations. "We spend a lot of money in the market with clients like McDonald's and Quest. They like to make us happy," says Merlino.

To some degree, this was business as usual for DDB. Its staffers are used to orchestrating complex and large-scale campaigns on behalf of clients--though this one was decidedly more fun.

However, for the cancer center this was all new. In fact this was The Hutch's first real foray into the world of advertising.

Apart from a few isolated ads for donor events, this was the center's first full-scale campaign. "We're a fairly young institution. We wanted to do something to create some visibility for The Hutch," said Linda Gainer, vp/external affairs at FHCRC.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, named for the late Mariners pitcher and Red Sox manager, only takes patients on a referral basis. So the intent really wasn't to bring in new patients. It was the more intangible goal of raising awareness among locals--and potential donors.

Though FHCRC has a Nobel Prize and a national rep, area hospitals are more top-of-mind with locals, says Gainer: "We raised the local profile. Certainly some of the events reached out to a different base--a younger group that is not as sensitive to the issues of cancer."