Hospital Targets Teens With Health Message

Selling to Kids, Sept 15, 1999

Getting teens to think of preventive healthcare sounds about as tough a sell as an acne outbreak so most hospitals don't even try, reserving the bulk of their promotional efforts for adults and certain ethnic groups.

But for the very reason that teens are an untapped market, it's important for hospitals to establish a baseline reputation with this future generation of family leaders, says Mandy Setliff, manager of print and video communications for the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals (MCV) at Virginia Commonwealth University. Last April, MCV launched a teen-focused campaign.

Local teens thought of MCV as a place to go for gun shot wounds or serious injuries. But they had little awareness of its reputation for research and technology, discovered Bill Bergman, president of The Bergman Group, the Richmond advertising firm that launched MCV's teen campaign.

To challenge these perceptions, MCV and The Bergman Group designed "Medical Minutes," two television commercials with a message of wellness and prevention. The goal was to position MCV as a preventive health resource for teens, one they'd choose over the market's seven other hospitals.

The teen-focused spots complement a larger campaign that promoted MCV's Outpatient Surgery Center to the general community.

Although the campaign has only generated anecdotal results of being "cool" to teens and impressive to MCV physicians, Setliff is confident that teens are worth targeting to build awareness and outreach, and plans more teen targeting.

"We're looking at [this initiative] as a long-term investment; we may not know what works for another four or five years," says Setliff.

How to Talk to Teens: Scare Tactics Don't Work

When Bergman's creative team began brainstorming ideas for campaign messages, they immediately thought of the typical topics - anti-smoking and drug prevention. But after running these ideas by area teens, they quickly found out how clueless they were, says Bergman.

Although teens want health solutions, Bergman found that they don't want to be preached at or told what not to do. You get their attention by speaking their language and finding out what health issues are most relevant to their daily lives.

Teens "told us that scare tactics [typically used in antismoking and AIDS campaigns] are too similar to everything else" and that they don't respond to a message of non-tolerance.

Bergman believes teen-to-teen messages resonate best, so teens became ad developers, not just part of the focus group. The agency and hospital worked with teens enrolled in a media program at Varina High School, located in a Richmond suburb.

Four students helped develop campaign strategies that were drastically different from what the agency initially considered. Choosing to pursue relevant health topics with a positive outlook, the students focused on the topic of sleep deprivation and the affects of extracurricular activities on a teen's stress level. They also suggested that TV spots feature an MCV medical staff member to talk about these issues and add credibility. Ultimately, the teens ran the show. They wrote, directed and acted in the spots.

Using a news-format style, the students "reported" on how to handle sleep deprivation and overcommitment to school activities, with MCV physicians providing medical tips in teen-friendly language. The commercials ran exclusively within teen programs on Fox, which also helped to produce the spots.

Low Operating Costs

Campaign costs for the teen portion of the TV spots stopped at $100,000, says Setliff. Varina High School let the agency use its communications studio, and the talents of students well versed in news production, including script-writing, b-roll, shooting and editing, says Bergman. And, the marketing team negotiated an efficient media buy with Fox as the exclusive media partner for the teen spots, and as a major network used in the larger ad campaign.

(Mandy Setliff, MCV, 804/828-4504; Bill Bergman, The Bergman Group, 804/225-0600)

Reaching Generation Y

Teens are an exciting group for hospitals to target for broad awareness of preventive health and wellness services. But don't expect to win their trust without a long-term investment. When you plan your strategies for healthcare marketing - or any other kind for that matter - Bill Bergman of The Bergman Group, which launched a teenfocused campaign for the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in April, suggests that you:

* Collaborate with a high school or teen community organization for campaign strategies.

* Feature teens in campaign materials and commercials.

* Incorporate the Internet into campaign plans.

* Choose media partners that have a strong teen focus.