The Situation:

Approximately two-thirds of all Little Rock area residents recall television advertising about their health care choices and hospital options more than any other means, according to quarterly research by NRC Health. Sixty-one percent of Little Rock area residents remember television advertising the most, compared to a national average that is 20 points lower. Little Rock is home to seven hospital systems, including a major research hospital and a legacy provider that dominates the market.

Because of competition in the health care/hospital advertising landscape, we evaluated how to best deliver effective messages to highlight the client, CHI St. Vincent, and its four hospitals, dozens of primary care and specialty clinics, and integrated network of primary care physicians.

To that end, in 2015, local television station KTHV also sought a partner to develop a content marketing and advertising delivery system based on a concept from its corporate parent, called “Real Men Wear Gowns.” The “Real Men Wear Gowns” concept featured biweekly video profiles of local men who were patients of CHI St. Vincent providers. These profiles aired on KTHV’s morning and evening news, and they chronicled the patient’s experience with CHI St. Vincent primary care physicians.

After a successful two-year run of segments, CHI St. Vincent and KTHV recognized that the inclusion of women in the profiles may raise the awareness level even higher and after a brainstorming session chose to re-name the brand “Wear the Gown.” The new title and structure of the program changed in July 2017.

The Strategy:

It was our responsibility to produce the new “Wear the Gown” segments and continue to broaden the appeal of the profiles on TV and online throughout the remainder of 2017 and all of 2018. We enlisted Craig O’Neill, a KTHV anchor and Arkansas treasure who has won numerous “Best of Arkansas” awards as a television personality and radio disc jockey, to agree to write and edit the profiles for broadcast. O’Neill, as a known brand who has served as a volunteer guest emcee at more than 9,000 events in Arkansas over 48 years, became a de facto brand ambassador for CHI St. Vincent.

Every two weeks, we engaged in “rounding” and old-fashioned beat reporting to identify an ideal CHI St. Vincent physician and patient, or in some instances we found a novel health care subject matter (diabetes education, clinical simulation lab). After coordinating with the clinician and the patient, we prepared questions and answers for both physicians and patients and engaged in one-on-one media training with both interviewees prior to taping. The Ghidotti team was on hand for every taping to produce and manage, and we most often conducted the interviews. KTHV videographers recorded the interviews and obtained b-roll at our direction. KTHV and O’Neill took the raw footage from the taping and packaged it into two-minute segments that aired on the first and third Mondays of each month.

The Results:

NRC data shows that public awareness of CHI St. Vincent increased by more than eight percentage points, from 43 percent of the market to more than 51 percent of the market

Local celebrity Craig O’Neill edited, wrote and narrated all but one of the 26 segments over a 12-month period, lending important credibility and visibility to the CHI St. Vincent brand.

The expansion of the existing program to include women resulted in eight segments that profiled women individually and three others that included female patients interviewed as part of a larger group.

. The segments also highlighted teenagers twice, as well as a set of twins who underwent surgery for the same congenital heart defect. St. Vincent’s specialty clinics were also well represented, with approximately 25 percent of the segments highlighting specialists and the rest focusing on primary care.

CHI St. Vincent

The Situation:

The Strategy:

The Results:

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