Creating TV that Gets into the Bloodstream

High tech … When it comes to heart care, everyone claims it, so the marketing challenge comes in finding a way to say it better, more creatively, in a way that sticks.

When Memorial Hospital wanted to inform the Central Pennsylvania region about the new services offered at its Heart and Vascular Center, we wanted television to be at the heart of their campaign.

As ideas were being kicked around, an EKG was suggested as a visual component in the concept. But President Mel Campbell insisted that if we were to take that familiar course, we had to find a way to make it different, more compelling.

Designer Kristina Heilman, working into her third trimester, was brainstorming at home with her husband, looking for a fresh creative approach to an established theme. Suddenly it hit her. What if the EKG, once established, could morph into an artery, allowing the viewer to zoom inside and travel through the clean and healthy passage?

One thing led to another, and this spot evolved quickly. Footage of bloodcells coursing through the bloodstream was seamlessly incorporated into the EKG animation, and concise, informative text worked to the cadence of a heartbeat. That audio was mirrored in the radio as well.

Said Mel, “Visually, it’s a very high tech message. One of the things we’re selling here is their technology and their innovation. That whole Tron-like look, where the EKG line goes toward you, then away from you, is very intriguing. At the same time, we didn’t want it to be so overwhelming that we take away from the message.”

He concluded, “What we delivered is clean, simple, and will attract people’s attention. Kris did a great job of connecting the TV spot to the design elements of the outdoor campaign and the newspaper ads, and we, as an agency, delivered 30 seconds of high value television.”

Good Housekeeping’s Approval Is Good Enough for CH&B

In the advertising business, your creative life often intersects with your personal life.

Much of the time it’s not a total surprise – like when you’re watching your favorite show and see an agency produced TV commercial, or when you’re on the Internet and you encounter a digital ad that you helped produce.

But Kris Heilman, one of our designers, recently had a slightly different experience. She was in a doctor’s waiting room, paging through the April 2011 Good Housekeeping magazine, when she came upon an article extolling the virtues of apple sauce.

And there was a picture of the Musselman’s Totally Fruit Mixed Berry apple sauce packaging sleeve that Kris helped design with colleagues John Hoch and Mark Leinaweaver.

It was a lot like getting the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval which, understandably, would make an artist feel pretty good.

Putting the App in a Happy Client

For Rick Smith, York, PA’s leading realtor, a genuine smile and warm handshake are his trademark. It’s the personal interactions that get him up every morning and keep him working till the wee hours at night. For over 30 years, Rick has provided his clients with the highest level of personalized customer service, relying heavily on telephone and face-to-face meetings to build his business.

So it was a bit of a leap of faith to suggest to Rick and his team that they needed a phone app as part of their marketing strategy for 2011. Could we deliver an app that would enhance the already stellar service that the team provided? One that would be as good or better than the other real estate search apps already on the market? One that would drive leads to the team and provide user data in real time?

Yes. After extensive research, we secured a development partner who could help us deliver an app that had all of the features our client was looking for, at an affordable price. Our ulterior motive was to be the first agent in York County to come out with an app, thus positioning Rick as not only the most successful realtor, but also the most progressive.

The result is a branded app that feeds local and national MLS listings to a home buyer’s cell phone and provides multiple search capabilities. For every property that the home buyer is interested in, a phone call or email can be sent directly from the app to the Rick Smith Team, whether it is a Rick Smith listing or not.

As we all know, consumers are looking for instant gratification, and marketers are looking for ways to connect with those consumers at their peak moments of need or interest. This app provides both and reinforces the Rick Smith Team’s brand as leaders in the marketplace.

To support the launch of the app on April 1, we created newspaper ads and a digital billboard announcing the app to the marketplace.

To try the app yourself, text RST3 to 87778

Trebilcock For Judge – Outdoor

Today is a great day for York County, for Craig Trebilcock and for Campbell, Harrington & Brear advertising agency.  Tuesday, Trebilcock, the candidate CH&B represented for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of York County, won the top spot in a seven-person race for two available seats on the bench.

Not only did Craig win, he hammered the competition.  Trebilcock came very close to receiving double the votes of his nearest competitor!  That is incredible to begin with, but to do that in a seven-person field is amazing!

First of all, it says a lot about the character of the candidate.  Trebilcock was not some politically-only motivated character, quickly “created” and supported by a small select group of misguided individuals, handled by valueless political handlers and then promoted by some slick advertising machine.  No, this boy is genuine to the core.  The real deal.  A person whose strong character was molded and developed over tens of years.  A person on the right side of right and wrong, not the right side of politics.  Someone who constantly strives to do the right thing and has a strong conviction to “help the other fellow.”  An achiever who once he makes up his mind to accomplish something does it.

These strong leadership qualities, along with a great sense of fairness, resonated with everyone who heard his story during the campaign.   As a “product,” our client sold himself, and the people of York County voted for him in a big way.  How could they not?

The agency certainly enjoyed working with Craig, beginning with the development of his political strategic advertising plan approximately nine months ago.  Crafting the campaign … creating the creative approach … it all assisted Craig in communicating his message to the voters.

The results were phenomenal. Through precinct after precinct, he held roughly 27% of the votes out of seven candidates.

CH&B has run quite a few successful Central PA political advertising campaigns over the years.  In each campaign we followed some very simple rules.

One, represent intelligent candidates with strong moral character; people who will strengthen our “community.”  He or she must be someone the agency believes in or we won’t be able to sell the product.

Two, present the candidate’s platform in a clear, concise, honest way.  Laser points.  No beating around the bush with a bunch of blah, blah, half-truth copy.  Lay out what the candidate stands for and then let the public decide if that is correct or not.  If the candidate wins, there is never a question of what voters should expect: The platform dictates the way.

Three, never underestimate the voting public. It is not ill informed or stupid as many political candidates think.  Voters can see right through what is real and what is BS.  And in today’s world of multiple, new media communication platforms such as Twitter and Facebook marketing, along with well orchestrated traditional media, large numbers of people can be reached and persuaded at many contact points.

Four, always run a clean, positive campaign. Negative campaigns do not work and our experience with positive campaigns proves it.  Negative campaigns are only run by weak, hopeless candidates.  “Going negative” is never needed for upstanding citizens with a strategic plan to help the community.

Five, let the candidate be the candidate. Let them be themselves, not some made-up person, nor a person controlled by handlers, committees, interest groups, and political consultants.  It can get to the point where even the candidates aren’t sure who they are supposed to be.  Then a lot of mistakes are made.

Six, get the campaign in the can early, run a Swartzkoff blitz, and never waver from the path. Deal with occasional negative outside distractions immediately and properly.

The agency received this e-mail from Craig Trebilcock early the next morning after the primary: “I appreciate everything you, Mel and the entire crew at CH&B did for me.  You guys not only turned out first class, creative product, but you conveyed repeatedly through word, act, and attitude that you really cared about the result.”

Thank yous don’t get any better than that.  York County has a great new judge.

CH&B’s New Mammoth Content Management System (CMS) Site Introduces New Simplicity to Management of Large Websites

“Without question, this website advances the development and use of future hospital sites,” states Mel Campbell, “as well as sites across a range of industries. It also features an information architecture that allows visitors to get to the content they need and want, quicker.”

Roughly two years ago, Holy Spirit and Campbell, Harrington & Brear embarked on a new media strategy for the hospital.  One key component to the strategy was the development of a new website.  Not just any new site, but a site that would be fully managed by the hospital, without having to drag in the IT people or a third-party provider for every change.

There were other important objectives, too. They wanted the site to better target the hospital’s audiences with cleaner messaging. They desired quicker, easier access to the “library” of information. They also asked us to market the hospital’s Centers of Excellence, promote the brand better, and develop greater search engine optimization (SEO).

This was a massive undertaking with massive navigational challenges, so the new site was not going to be an easy task.  Though some content was eliminated from the old site, the basic objective was to keep much of the same content, but make it more accessible for the various target audiences.

The outcome is a new site that can be totally content controlled by the hospital. Not only that, but the site’s construction allows authorized Holy Spirit associates a great deal of leeway in managing the content – copy, photos, illustrations, etc. – without sacrificing the brand look or streamlined execution of the system.

“The back-end systems structure of this site is absolutely amazing, the functionality is exquisite … this site announces a new era in large website development,” says Kris Heilman, the site’s web designer. “Over time, those using the management system will recognize the full potential of this site and reap huge rewards in time and cost efficiencies.”

Plus, through this system the hospital has the power to control its own SEO. The site’s platform was built so they can add SEO to every single page.

As for the design, we removed the confusing, “carnival” clutter on the homepage – often created by departments constantly craving additional information space and front page attention. Yet, we designed it in a way that allows all departments the opportunity to place copy and photos on the home page through a News section.

No one ever really knew how much information was on the old site.  “There were only a few buttons,” points out Heilman. “Users had to drill and drill to find what they needed.”  Now with a new, clean design and crisp navigation system all the information is just a couple of clicks away.

The new website is more logical, more intuitive to use and much more friendly for the two key target audiences – patients and visitors – to find the information they need.  We put the quick links on every page to help users easily find directions and maps, visiting hours, e-mail signup and contact points to every department in the hospital.  Every page can easily be bookmarked, e-mailed or printed.  There are breadcrumbs so users know where they are within the site at all times.  The layout is much better organized with simple sidebar navigation that is drop down/collapsible, keeping the design clean, which is also helpful in the navigation.

The branding message comes through loud and clear with slideshow messages touting the strengths of the hospital and the Centers of Excellence dead center in the middle of the front page.  This technique markets Holy Spirit Hospital much better, while differentiating it from competing hospitals.

The old site had a very cold, institutional look.  We opened up the design of the site and added a lot of hospital photography.  We personalized it with photos of only Holy Spirit personnel.  In this way, the folks you see on the website are the same people you will experience when you go to the hospital.

“This was a masterful achievement in web building and web design,” touts Campbell, “and a strong demonstration of client-agency collaboration.”

“This opens a whole new page for hospital websites and big sites in general,” adds Heilman. “Its features and client benefits are too numerous to list.”

Part I: In Yellow Pages? You Shouldn’t Be.

For 34 years we, Campbell Harrington & Brear, have counseled our clients on whether they should be in the two phone directories – Yellow Pages and Yellow Book – and, if so, to what extent: i.e., how big an ad, how many pages of ads, and how many books they should be in.

Sometimes, we have advised clients to increase their stake in the directories. Many more times we have advised them to reduce their exposure, or eliminate it all together from their “advertising” mix.

Some clients accepted our advice, many more agreed with our assumptions but didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to step away from the phone directory punchbowl.

Saying no to the directories is no easy task. The emotional distress alone is enough to put most business people in group therapy for the rest of their lives. Dropping Yellow Pages advertising creates physical and mental symptoms much worse than alcohol or heroin withdrawal: sleepless night after sleepless night, wondering whether your business could possibly ever survive without Yellow Page advertising. In fact, most business people we have encountered feel it is better just to pay the enormous monthly fees than to sacrifice emotional harmony and possibly suffer from some harmful physical manifestations.

Perennial questions and outrageous misstatements of facts from grown, well educated adults always fascinated me. “Do you have any data on companies who have survived without Yellow Pages?” “Yes, but in our industry you have to be in the directories or you will cease to exist.” “I heard of a company that dropped their Yellow Pages and that was the last time their plant was ever seen again!”

So, why the tremors? Because you have been taught – read “sold” – by some of the best, most highly trained, sophisticated salesmen in the business world. The directories’ well schooled pitchmen made it abundantly clear to the business world that directory advertising will grow your business. Without it, your chances of survival were slim to none.

It was a simple, consistent, “advertising” program businesses could purchase for a monthly fee and then forget because the big directory companies were looking after your results. A very simple, but effective proposition. How effective was their story? When starting a business, the second most important startup function – after acquiring a telephone number – was to purchase your phone directory advertising.

And every year at renewal time, they injected a new deal or two into your veins just to keep you hooked. “Extra full page free for this year, then only a 20% increase each year for the next five years till you reach full payment.” “Color in all ads for free this year, but, of course, we will have to charge for it next year.” “Multiple listings for free for this year.” “Purchasing our new 800 number call-tracking services will prove our effectiveness.” One injection after another, until after many years the multiple needle sticks turned your wallet black and blue.

You were now hooked on so many special deals it was impossible to keep track of them, much less understand where your “program” was at any point in time. Be honest, how incredibly hard is it to outline your business’s Yellow Pages commitment? Try it sometime. It can’t be done.

Oh, and what about the bottom line goal which everyone so conveniently forgot? Did you – or could you – track new business from the directory? As a result of your puppy dog loyalty and your continuous, huge dollar commitment to the phone directories, how many more customers did you acquire? What? I can’t hear you. So if adding new features to your directory plan didn’t work, pulling out shouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong.

Times have changed. The “big dog” phone directories have a worthy competitor who does deliver. BUT, pulling out of their books to get there will not be easy.

(Next … Part II: Saying Goodbye Is Never Easy … What Do You Mean I Can’t Cut Back?)