Well beyond

As aging demographics create more customers for health care, area hospitals court those health care customers.

Among them is Saint Mary's it's rolling out an ad campaign that, after extensive research, highlights health, not care.

Traditionally, health care advertising has all been the same, says Lisa Dettling, director of marketing and business development at Saint Mary's. Ads featured close-ups of happy, smiling people.

"How could we do something that really stood out and looked different?"

That, she said, was the challenge.

The first step was to find the right agency.

Saint Mary's chose PRACO Public Relations Advertising Co. of Colorado Springs, Colo., to conduct research, develop a marketing plan, create a brand, and illustrate it with an advertising campaign. Work started in January.

That agency had done a lot of health care accounts, says Dettling. In Reno, few agencies had experience with a wide range of health care accounts.

The next step was to study the market.

"The emphasis was on research," says Dettling. "Who are we? What do employees think? What does the community think?"

The ad agency conducted a phone survey of 400 people throughout different neighborhoods, to sample various pockets of people.

The results were a surprise.

"When asked about importance, we all thought technology would top the list," says Dettling. "But in fact, it was way down on the list."

The No. 1 factor in choosing a hospital? Cleanliness.

Other top customer concerns were feeling safe, responsiveness to patient needs, and treating people with respect and dignity. Far down the list, cutting edge technology ran neck-and-neck with providing comfort.

Another eye opener came in answer to the question: If insurance were not a factor, how would you choose a hospital?

Again, technology didn't even make the cut. Rather, people chose on the basis of a personal recommendation, a past experience either personal or provided by a family member.

Next on the list came close to home, friendly staff, quality of care, and good reputation.

Surprisingly, sixth on the list was "preferred by my insurance."

That may sound odd to working people who are pretty much stuck with whatever hospital their workplace insurance plan has contracted with. However, says Dettling, many hospital patients are on Medicare, which allows them to choose.

Saint Mary's new campaign theme, "Well Beyond," puts the focus on wellness, not just on fixing people after something goes wrong, says Dettling.

"We want people to associate Saint Mary's with living a healthy life," she says.

To that end, the campaign has replaced those happy, smiling doctors and nurses with people living active lifestyles: bicycling and boating, swimming and jogging.

The radio ads replace the traditional soft female voice-over with an assertive deep male voice who opens with a tale of adventure, citing the bold explorer who discovered the new world by daring to venture "Well Beyond" the known horizons.

The campaign first broke in June with teaser ads on radio, cinema, and newspaper. The results? "Our Web site got 800 hits," says Dettling.

The main campaign kicked off this month and the final television component rolls out with the new fall season. Saint Mary's has kept a low profile on the media front in recent years, says Dettling, because it was reorganizing on the inside. But now, with a new executive team and a new business plan in place, it was ready to come out swinging.

But rolling out a new campaign was a lot to do in a short period of time, she says. However, the effort hit no road blocks because,

"The agency kept us in the loop and we had great communication with employees."

This year the campaign goal is simply to get the name Saint Mary's back out into the community, says Dettling. Later, it will evaluate the campaign by counting hits to the Web site, and still later, will tally head counts of customers using the hospital's various service lines.

While Saint Mary's has committed to this campaign until the end of the year, Dettling says the tag line, "Well Beyond," will endure well beyond that.