Healthcare as cause

With increasing healthcare costs and increased competition for healthcare dollars, there will be the "weeding out" in the marketplace of products that don't live up to professional and consumer needs. One could say the over the last 20 years some of the most dramatic innovations in healthcare have come from the device category (and with it, procedural innovation.)

Minimally invasive surgery has changed the face of traditional medicine. The benefits are almost too numerous to mention: less time under anaesthesia, less chance of exposure to infection, faster healing times, less time in facility, less scarring, faster return to normal life and hence, productivity (benefit to employers).

Benefits such as these are incredibly dramatic to both professional and patient audiences. A new technology, developed by NASA for "healing in space", is light therapy. LED arrays, set to certain wavelengths, can promote blood flow and collagen production. This technology may get a lot more press soon, as its applications span a wide variety of "bio-needs".

Pressure sores for the bed-ridden in long-term care facitilies are very preventable conditions, but those sores can be painful and even deadly. Light therapy can help promote circulation in otherwise tough spots, preventing pressure sores from getting worse, or preventing them from even beginning, with frequent treatment.

Diabetics suffer from poor circulation in their extremeties. These LED light devices provide treatment, and are not chemical, pharmaceutical, or physical in nature.

But the benefits and applications don't stop there. There are cosmetic applications as well.

Since pulsing LED and infrared light increase blood flow, it makes sense that this technology can be used for fine lines and wrinkles on the face.

Who works on your corporate-cause work?

The creative for corporate-cause work in healthcare is frequently done by lower-level agency or design firm employees. Vendor agencies are asked to participate in an initiative by the initiating corporation. There are times when the agency does it for free and other times they charge a "pro-bono" rate. When it's done for "free" it definitely percolates down to the lowest-level designer and copywriter. They often welcome such work, as they look at it as an opportunity to augment their portfolio. Senior management often forgets or ignores the work, and lets the juniors run with it.

When the agency or design firm charges for the work, it STILLS percolates down to the lower levels. That's because it is not part of the premier client-brand for that agency. Creative shops fight very hard to keep proving themselves to their biggest client, and corporate-cause is not important work. It’s a one-off. It’s temporary goodwill. It’s about saying “yes” to Mr. Client so he feels good about you as an agency or firm.

Although there might be a few exceptions, your corporate-cause work is being done by juniors who’ve lived a rich, full life of twenty-something years. In the next post, I’ll talk about the difference between young, talented creatives and more senior, talented creatives, and what the latter brings to the table for corporate-cause work.

Cause marketing is a wide spectrum

Cause Agency represents one form of cause marketing. And it requires explanation. That happens with something new and different. To elaborate on it, I will design a graphic spectrum that maps the kind of work that fits the business idea. One defining component to Cause Agency (CA) is its focus on healthcare.

There is an cause-marketing agency that is similar, yet very different, because it targets the "green" end of the spectrum. Egg Agency is an agency dedicated to communicating for sustainable brands and green initiatives. Not surprisingly, they're located in Seattle, Washington. I mean no disrespect, and I wish them all the best ("good kharma" to Egg).

Catalyst is a cause-marketing agency in San Diego. They've been at it for some time, being founded in 1991. They're good at recruiting various entities of local government, local media, and philanthropic institutions to educate and influence. Although their site suffers a bit on the design side, I appreciate the depth of content they provide. There's so much there, it will take me a while to digest it all. I'll get back to it more later. They have great quotes and factoids pulled from studies such as “61% of Americans would switch retailers if they are associated with a good cause” - Starch Roper Worldwide, 1999"

Catalyst's case studies vary greatly from one to the other. One initiative focuses on their local aquarium and building outreach programs by enrolling environmentally conscious companies to help fund the effort. They seem to have solid connections to the nearby corporate donor willing to help.

If you understand the language of the patient, magic can happen.

On the left is the sketch of an idea I at first didn't like until getting such strong positive feedback from patients suffering from morbid obesity. They reacted so positively to it we made it into an ad, which appears on the right. It was all about the language that this audience understands, and once we found that, we knew where to take the campaign.

During the creative process on building this campaign, I was watching Letterman. He had on the NBC Today Show weatherman, Al Roker. Roker replied to one of Letterman's questions about the procedures he went through. "It's not that I want to go on a trip to Africa, I just want to see my toes."

We heard this same type of goal; not a huge one, but one that everyone else takes for granted. "It's not being able to climb Mt. Everest, it's about climbing my own stairs."

The solutions are frequently found within your consumer base.

And all we had to do was ask the question (in order to start the creative process): "have any interesting consumer stories?"

Response: "Yeah, I don't know if this applies, but we support a wheelchair rugby team in Florida. They're good enough to make it into the Wheelchair Olympics."

Bingo. Fascinating story. It made the client look like a hero in the patient and professional communities. Especially for a large healthcare company from Denmark.