The more healthcare marketing campaigns I look at, the more they feel like a competition of who can put together the most stock photos of smiling doctors, patients pointing at charts, and fake laughter.
As a fun twist, while researching this, I played a drinking game, taking a shot every time I encountered the word ‘care’…
And guess what? I got too drunk and lost count.
It’s like there’s a secret approval committee with a bingo card checking if we’ve included enough cliches.
White-coat hero shot?
Check.
“Compassionate care” slogan?
Check.
Grandparent tossing a child in the air?
Check.
Sad piano music?
Check.
Welcome to Healthtech Hippo.
The hippo behind the scenes knew some great campaigns that don’t fit that bingo card, and he tasked me with sharing them.
While he has created many effective healthtech campaigns, he wanted to highlight some that weren’t his own.
Here’s your overview.
Table of Contents
This is also available in video format.
The 4 categories of healthcare marketing campaigns you can’t miss
The tricky part about handpicking the best healthcare marketing campaigns is that each one has a different goal, so comparing them feels like comparing apples and oranges.
Instead, let’s break this down by category. I bet there’ll be one that fits what you’re looking to do. Even if you don’t know which direction you wanna go in just yet.
The categories are:
- Geniusly creative
- Fun and humorous
- Hard-to-watch guilt trippers
- Branded campaigns
Geniusly creative
I’m writing this in disbelief that this category actually exists among the many dreadfully boring campaigns.
The team behind the campaign worked with influencers and paid them to remove ads before videos on CPR training. Those looking it up might be in an emergency, and thus it isn’t a good time to show ads.
While this next campaign isn’t as genius in terms of timing and distribution, it offers something that often doesn’t get approved.
Rather than talking just about the brand, it starts out broadly targeting women, going over specific problems they’re concerned about, and nudging them to the answer right there in the ad.
While a hippo’s memory isn’t as good as that of an elephant, he mentioned that this approach of giving something away right there in the ad was first used widely during the 80s direct mail campaigns.
The approach seems forgotten these days, but it works well because it builds trust (by answering the question in the consumer’s mind) before diving into what the brand is about.
This next one is cool for the same reason: it understands the potential customer well and their major objection, and finds a way to bridge the gap.
Fun and humorous
Just as rare as it is for the bingo card committee to approve creative ads, like the first one we saw, it’s just as rare for them to approve something fun like these campaigns.
This one isn’t technically a healthcare ad, but it’s so funny I had to include it.
I wish this next one had included a few of the most famous characters from healthcare-type shows. I bet they made an honest attempt, and it just didn’t work out.
On the other hand, I don’t remember the brand this was for, only the fun of the campaign.
Is that a good thing? I asked the hippo, but he wasn’t sure.
It’s difficult to use humor in healthcare marketing campaigns without it falling short and being awkward.
Only a few campaigns impressed the hippo with their deep understanding of the audience they were targeting and used humor that this particular segment could relate to.
Here’s another for your inspiration. This one mixes sadness and humor well.
Before we move on to a more… difficult category, let’s end this on a high note with this campaign from Peru. Watch until the end for the surprise twist.
Hard-to-watch guilt trippers
Campaigns in this category are often accurate and show the true nature of some tough situations. But they are often hard to watch, so instead of persuading people, it pushes them away as they look for something less sad.
Especially, if they are distributed where the audience goes when they’re bored, like next to cat videos on social media.
We often see this approach in charity campaigns, or in this example, a campaign for childhood cancer.
Branded campaigns
Finally, this list of campaigns wouldn’t be complete without a list of brand campaigns. They’re less exciting than the other ones, but they effectively remind the target audience of the brand.
They are everywhere – good luck avoiding them. The hippo mentioned how he failed many times.
Where he doesn’t fail, though, is getting stuck without inspiration. I guess that’s why they call him a genius.
The hippo’s secret to getting inspiration for your healthcare marketing campaigns (if you’re stuck)
Truth be told, he has shared with me that it actually does happen on rare occasions, and that his preferred trick to spark creativity is jumping in a mud bath with a drink and waiting for the good stuff to come.
He once convinced me to try once, and despite my skepticism, I ended up loving it.
The problem is that most of us don’t have a mud bath handy, so I’ve taken the liberty of interpreting this idea.
The secret behind it is getting away from the screen, since we tend to get into the habit of executing rather than thinking well, when we work behind the screen for long periods of time.
Some people like to go for a walk. Others swear by drinking to spark creativity for their campaigns.
Often, the issue is having a blank canvas and too many possibilities. Imposing restrictions on yourself tends to help get things going. In this case, that could be by limiting the distribution channels for the campaigns to something within your budget.
Engaging with the channels, looking around to see what’s being done in other industries now, might spark something. Then work backwards from your distribution channel to tailor your idea to fit better to improve the outcome.
Alternatively, watching some of these weird and fun campaigns from around the world tends to be fun and help get things going (I’m looking at you, Japan!)
Neither I nor the hippo understands what’s going on. Maybe that’s what makes it funny.
Finally, if you’re looking for more specific healthcare marketing case studies or ideas, check out the following articles for inspiration.
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