According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 60% of patients choose a new doctor or hospital based on the recommendation of friends and family. Clearly, when it comes to choosing healthcare, word of mouth trumps TV commercials featuring doctors racing in slow motion to save fictional lives.
New York Presbyterian Hospital and their ad agency, Munn Rabôt of New York City, used that knowledge to create one of the most moving, dramatic, and enduring campaigns in healthcare advertising. The campaign features simple black-and-white, documentary-style videos, each telling one patient story, described by the patient themselves. We don’t see a single sprinting doctor, beeping monitor or jolting defibrillator. And yet, we’re pulled in by the real-life drama.
One man describes how he had a heart attack on the subway and was saved by two off-duty New York Presbyterian doctors on the same train. A fireman who was hit by a bus during a transit strike tells how a NYP doctor went above and beyond to reach him. Another man, fighting back tears, tells how NYP doctors performed CPR for 47 minutes to keep him alive. The tagline is, “Amazing Things Happen Here,” and these stories prove it.
Why We Love It
First, we love this campaign for its simplicity and emotional impact. The main draw is not special effects or quick-paced editing, but pure emotion. Each patient is filled with genuine gratitude for New York Presbyterian and their doctors.
Second, through these stories, the campaign taps into what everyone hopes to find when they walk through (or are wheeled through) hospital doors: Dedicated, heroic doctors, the kind you see in TV shows but were afraid no longer existed. These true stories don’t just raise our opinion of New York Presbyterian, but of the medical profession in general. And that’s a good feeling.
This is post #2 in our blog series: Just what the doctor ordered: 10 examples of creative healthcare advertising.
