Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign

Cancer Center Success Stories


Background:

SOMC had opened their new, ground-up, high-tech Cancer Center in January. Along with new bricks and mortar, they also had two new medical oncologists who were gaining a good reputation among patients.

Robbie’s client had been asking for testimonial ads for a couple years. However research showed that testimonials would not resonate well until a positive reputation was carefully crafted.

Challenge:

SOMC was about to embark on their first ever testimonial ad campaign for the hospital. Our mission was to engage with past or current Cancer Center patients and have them tell their story of success.

SOMC identified several patients who volunteered to be part of the campaign. But since the patients were real people – not actors – Robbie’s first job was to interview them and get to know them and learn their stories. Our role was to gain trust with them during this process while explaining their involvement in the campaign.

KemperConnection:

After assessing the EQ opportunity, Robbie Kemper decided to focus on services and told stories with visuals featuring the facility and faces of their new doctors. Robbie met with five cancer patients and learned their stories of fighting and beating cancer. He met them on their own terms and timeframe to help them feel comfortable. In one case he was invited to a patient’s house “down the holler and then up the hill to the right” – as Garland put it – to do the pre- filming interview. We scheduled the interviews over a two day period and kept them informal but still on-point to deliver the hospital’s message.

KemperConnect Recommendation:

Robbie interviewed each person sitting just off camera. Taking frequent breaks to keep the pace relaxed helped insure that the patients felt at ease. This process really let wonderful stories come through. As filming of each person was completed a series of still photographs were taken to be used in print ads.

Results:

The campaign was an immediate success. After a 26 week run the census at the Cancer Center had grown from 5 patients per week on the newly launched medical oncology side, to over 400 patient visits per month.