The Mayo Clinic, one of the industry’s most recognizable names, recently launched an ad campaign to transform difficult words in healthcare.
This effort focuses on taking words like “incurable” and “unsolvable” — to the more positive versions of “curable” and “solvable.” The underlying message is that healthcare achievements previously thought impossible are becoming more and more common.
The inspiration behind the Transforming Healthcare campaign came from the innovations and technologies the organization is developing, according to Molly Biwer, SVP/Chair of marketing, brand strategy, advertising and enterprise strategic partnerships at Mayo Clinic.
“From the surgical robotics to AI to the Mayo Clinic platform, the technologies are visual representations of the kind of innovations we use with our patients every day in our hospitals,” Biwer said. “[The campaign] brings our bold forward strategy of ‘cure, connect and transform’ to life.”
The campaign, developed in partnership with design studio Espadaysantacruz and video production studio 1stAveMachine, consists of six video ads. The three 30-second videos and three 60-second ones will air nationally and locally.
The campaign has two main goals — to inspire the trust of consumers, and to remove patient barriers in terms of access to care and clinical trials that may have previously been out of reach, Biwer added.
To help them get a sense of the innovations happening in real life, Mayo Clinic took its production partners on a tour of its facility in Rochester, Minnesota. These technologies were then incorporated into the videos.
The scenes of laboratory work and modern medical technology were contrasted against a sleek backdrop of LED walls and floors that were constructed in real life for the films.
In one video, words like “unconquerable” and “uncurable” turn into “conquerable” and “curable” against a backdrop of tech and healthcare workers.
“We are doing what’s never been done,” the video states. “Healthcare will never be the same.”
The decision to remove the “un” from the words was meant to play on the transformation theme. With more advances in technology and treatments, patients at Mayo Clinic will have to hear fewer of those words, Biwer said.
“What makes this campaign special is that there’s no voiceover,” Biwer explained. “We let the words play the role of the main character in the ad. We use words that are frequently heard and difficult to tell in healthcare settings — like your illness is ‘untreatable’ or ‘unsolvable.’ We are visibly changing them in the film from negative to positive.”
