Direct marketing to doctors

Orthopedic Center’s bone-in-a-box

Marketing orthopedic services, like many other hospital service lines, presents two unique challenges. First, most orthopedic treatments are elective procedures, so patients’ primary care providers become an important referral base and target audience. Second, referring physicians can be difficult to reach because office personnel intercept direct marketing messages before they can reach key decision makers.

Cutting through the clutter to reach referring physicians

Smith & Jones came up with a creative solution to both of these issues in an award-winning multimedia campaign we created for the Orthopedic Center at Saint Francis Hospital.

To reach the 150+ referring physicians in the hospital’s primary and secondary markets, we needed a strategy to get our message past the office gatekeepers. The administrative staff of physician practices routinely filter incoming mail and prevent direct marketing from reaching the doctors (our target audience). We needed something so unusual, so compelling, that it would be announced, opened and shared throughout the office.

What Smith & Jones came up with was an oversized box with a large artificial femur (the largest leg bone) inside. The box was imprinted with the memorable message, “When it comes to bones, we’re the joint.” To keep this unique package out of the common mail stream, we hired our own courier to deliver the package in person. From the moment the package entered the office, this highly effective marketing vehicle commanded attention, assuring that it couldn’t be missed by our target audience.

Thanks to the bone-in-the-box campaign, physician referrals increased to help make the Orthopedic Center at Saint Francis Hospital one of the leading medical facilities in the Hudson Valley for muscle, bone, or joint problems. As an added bonus, the campaign won Best of Show at the Healthcare Advertising Awards.