Category: Commercial Public Services incl. Healthcare & Medical
Advertiser: PRASIT PATANA PUBLIC COMPANY
Product/Service: PHYATHAI HOSPITAL
Media Agency: MEC, Bangkok , THAILAND
Managing Director: Sunee Paripunna (Mediaedge:CIA)
Managing Partner: Sarnchatt Chansrakao (Mediaedge:CIA)
Director: Noppakorn Thongman (Mediaedge:CIA)
Media placement: TV Programme - MCOT - 24 July 2011
Insights, Strategy & the Idea
We created a unique new content format we've called 'medu-tainment'. We fused light entertainment with the factual and explanatory medical approach to create our original show: The Symptom.
Phyathai Hospital is the second largest private hospital in Thailand. Our key objective was not to build awareness, but to position the brand as the leading expert, specialised healthcare provider.
We could see that existing medical content was dry, and as a consequence had very low impact. Our insight was that Thais perceive "doctor or health" related communication as difficult to understand, so they ignore it. We needed to create memorable, emotional content which would appeal to both consumers and health care professionals.
The Symptom combines key elements of House and CSI into a medical game show inviting a team of pre-medical students to solve a medical diagnosis.
Creative Execution
The Symptom was an innovative medical game show format which challenges teams of medical students to make a diagnosis based on a patients' symptoms.
Within The Symptom we cast primarily students and specialists from our clients' Phyathai hospital. We also used their colour brand cues on medical coats and in set design. This is important as in Thailand there are strict regulations imposed by broadcasters which govern how much messaging and branding can be shown in content (not a lot).
We launched The Symptom like a TV station would launch their new season line up using PR, on-air promos and an on-going digital strategy to drive continued engagement.
- upfront press conference, 200+ media outlets.
- launched 15 & 30 second promos
- engaged specialist entertainment and healthcare bloggers
- YouTube
- Facebook
Throughout the broadcast we facilitated real time interaction via a live SMS feed, allowing viewers to share their thoughts onscreen.
Results and Effectiveness
The Symptom delivered our best ever results for Phyathai hospital. We increased revenue by 14% and achieved a 37% increase in new patient registrations vs the impact of the previous TV advertising campaign.
The Symptom really resonated with our audience engaging them with healthcare communication:
- Doubled the average rating, from 0.9 prior to 1.5, with peak of 2.6
- Over 500,000 YouTube views
- Over 4 million reach
- Over 14,000 Facebook fan likes
- Over 2,000 SMS ‘s screen
- PR coverage worth more than 12 million baht
- Attracted twelve advertisers