Veggie Madness 2019
Veggie Madness was awarded 2019 eHealthcare Leadership Award for Best Digital Marketing Campaign (Hospital System, Silver)
The Situation
Research shows that Generation Y tends not to engage with messages from healthcare organizations. Not to mention, those communications tend to be pretty serious. As a marketing team, we were challenged with creating content that would engage that younger audience, and establish UW Medicine as a renowned, but accessible, resource for life’s healthcare needs.
The Solution
March Madness is a proven powerhouse of engagement. Could we draft off some of that for ourselves? March is National Nutrition Month, and what is healthier than vegetables? Through fun animated characters (and a little light-hearted smack-talk), Veggie Madness encourages everyone to fill out a bracket and follow along on the month-long journey to the tourney. (While we had their attention, we introduced them to our Primary and Urgent Care services and providers.) And all month long, we rewarded subscribers with smart content: articles posted in our healthy living blog, Right as Rain; American Heart Association-approved recipes for the featured veggies, and we even dressed up a boy band in veggie costumes and sent them around South Lake Union, something you don’t see everyday.
Veggie Stat Cards (Butternut Squash, Kohlrabi and Beet) – used on Facebook and Instagram
Cheer Cards, left, (Snap Pea and Avocado) – used to encourage voting;
Facebook frames (right) were available for every veggie in the tournament
Tactics included:
- Videos of the Overall Tournament, Savory Sixteen, Edible Eight, Fibrous Four and The Championship
- Stat Cards
- Facebook frames
- All4Doras Neighborhood Tour of Veggies
- Handout cards
- Social media ads and posts
- Buttons, so you can hustle for your Brussels
- Nutrition themed articles
- Subject matter expert videos
- Landing Page with interactive Bracket
- Emails
- Clinic Posters and Lobby Screen animations
- Photo booth at UW Medicine lecture series
- Intranet articles for UW Medicine employees
The Results
With a minimal budget going to creative resources and some social media spends, we generated 15,000+ page views. An additional 1,700 page views were logged on the Primary and Urgent Care service pages. Our Facebook channel showed more than 10x the monthly average of followers during March, and more than 90% beyond the average followers on Instagram. We saw an uptick in Primary Care appointments with 57 new, unique appointment actions (click to call or booking online) during the campaign. But what we will continue to nurture are the 2,400 new, very engaged, subscribers to our healthy living emails.
Following Up
With the success of this year’s campaign, we will leverage our assets for next year, with some additional efforts:
- Email was our most successful tool, so invest in some outside emails
- Leveraging influencers outside UW Medicine
- Table at more employee events
- Clinic ambassadors, to promote on-site events such as nutrition classes
- Create School Engagement Kit to be used in Nutrition & Wellness classes in local area elementary and middle schools
Credits
Print collateral, Logo Design, Social Media assets . . . . . . . . . . Julie Wessel
Illustrations, Landing Page Design, Email Design . . . . . . . . . . Ada Love
Landing Page and Bracket Dev . . . . . . . . . . Mark Kim
Creative Director . . . . . . . . . . Bill Wardlow
Copywriter, Pun Master . . . . . . . . . . Angela Cabotaje
Animations . . . . . . . . . . Skylar James
Social Media . . . . . . . . . . McKenna Princing, Heather van Dusen
Content Strategy . . . . . . . . . . Emily Kastner, Margo Schneider
Email Dev . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Nguyen
Market Research & Analytics . . . . . . . . . . Lauren Reed
Events/Activation . . . . . . . . . . Liani Swingle/Juliette Piboonvaranggoon