Central Illinois Endoscopy Center (CIEC)

Works // 03.15.2019 // Central Illinois Endoscopy Center (CIEC)

THE STORY

Central Illinois Endoscopy Center (CIEC) is downstate Illinois’ largest freestanding endoscopy center. The Center is the Peoria area’s first outpatient center dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal disorders and has a 95% patient satisfaction rate.

The state-of-the-art center is an outpatient facility, which allows the Center to keep the cost down for patients and insurers. They offer enhanced privacy for patients and their families, as well as a comfortable quiet setting. The average length of stay is less than two hours. CIEC is on the same floor as Illinois Gastroenterology Institute and the two share doctors. It is 49% owned by Unity Point and 51% owned by IGI.

THE CHALLENGE

Central Illinois Endoscopy Center (CIEC) tasked McD with implementing a digital shift to their promotional strategy.

The challenge? 90% of colon cancer deaths can be prevented with a colonoscopy, yet 40% of those that should get screened haven’t been. As the largest downstate freestanding endoscopy center, CIEC consistently does 10,000 colonoscopies per year (about 800 per month), but could accomplish 11,250 screenings per year, which leaves their facility at 7% unused capacity. Their current payer mix was also less than desirable, so the new promotional strategy also needed to reach more people with health insurance funded by their employer or private-pay insurance.

To help accomplish this, CIEC and McD needed to create and deploy freshly branded content that inspires, educates, and motivates their target audience of men and women ages 50+ to get screened or to encourage their loved ones to get screened for colon cancer.

THE SOLUTIONS

Google and Social Media Campaign

The CIEC campaign used bold typography and the branding colors of CIEC to create eye-catching, yet informative ads. The ads and posts are a mix of graphic images of the systems involved in endoscopy and photos of comparably aged peers of the target demographic. 

In the text and news feed descriptions of these Facebook ads, the reader will receive relevant statistics, facts, and the solution (trusting CIEC for your colonoscopy needs). Again, men and women ages 50+ were targeted for this campaign. Crafted to be unconventional ads, the wide variety of humorous and educational creative helped drive home the overall messaging that CIEC hoped to spread throughout their chosen target demographic.

The general design of the ad campaign centered on empowerment of those who ventured out of their comfort zone to accomplish goals, stay active, and experience new things. Since the nature of this field requires patients to be proactive about their health, it makes sense to analogize the monitoring of one’s colon health to those that partake in healthful activities that fall “off the beaten path.”

With this particular campaign, the designer wished to sub-target a demographic that enjoys outdoor recreation or simply venturing outside of their comfort zone. In some ads, you’ll see that appeal to nature while others simply depict a more whimsical rendition of more technical terms or procedures about colon health. Again, making the process seem less “sterile” and easier to incorporate into everyday life.

To drive home CIEC’s brand messaging in the design, the color palette of blue and green was implemented frequently throughout the creative. The bold typography grabs attention to the important messaging contained within each ad. Lastly, the purposeful paradox of the copy on the imagery vs. the text copy provide a necessary balance between eye-catchy and informational.

To help measure the effectiveness of the campaign, CIEC and McD looked at the following metrics: increased Facebook following, brand awareness impressions, post reactions, comments, shares, video views, traffic to their website, the overall number of colonoscopies scheduled, and the right screening volume to payer mix.

The campaign ran from March 1, 2018 to March 15, 2019. CIEC achieved the following:

  • Facebook following increased by 218.9%
  • 1,000,781 brand awareness impressions
  • 2,892 post reactions, comments and shares
  • 84,718 video views
  • 20% increase in website traffic
  • 99% decrease in bad debt and insurance write offs
  • 53% increase in net revenue 

RELATED BLOG POSTS

4 Factors to Watch in a Digital Advertising Campaign
Clutter-Busting – Making Your Messages Matter
4 Reasons You Should Care If Your Web Site Is Responsive 

 

Let us help you take your marketing strategy to the next level with McD Marketing. Contact Randy McDaniels at rmcdaniels@mcdmarketing.com or call (309) 346-7412 for more information.

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