Branding is a brainer.
One of my finer moments in advertising occurred in a new business pitch when I told the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System that their current tagline, developed by the previous ad agency, was spectacular. I later learned that was the reason we won the business. The tagline was “Setting New Standards in Healthcare.”
As the lead planner on the business, I told NS-LIJ that every time they spent a dollar promoting themselves, the message should contain an example of Setting a New Standards In Healthcare. “If I come to you with and ad,” I told them, “that does not demonstrate an improved standard of healthcare, send me home.”
It’s been a while since I have worked with North Shore, but living in their market area I do see some ads, and it really hurts to see that they have fallen into the “We’re here” trap. The latest ad I read told consumers that one of the hospitals has a neurosciences institute. The copy goes on to say they have state-of-the-art facilities, smart doctors, blah, blah, blah. We’re Here! Buried deep in the ad, though, were some actual new standards in neuro care for the community, but you had to hunt for them. The headline said something doofy, like it’s a no-brainer, or some such.
Somehow the easiest ever branding idea was misplaced by a smiling person with a black bag of ads, who didn’t follow the brief.