Hospital uses Facebook Contest as foundation for Men’s Health Campaign
01.5.2012
Client Requirements
In October 2011, as Sherman Hospital’s annual events for Breast Cancer Awareness Month took place, the Sherman marketing team came to us with a question. Is it possible to motivate men, those notoriously stubborn creatures, to care about their personal health and wellness?
Using social media as the foundation, we were tasked with creating an online campaign that would increase user activity, promote the hospital’s trusted voice, and in general, get people talking.
We decided to use the month of November and its coinciding awareness month, Movember, to challenge men to grow mustaches and submit their mustache photos to the Sherman Health Facebook page.
Challenges
We determined the budget for the campaign should not exceed $500. Using those resources, we needed men to take the initiative to upload their own mustache photos.
Working in the technology field, we’re accustomed to constantly uploading photos and video. But for the people who check their Facebook page far more sporadically, suddenly asking them to upload a photo is a tall order, particularly if there’s no incentive behind it.
So, an incentive was created in the form of two grand prizes that would go to the two best mustache photos.
1. A new Kindle Fire from Amazon.
2. Two tickets and a parking pass to a January Chicago Blackhawks home game, donated by a devoted season ticket holder (who also happened to be our company president).
With the contest up and running and the incentives in place, it was time for the creatives to get working.
Approach
A series of blog posts were written, combining humor and interesting information to help inspire men to get their mustaches moving. The top mustaches in TV, Movie, Sports, and Presidential history were covered, 21 famous mustaches in all.
To promote the blog articles, we took to the Sherman Health Twitter account (the most-followed hospital Twitter account in Illinois).
Value Delivered
When November concluded, we had nearly 40 mustache photo submissions waiting to be judged. The numbers far exceeded what we expected, both in photos submitted and in overall activity on the Sherman Facebook page during the month. From our monthly analytical report:
“The Sherman Facebook page gained new fans twice as effectively in November 2011 compared to the average. Page views more than doubled over October 2011. Interactions (likes and comments) were staggering, almost four times as much as October 2011 (which was a previous high).”
Given the proper motivation, we were thrilled to find that it is indeed possible to motivate men via social media. The hospital was abuzz with talk of the mustache contest, and the women in the building even let us know they’d love to be included in the next contest we put together. We’re thinking Heart Month 2012 has a nice ring to it.
