Hospital out-of-home advertising… We see these billboards everywhere and we know what to expect. Conceptually, they are practically identical except for the logo. So when Novant Health began buying recruitment-focused OOH boards in other healthcare systems' markets around the country, a new approach was needed to attract more attention and get potential applicants to think about the organization after they'd driven past the billboard.

Using clever copywriting, we contrasted the natural geography of North Carolina, and its mountains and beaches both within a few hours' drive, against the geographies of the regions of the country where the OOH boards would appear, mainly Kansas.

Nostalgia can be a powerful marketing tool. It's a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. So when asked to conceptualize a series of short nurse-targeted recruitment videos for social media and pre-roll, I built a concept around videos intentionally shot and edited to elicit (hopefully, strong) memories of sitcom opening sequences from the late 1980s and early 1990s — shows watched during childhood of exactly the demographic we were trying to reach. Think Full House, Saved By The Bell, and Family Matters in particular.

We chose Digital Spark Studios as our video production partner and (as always) they delivered a phenomenal product, and managed to capture footage in several locations within multiple floors of the hospital all in one (hectic!) shoot day. I even had the pleasure of playing a patient in many of the shots.

Instead of talent (actors), we had real nursing staff from each department highlighted appear in the videos. After a quick explanation of the general concept we were creating, many of them remarked, "Oh, like Family Matters," or "It's like Saved By The Bell!" They had fun being on camera and I was pleased that the idea was clearly easily recognized by our target demographic.

Sadly, after concepting, storyboarding, planning, producing, shooting, and (mostly) editing five videos, the project was paused by leadership and ultimately cancelled before it could be fully realized. With a new employer value proposition (EVP) nearing debut, the Marketing department was worried this ad series wouldn't align with the refreshed corporate recruitment messaging. This concern gave stakeholders, already nervous about the videos because of their radical difference from other recruitment campaigns, enough of a reason to cease work.

The videos' strength wound up becoming their undoing. I strongly advocated that these be finished and used, and I still believe in the idea's potential to make a positive difference in the organization's recruiting numbers. I understand the trepidation around it however, as they are very different from everything recruiting-focused the rest of Novant Health and most other healthcare systems were running at the time. But that difference was the point of the project and I was disappointed when the support the idea received as a storyboard eroded away when it because more real.