Changing an Image
 The
Challenge: Children's Hospital Oakland needed to overcome its
image as a place for children with routine illnesses whose distinguishing
features were little more than amenities such as toys in the waiting
room and nursery-rhyme characters painted on the walls. Instead
the hospital is a regional center for children with life-threatening
illnesses, including premature infants weighing no more than a pound,
and a leading research center on children's health issues.
The Solution: We worked with Children's
to take advantage of every opportunity to emphasize the importance
of children's hospitals and the need for continuing research and
financial support to combat life-threatening childhood illnesses.
We prepared a press package, including a
fact sheet on why children's hospitals are different from "adult"
hospitals and why it is so important that children be hospitalized
in facilities specifically designed with their medical and psychological
needs in mind. We produced "B" roll video of open heart
surgery on an infant for use by television stations, as it is extremely
difficult for stations to obtain their own film of surgical procedures.
We began a program of issuing press releases
on research findings. One release, on a sickle cell anemia study,
was the subject of a Good Morning America report, filmed at the
hospital, as well as extensive local and regional publicity.
We worked with the governmental affairs department
to schedule a Congressional hearing at the hospital on the effect
of second-hand smoking on children. More than two dozen reporters
covered the hearing.
When former Soviet First Lady Raisa Gorbachev
announced her plans to visit the hospital, we used the occasion
to tell the media what was special about Children's Hospital, again
obtaining publicity that highlighted the research and specialized
services such as children's heart surgery that had attracted the
Russian first lady.
Results: Children's Hospital received
approximately 120 minutes of television coverage every quarter,
including national and local programs, as well as extensive radio
coverage and hundreds of stories in local and regional publications.
In every case, success was measured not in the amount of air time
or number of column inches, but whether the coverage reinforced
the image of the hospital as a regional center for children with
life-threatening illnesses.
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