Viral and healthcare: two words you don’t always want to see together.
But when Zach Galifianakis and President Obama sat down together for a segment on the Funny or Die “talk show” “Between Two Ferns,” the winner was the ailing Affordable Care Act.
Before the Affordable Care Act rolled out in fall 2013, White House staffers knew the healthcare.gov site might be a tough sell to the 18 to 34 demographic. Young and healthy and already skeptical of hard-driving marketing pushes, millennials were unlikely to flock to the new website without good reason. And realistically, healthcare marketing is not what captures the attention of most busy young professionals.
Enter viral video, capable of spreading faster and farther among millennials than the latest strain of H1N1.
But unlike typical viruses, the relationship between the White House and Funny or Die was the best kind: symbiotic. President Obama went into the spoof interview with the knowledge that Galifianakis’s grumpy “talk show host” persona would aim to catch him off guard. Galifianakis knew that the president had something to plug: the Affordable Care Act.
Both came out winners, with the video garnering almost 300,000 views on YouTube within 24 hours , and the healthcare.gov site thanking Funny or Die for being the number one source of referrals as a result. The soft sell, using humor as sugary goodness to help the medicine go down, delivered on its promise to reach the desired audience.
http://t.co/FrO24hdvcA is the #1 source of referrals to http://t.co/0r93BavlrV right now.
— Tara McGuinness (@HealthCareTara) March 11, 2014
So how can healthcare marketers take this case study and learn from it?
1. Know your audience.
If targeting young, app-happy 18 to 34-year-olds is your goal, consider the variety of ways this group receives its information. If an older demographic is the crowd you hope to reach, research their playgrounds. Did you know that 55 to 64-year-olds are the fastest growing demographic on Twitter? In this fast-changing world, don’t assume that young=online marketing and older=traditional ads. Read, discover, research and reach your audience wherever it may be today.
2. Tailor your message.
The reality of marketing and rising above the noise in today’s marketplace includes customization. One big billboard on Madison Avenue won’t reach, say, a software developer in Dallas, Texas. A generic TV commercial in your market about your cardiology program won’t say everything you need it to say to all age groups.
3. Get creative with your approach.
The variety of advertising and healthcare marketing venues can seem overwhelming, more of a challenge than a boon. But the beauty of the Internet is that if you come up with creative ways to reach your audiences, your advertising budget can be stretched to include traditional marketing avenues as well as new (free) alleyways designed by you using content marketing.
4. Find a partner to establish a symbiotic relationship.
After you determine where your audience lives, works and plays, your wildly creative approach may benefit by linking up with a like-minded partner. The highly caffeinated Red Bull and extreme sports have enjoyed a healthy symbiotic partnership, and professional football and Beats headphones have had a great time together. More unlikely pairings reveal true marketing genius: the fact that both Funny or Die and healthcare.gov got a boost from the dry issue of health insurance should give us all hope that anything can happen in the world of viral video.
So throw out your preconceived notions about preventing viruses and start spreading your message… go as viral as you dare.