We’d rather see you for regular mammograms than regular chemotherapy.

Versus

One of the best cancer centers in the Mid-West.

Both lines were presented to a marketer whose brief read: ‘the best for cancer care.’

But we’re not talking Indiana University Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic or the Mayo Clinic here.

His hospital wasn’t among widely known cancer care facilities.

Still, he went for the second headline because he said it hit the nail on the head of the brief.

It encapsulated everything his hospital hoped to be.

Yes, there’s a necessity for regular mammograms, he granted, but the headline that pressed the case for that was ominous.

He said it could scare his target audience.

So he ticked a box and eagerly moved on to the next business of the day.

A content assignment for his hospital’s largest revenue maker, the heart and vascular unit.

This story, related at a seminar last year, points up one fact.

An important ingredient for creating effective content is worry.

It’s worry that translates as a good neurosis when it comes to the details of doing better.

It’s the care you take with content to make sure it does its best to benefit your audience.

There are more than a few marketing solutions to a brief. But why skirt the fact you have a frightening subject in cancer.

The best cancer headline still sticks with me after a ridiculously long time. I’m thinking it goes back some 20-odd years.

It could have been done by the Martin Agency.

You have cancer. Let’s start by removing that lump in your throat.

Healthcare marketers and C-level people aren’t ‘Gatoraded’ on the football field like a triumphant coach. They’re not drenched in victory that way

But maybe they should be if came down to saving a life.

Share your take on marketing thinking with us. How can you be sure you’re doing the best you can do for your audience?  Thanks, Steve Ulin