CREATIVE review
Rich content and bold images are the keys to success for the creative teams behind this month’s selections. Industry experts have identified two ads and a Web site that get straight to the point. Regan Campbell Ward’s Gynecare ad explains what the drug treats in one powerful symbol. The ad’s simplicity works well to communicate the problem ThermaChoice treats and allows readers to immediately identify whether this product is for them. Medicus NY has repack aged an empowering symbol that is synonymous with breast cancer. By taking the color pink and applying it to a pair of crossed boxing gloves, the group shows the reader that breast cancer has met its match. And the creative and Web site development team at Mayo Clinic proves that clear, pointed content in an easytonavigate format is just as impor tant to a brand as an image. These selections show that less is much more.
BOX:
Mayoclinic.com
Website:Mayoclinic.com
Client: MayoClinic
Debuted: October 1996
Agency: MayoClinic (designed inhouse)
Editor in Chief: Nicole Spelhaug
Site designer: MattWalter
Content is king, especially if the entity is the Mayo Clinic, with its reputation (read “brand”) as one of the country’s leading centers of healthcare excellence. In perfect consistency with that established brand, mayoclinic.com offers a wealth of content presented in an intelligent and interactive information structure that quickly brings relevant content to the surface for each unique user. Move the mouse over the home page’s main navigation bar and there is an instant preview window of the page below, complete with live links to the content within — one click, and I was three levels into the Website.To personalize my content, I registered for MyHealth Interests by completing a simple checkbox registration form. This created a password protected personal page populated with content specific to my interests (allergies, diet, and exercise,etc.). To further pinpoint infor mation of value to me, I completed the Personal Health Scorecard, another short checkbox survey that helped me identify personal health concerns and offered links to appropriate health management programs. Mayoclinic.com is comprehensive, authoritative, easy-to-use — and is a great asset to a valuable brand.
Content is a key asset of a brand, according to John Mauder, VP of creative services for the interactive unit at Harte Hanks, a worldwide direct marketing company that delivers integrated, end to end solutions to leading pharmaceutical companies, as well as industry leaders in a range of vertical markets.
BOX:
ThermaChoice
Brand: ThermaChoice, intrauterine treatment for mennoraghia (heavy menstrual bleeding)
Client: Gynecare, the women’s health unit of Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson company
Debuted:August 2001
Agency:Regan Campbell Ward Creative
Director:Brennan Ward
Art Director: Brian McIntosh
Copywriter: Dan Hassan
This ad tackles a difficult and tough-to-talk about problem. Using a simple visual device (giant red periods), the ad immediately connects to the problem and makes a clear point — there is hope and there is a solution.Most of the consumer medical advertising I see today contains confusing metaphors and inspirational photos on top of indirect messaging. I know what this ad is about and readers knows right away if this product is for them. It stands out and gets noticed. Using this approach, I could win every party Pictionary prize. Even the drawings that show the struggle, burden, and then triumph of the audience help draw the reader in and let the ad tell its story.
And then the cherry on the sundae happens. The ad works so fast you know there are only nanoseconds between the time the consumer reads the ad to calling the number to find out more about Gynecare ThermaChoice.
Simplicity and directness make this ad memorable and effective.Great advertising does not have to be explained. Rick Robinson
For Rick Robinson, managing partner at Strategic Domain, NewYork, this ad for ThermaChoice immediately connects to the problem and makes a clear point.
BOX:
ARIMIDEX
Brand: Arimidex
Client: AstraZeneca
Debuted: March 2003
Agency: Medicus NY
Creative Director: Ellen Gorczyca
Senior Art Director: Tom Lyon
Senior Copywriter: Peggy Fulton Arimidex
Behold the power of pink. This ad made me stop. Then it made me smile. What an inventive way to harness the color that has become synonymous with the battle against breast cancer to demonstrate how powerful and efficacious AstraZeneca’s Arimidex can be in the fight to win. This ad is a true standout not because it does something incredibly creative, but simply because it is so smart … and that makes it incredibly creative. One of the primary tests of whether the work we do is as strong, imaginative, and compelling as it can be is this: Does it telegraph? Does it snare our target audience in those precious few seconds before they move on?
Before reading a single word of this ad, you think Fight Breast Cancer. You don’t see a pink ribbon — you don’t have to. By the time your brain moves on to the copy you are already conditioned to believe Arimidex works.Then the copy hits you right up front with the facts. It’s a powerful ad that follows through as cleverly as it starts. That’s why I wish we did this ad.
According to Meghan LaBonge, executive creative director at RTC Relationship Marketing,Washington, D.C., this ad’s simplicity is what makes it so smart.