Case Study: Writing to emotionally connect with readers

MEET THE CLIENT

Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH) Foundation is dedicated to ensuring their North Okanagan facilities have access to the highest-quality equipment and resources to provide enhanced care in the region. While government funding received by hospitals and healthcare facilities enables them to accomplish a great deal, there is always more that can be done. As a registered B.C. charity, VJH Foundation works to support the purchase of urgently needed equipment and patient care initiatives to help bring excellence in healthcare and improve lives. 

THE CLIENT’S CHALLENGE

In the fall of 2022, VJH Foundation was preparing to launch an ambitious public campaign for its final push to raise a total of $6.3 million in order to bring an urgently-needed second CT scanner to the hospital. The public campaign needed to raise the final $900,000.

With just a small team and many moving parts to this campaign, VJH contracted us to write a series of three advertorials that were scheduled to run in local newspapers. These advertorials were to play a big role in their efforts to promote the campaign. 

OUR SOLUTION

Since advertorials are basically ads disguised as news articles, we knew that to make an impact they needed to emotionally connect with readers. In order to be compelled to take action, readers needed to be drawn into the story told in the advertorial just as they would be drawn into a human-interest article in that same morning paper. They also needed to be able to see how this story could just as easily be about them or someone they loved. 

The direct mail campaign (written and produced by VJH Foundation) told the story of a young mom who was diagnosed with cancer following a CT scan. We wrote her story, in which she expressed gratitude for the CT scans that led to swift treatment, to anchor an advertorial that educated readers on why CT scanners were essential to health care and explained how over-worked VJH’s single scanner was. It was published just before Giving Tuesday with a Call to Action announcing that, for one-day only, all gifts would be matched by a local philanthropist.

The second advertorial told the story of a man from Alberta who had had a massive heart attack while vacationing at his B.C. home. A CT scan at VJH led to a quick diagnosis and treatment plan, which saved his life. The Call to Action was uniquely positioned to appeal to other Albertans with vacation homes in the area. 

The third one used an object — the CT scanner — rather than a person as the storytelling hook. It weaved comments from VJH doctors and nurses who explained why a CT scanner was useful and what doubling CT scanning capacity would mean for the quality of care at the hospital.

THE RESULTS

In early January, VJH Foundation reached out to us to write a fourth advertorial — this time to announce that the campaign was closing several months ahead of schedule because the foundation had already reached its goal. They needed an advertorial to say thank you to the community. Using testimonial quotes from some of the doctors and nurses at VJH, we wrote a heartfelt thank you letter that expressed that, because of the community’s generosity, they will receive even better service and better care.