Promoting Organ Donation – A Winning Experience

Kathy SchultzSenior Marketing Consultant, UW Health

Trey SchwabOutreach Coordinator, UW Organ and Tissue Donation

Suzanne RasmussenWaitlist Candidate, UW Health Transplant

Our History:Charter Media and UW OTD

• July 2007: Met with Charter Media to discuss a TV advertising campaign to promote organ donation

• September 2007: Asked WPS Insurance to sponsor first TV ads and a series of on-demand videos ($60,000 for this package)

• WPS agreed to underwrite the entire package if Charter agreed to match it by 3:1 ratio – so we would receive $240,000 in paid advertising

• DONE DEAL! We produced the commercials and were on air by March 2008 (commercials featured our UW OTD staff – great idea from Iowa)

• Ads and videos ran statewide for 12 months (March 2008 - March 2009)

• Saturation campaign – more than 6,000 ads ran• Prior to donor registry: Message – sign your

license and talk to your family• Showed increase in donor designations of 1.5%

total (approx. 100,000 new designations) • Really difficult to effectively measure results

without a donor registry• “Priming the pump” for Wisconsin donor registry

launch on March 29, 2010

• Zoom ahead to 2010: Scripted series of events, campaigns, Transplant Games, etc. to really promote donation for the full year; no advertising ran during this time

• Fall of 2010 – Met with Charter Media and various potential sponsors to try to find someone to underwrite a new TV campaign; unsuccessful

• March 2011: Charter’s “contest” to test various combinations of advertising platforms (TV ads, Charter Main Street, on-demand, Music Choice, web advertising)

• Charter would donate a large package to a charitable non-profit organization who could return accurate data measurements before, during, and after the campaign

• Competition with several non-profits (Red Cross, Susan B. Komen, etc.); each met with a Charter sales team and regional managers to present their case

• UW OTD/organ donation selected in April 2011, just prior to the last Doug Miller Symposium

The Power of One Campaign

Used Every Charter Media Advertising Component:

• Series of web ads that featured Dottie• Digital Choice Music ads • Charter Main Street Channel ads

Produced videos for Charter on-demandSelected seven transplant recipients and two wait list candidates/families to feature

Produced three TV ads using same recipients/patients

General Donation FactsHockey GrandmotherMechanic

Campaign Timeline• Research, planning, graphic design, online ads, and

music channels ads start to air: April 2011• Recipient and patient interviews: April - July 2011• Filming and editing TV and videos: September 2011• Production/editing done: December 2011• TV ads ran: December 2011 - April 2012• Campaign ended: April 30, 2012

Results• Online ads: Exceeded national averages for click-

through rates (.07% vs .03%)• Music Choice ads: Increased Dottie’s Facebook

likes by 23%• Charter Main Street channel ads: Increased

Dottie Dolls sales by 183% during campaign• Television ads: Online donor designations

increased 10.5% during campaign• On-demand videos: Viewing rate was 27% higher

than the average viewing rate of other on-demand health-related videos

Value

• Internet advertising: 300,000 impressions = $3,600• Music Choice advertising: 6 months = $1,800• Charter Main Street advertising: 4 months = $14,400• Television advertising: Production + 4 month air time =

$56,500• On-demand videos: Production + 6 month air time =

$54,000

• Total Value = $130,300• Cost to UW OTD = $0

How Did This Whole Effort Start?

A physicians assistant at UW Health Transplant was dating

someone who worked at Charter Media and she helped to arrange a meeting with him, Kathy, and Trey.

Ripple effect still happening six years later!

Suzanne RasmussenTransplant Waitlist Candidate