Got A Mall. Got You Covered.

It's not because our media planners are mall rats. Although I'm sure they'd admit to eating an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel or slurping an Orange Julius with a Gap shopping sack (with its classic logo in tact) hanging from the crook of one arm. But malls are a great place to get where people are – with some unexpected messaging. And we don't just mean those rotating poster kiosks.



Our most recent mall attack is an ER campaign for a regional hospital, Unity Health Center. While we'd done our fair share of outdoor for this small-town-provider trying to keep their community close to home vs. trekking an hour to the big city – the mall had been an untapped territory for getting out the word.





It takes a lot of planning and clever use of space to get the best impact out of a wrap like this. You don't want it to look like a flying giant banner accidentally smacked into to the front of the building and just stuck there.





If you asked our media planners (after bribing them with soft pretzels or Gap gift cards of course) to tell you the top four reasons why they recommend mall placement for your messaging, they'd say:

1. It's a perfect example of taking your media message to where people are, as opposed to making them come to you.

2. Like outdoor, but people aren't whizzing past at 60 mph-- they have more time to take the message in.

3. A great medium to tackle that ever elusive tween/teen audience. Several recent studies have been done about the effectiveness of mall advertising against teens.

4. It is a great way to target geographically. If your market potential is several neighborhoods, as opposed to an entire DMA, seek out your local mall. For the most part, people shop, close to where they live or work.

It's why we've "gone to the mall" for clients like Planned Parenthood where we've wrapped unused storefronts strategically located next to family rest & play areas, Buck The Norm with a debt-wise message right around holiday shopping time, and ACOG Clean Air messaging with a giant suspended "square of clean air" over the atrium-style food court and square blue-sky floor clings leading up to all the escalators.



ACOG "Get Square" including mall installation.

Planned Parenthood mall storefront wraps.

Buck The Norm mall banners.

Ready For Your Closeup, Regional Health Care Center?

So our creative team recently tackled two photo shoots in the same week for two different clients. Nothing too unusual about that.



But what was kind of funny is that they were both for regional rural health centers, Jackson County Memorial Hospital and Unity Health Center.



And, both shoots were booked with Simon Hurst, one of our favorite photographers from across the pond (that means he's English, like the Hugh Grant.... or Mr. Bean).



He calls Oklahoma home, now, though. It's not like we fly him in special-like all the way from England.



That's his photographer's assistant, Beau.



Beau is like a magician's sequined, smiling assistant. Except not smiling, and no sequins. But he does get all the glamorous jobs like keeping Simon and his camera dry in the rain.

This might be some lighting thing going on here, but I'm pretty sure it's makeshift umbrella duty.



Beau probably has a lot more to say than he shares. As he watches our associate creative director Brian, consult with Simon, Beau's probably thinking we should try a different composition, or consider shooting our every day people with greater depth of field to exaggerate the concept of them playing a powerful role in their own healthcare.

Or he's wondering when we might break for lunch.



A lot of times we use stock photography for our executions, especially in the initial concepting phase. This is one of the brand platforms we just started for one of our newest clients, Jackson County Memorial Hospital. We'll continue to develop this brand into other messaging mediums like a web site redesign, annual report and an internal awareness initiative including an employee brand book. But we'll be replacing some of the stock photography with custom photography of real doctors, patients and members of the community.



It's not unlike the brand we created for Unity a couple years back. The "it starts at the center," platform has been a springboard for outdoor, web, print and also internal outreach – like a brand video they shared with all the staff and community members at a town hall-style launch of the new Unity look and feel. We ended up using a combination of stock and "real people" photography in the final pieces we created for them.



It's always an unpredictable undertaking shooting real staff and patients. Simon is really great about putting them all at ease, and they usually find his British accent incredibly charming. Because, unless you're like our art director Kathleen, most regular people don't necessarily run to fling themselves in front of the camera.



Although it's always pretty easy to find Third Degree team members who are willing to act as stand-ins while we find our best shot.

Okay, technically since our account coordinator Felina is expecting, it's somewhat appropriate for her to be pushed in a wheelchair. But our designer, Liz, is definitely not qualified to be her caregiver. Although I have a suspicion she's no stranger to playing doctor.

A Facelift of Their Own

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