• by Larissa Faw , February 24, 2017

Medical ads typically feature friendly doctors in supposed state-of-the-art facilities with encouraging voiceovers telling potential patients why they're the best. 

By comparison, Colorado's UCHealth and its agency Grey San Francisco are unveiling a new campaign with a different approach that showcases real patients telling their stories about life on the line and how the Colorado medical institution helped. 

In the “Peyton and Tera” clip a mother and daughter share their battle with ovarian cancer and the bonds that give them strength. The ad introduces a mom discussing the odds of ovarian cancer with the twist that it is her 16-year-old daughter who battled the stage four disease. 

And “Becky” details a young woman’s heartfelt letter to the family of the person who gave her a second chance at life. The clip shows her going on a road trip to visit the family of the donor ending with "Your life. Your story.”

Launching on ABC affiliates during the Oscars on Sunday night, the fully integrated campaign runs in Colorado markets utilizing TV, print, radio, social and outdoor. 

The campaign targets Colorado consumers ages 18 and older, as well as potential patients around the country who may come to Colorado for treatment or care.

This project represents a pivot for the organization by solely focusing on patients’ stories and experiences outside of the hospital, through a creative, visual storytelling approach. 

UCHealth found that featuring their real patients proved to be a welcome surprise to consumers, says Manny Rodriguez, chief marketing & experience officer, UCHealth. “Initially, we were planning to go the more traditional route and look to actors to play out the patient stories,”  he says, but once the team started working with the patients, they saw how much they really wanted to be involved in sharing their own stories - realizing how much more impactful and powerful it is for them to do so.