• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, November 21, 2011

A multimedia campaign for The Everett Clinic in Everett, Wash., takes geotargeting to a micro level, providing customized directions from a potential patient’s home to the clinic.

The campaign promotes the clinic’s top-notch doctors and healthcare to local residents while breathing new life into a flailing ad medium: direct marketing.

Billboards, bus wraps and transit posters focus predominantly on the quality of healthcare offered at The Everett Clinic. Sample headlines include: “Hiking, biking, skiing, injuring. World-class orthopedists” and “We diagnose mumps, ear infections and LEGOs lodged in noses daily. Top doc pediatricians.”

The direct mailer targets only families who have recently moved to the area, using Bing map technology to include a personalized map with the route to the clinic. The goal is to have recipients save the map and keep it easily accessible, like affixed to the refrigerator door.

Copy for mirco-targeted ads include: “Boxes unpacked. Utilities turned on. Kids enrolled in school. Now, time to find a doctor” and “You moved here for a reason. So did our world-class doctors. More than 400 providers. Close to home.”

Launched in September, the campaign, created by Frank Unlimited, has sent 1,300 custom maps a month.

“We wanted to reach consumers with a message that was both relevant and actionable,” said Susana Cascais, managing director of Frank Unlimited. “By creating a map showing the route and distance from their home to the nearest clinic, we were able to give new residents a piece that had importance in their lives.”

New residents within a three-mile radius were selected to receive the custom direct mailings created by McCallum Print Group and its proprietary technology.

According to Cascais, the biggest campaign challenge was “determining the mile radius and the data parameters. We looked at a lot of ways to slice and dice the market in order to generate the greatest ROI.” 

The campaign is slated to run indefinitely -- at least through Q4, 2012.