• by Larissa Faw , March 27, 2017

Zocdoc and its agency Office of Baby are introducing a new marketing campaign to raise awareness of the client’s revamped approach to search for patients seeking medical care. 

Patients can now search and quickly find providers based on how they describe their symptoms without needing to know a lot of medical jargon. 

Nine in 10 Americans struggle to understand jargon-filled health information, making it difficult to decipher what type of appointment they need or which specialist they should see to treat a specific symptom or condition, says Zocdoc. Its previous search experience followed industry convention, which meant patients had to select a specialist from a lengthy drop-down menu, then select a procedure or visit reason from another pre-selected list.  

The campaign's creative is designed, in part, to solicit assistance in building a larger user-generated database of patient search terms.

A microsite prompts visitors with questions such as "How do you say I have anxiety?" or “How do you say I am vomiting?" Sample suggestions include "ralphing," "tossed my cookies" and "food poisoning."  

Every description typed in the search bar, such as “tummy ache,” “menopaws,” “racing thoughts,” “bun in the oven,” and even emojis, will be collected and assessed by the Zocdoc team and its medical consultants for possible inclusion in Zocdoc’s search tool.  

The media strategy focuses on digital and GIFs to drive users to the Zocdoc microsite and is directed toward online users across the U.S., primarily on Facebook as well as Zocdoc’s blog, social channels, and targeted emails to existing Zocdoc users. 

Last October, the two companies introduced the "Unsick Day" campaign to encourage employers to introduce a dedicated day off so workers can take the day - without penalty and with companies’ explicit permission and encouragement - to go to the doctor when they are not sick. 

Zocdoc is a founding client of Office of Baby, which was established in 2015 by partners, including Paul Caiozzo, formerly with Goodby New York after that office closed.

OOB  has also worked with Google, Etsy, StreetEasy and others.