• by Les Luchter , February 21, 2023

The University of Wisconsin’s UW Health, which operates seven nonprofit hospitals and over 80 outpatient sites in Wisconsin and Illinois, has unveiled “Masterpieces” for its new advertising campaign.

In a :30 animated spot that doesn't reveal which health problem is being addressed until near its end, the child narrator is shown with a dad who “always said I was special, that I would do something big, someday.” The two then plummet downwards as the images get darker and the child says, “But, for a while, we were just worried about getting to tomorrow.” Then they’re at a hospital. “At UW Health, we found the team that made it their mission, not just to get me through the day, but to give me a new life…and a new kidney. Now, my future is infinite."

Created by UW Health’s longtime agency, Madison-based Shine United, the ongoing “Masterpieces” include the :30 spot running on broadcast, connected TV and OTT in UW Health’s markets of Wisconsin, northern Illinois and eastern Iowa, along with :15 and :06 cutdowns; out-of-home billboards and bus benches; static and HTML5 digital display ads; and paid social.

"Because UW Health is a large academic medical system with a sizable primary care practice, we wanted to tell stories about everything -- from the tough stuff, like pediatric transplant, to the more everyday care -- but with a focus on how we help each of our patients get out of the hospital or clinic and get on with living their life,” UW Health’s director of brand strategy Lindsay Ferris explained to Marketing Daily. “The stories we tell in our campaign were inspired by the people who inspired us."

Shine United says “Masterpieces” seeks to show all patients “as the beautiful works of art they are…by using bold, out-of-the-box narratives, sleek design elements, customized music, and energetic color palettes.”

“The stories we created aren’t about charts, facts, and figures,” Shine United’s managing partner and executive creative director Samantha Smith said in a release. “They highlight humans as complex beings, with multifaceted lives that need to be understood as part of the health care journey.”

"At the end of the day” Ferris added, "it wasn't so much a metric we focused on, as it was an insight: consumers' desire to be seen and treated as individuals and as the unique humans they are."