3 Video Concepts: Creative, Low Cost, Compelling Hospital Marketing

Some 89 million people in the US are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today. (Yes, just today.)

Some 89 million people in the US are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today. (Yes, just today.)

Healthcare marketing professionals understand the popularity and importance of online video content. The first challenge is to create interesting and engaging video material that conveys a message, inspires action and is truly share-worthy. The further challenge is to keep the cost down.

Creating a good, watchable marketing video—one with professional production values—will not be free. But here are examples of three “creative springboards” that you can use for great (and budget conscious) results.

In using these ideas, you’ll want to be mindful of appropriate and necessary legal releases, attributions, permissions and HIPAA issues. (And please excuse YouTube if they slip in a brief commercial of their own.)

Use a hand-held “Kid Cam.” A couple of years ago, the St. Louis Children’s Hospital created this informative and sensitive behind-the-scenes look at the facility. The principal footage is about Benjamin Robinson, a brain tumor child, using a simple “Kid Cam.” Good quality digital video cameras are inexpensive.

Use Lip Dub: Upbeat and Hopeful. Popular songs provide the soundtrack and the fun-filled platform for marketing messages. In this example, doctors, nurses and staff at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU “dance and sing One Direction’s song What Makes You Beautiful to thank patients for their kind messages of appreciation.” 

Use the language of various audiences. The primary language of the audience in Barcelona, Spain, isn’t English. (Officially, it’s Catalan, but everyone speaks Spanish.) Consider this clever example—from Hospital Sant Joan de Déu—as a reminder that your video can be in more than one language. In this one, patients, staff, volunteers and Macaco sing Seguiremos (We’ll keep going).

Some stats about video:

You probably don’t need to be convinced, but quality online video gets attention, engages the audience and generates response.

• Online video now accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic and up to 69 percent of traffic on certain networks. [Bytemobile Mobile Analytics Report]

• 93 percent of marketers used video for online marketing in 2013. [eMarketer]

• Video is a driver of consumer confidence, according to Website Magazine.

• 92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others. [Invodo]