Brown Parker & DeMarinis Advertising

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Adventist Health is an integrated network hospital system covering four states, namely California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. We have 25 hospitals and 420 clinics, and we're one of the leading health providers in those four states. I'm the creative director, and all marketing, communication strategies, and advertising come through my office. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Brown Parker& DeMarinis Advertising?

Their main focus of work is our annual marketing and advertising campaigns. We originally started working with Brown Parker& DeMarinis Advertising (BPD) when we were doing our system brand refresh, and they’re essentially our Agency of Record (AOR) now. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Essentially, we engage with BPD for our advertising and marketing efforts. They provide services for TV, print ads, digital radio, social media, video, and everything else that a full-service agency provides. They come up with campaigns, headlines, and mood boards. They also work on the imagery, tone, messaging, and color schemes that we use in specific types of service line advertising.

Their team handles all of that creative work. They come up with a lot of the smaller items during the initial creative process. Then, we have an internal team that does the nuts and bolts of putting together items such as local print ads.  

The most recent campaign that BPD put together for us was a multi-disciplinary campaign covering our entire four-state footprint. It involved TV, video, digital video, print, social media, direct mail, and radio advertisements. 

How did you come to work with Brown Parker & DeMarinis Advertising?

They were already on board with us when I joined the organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2016, and the partnership is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We saw increases across the board, especially around image awareness and preference for the Adventist Health brand. We also saw revenue and market share percentage increases at the clinic level, which directly comes from our direct mail campaigns and local print and video advertising. All in all, it’s been a very fruitful relationship.  

How did Brown Parker & DeMarinis Advertising perform from a project management standpoint?

The BPD team’s project management is very good. They have account managers for each segment of our marketing plan, and they have a record from which I can bring up data whenever we need them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things that I appreciate about their creative approach is that they always look at it from the perspective of a patient, which is the right thing to do. Since their entire business focuses on healthcare, they’re uniquely positioned to connect with a healthcare customer. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The creative process can become personal, and as with any other agency, they’re not very good at receiving negative feedback. They always try to push their idea without wanting to make any changes. That would be the only thing that I’d say is a pushback to the engagement. 

However, when a corporation like ours works with a creative entity like theirs, there’s always going to be that kind of conversation since everybody has an opinion.