Medical billing software brand Dr.Bill has launched two concurrent campaigns acknowledging work done by physicians, but in two very different ways.
Its “ThankYouDoctors!” nationwide digital campaign was launched to coincide with National Physicians’ Day on May 1. Its aim is to celebrate doctors and medical staff, with the idea that a simple “thank you” goes a long way. To promote the campaign, the brand was on-site at Health Sciences North Sudbury, Thunder Bay Regional and North Bay Regional, the first time it directly targeted Ontario practitioners. The brand is trying to show it understands that physicians in northern Ontario tend to have to manage difficult issues across a larger land mass, and with fewer community resources.
Dr.Bill’s “#ThankYouDoctors” campaign, which will be deployed throughout May, includes a virtual landing page where Canadians across the country can submit thank you messages to physicians with the hashtag “#mydoctor.” It also includes paid media sponsorships in prominent local northern Ontario publications like The Sudbury Star, as well as social media engagement and content creation. The brand’s social push sees the Dr.Bill and the brand’s CEO Sarah Wilkinson posting messages to LinkedIn that encourages patients to share messages of gratitude for physicians on their own social platforms.
The campaign was also featured prominently on RBC and RBCx channels, as Dr. Bill is an RBCx Venture, an initiative wherein the bank helps to scale startups and high-growth companies that “solve real-world problems and make lives better.”
Dr.Bill chief marketing officer Jason Magennis says Dr.Bill actually spent less on this year’s activation for National Physicians’ Day compared to last year, as the brand focused more on driving engagement at a grassroots level, and enabling people across Canada to show their doctors how much they care.
“To achieve this outcome, it wasn’t about additional investment,” Magennis tells strategy. “We needed to think strategically about what types of channels best support grassroots opportunities and, ultimately, made the decision to primarily focus more on Dr. Bill and RBC-owned channels to drive reach and engagement with our activation.”
The work is supported by Santis Health, which won the communications and PR remit in February of 2024.
Separately, Dr. Bill is also running a brand campaign with creative support from RBCx – Strategic Design.
The creative platform has Dr.Bill juxtaposing how a patient may appear on paper through diagnostic codes and billing codes with how the physician actually sees the patient as not just a “condition,” but as a person with desires, a family and a personality.
“Care Comes First,” is a campaign informed by the fact that while billing comprises a small percentage of the admin burden, Dr.Bill strives to make that part as effortless as possible so physicians have more time to spend with their patients.
“Care Comes First” is informed by Ontario Medical Association (OMA) data that doctors spend 19.1 hours of their work week on documentation and other administrative work, which is one of the main causes of physician burnout, a key idea that Dr.Bill leaned into last year.
Beyond National Physicians’ Day, Dr.Bill comes to life from May to October through a brand campaign that includes creative out of home media placements in and around hospitals in urban settings, as well as digital ads.