Humber River Health’s new brand strategy and creative platform, “Healthcare Lives,” is contrasting the promise of technology-driven healthcare with the reality of a currently strained system.
The creative flashes back to the discovery of insulin by Frederick Banting and Charles Best in the 1920s, juxtaposing old and new innovations against frantic ER scenes. The campaign also includes mock TV news program asking whether the healthcare system is dying.
The campaign was created to drive mass awareness of the Foundation’s mission, and features the tagline, “keeping universal healthcare universal,” with a call to action to help the organization “innovate to keep healthcare alive.”
Lori Davison, chief strategy officer at Diamond, Humber River Hospital Foundation’s newly minted agency partner, says it’s important that HRH differentiate the work they do. “People are aware that there are hospitals in Toronto who are doing the work of curing cancer, people not aware that there is a hospital in Toronto doing the work of curing healthcare.”
As the first fully digital hospital in North America, the hospital leverages a cutting-edge command centre – shown in the hero spot – that orchestrates patient care behind the scenes. It has also streamlined operations via implementing advanced technologies such as automated robotics and real-time analytics.
The hospital, which opened in 2015 and rebranded to Humber River Health in 2023, has a stated goal to usher in a new era of modernized healthcare and to redefine the future of healthcare.
“Humber River Health [HRH] was built as a digital hospital, which allows it to harness data and technology in ways that others currently can’t,” Davison says. “[It] is learning things about how a hospital can become extremely efficient while improving patient care at the same time. It is all technology driven.”
According to Davison, the purpose of the campaign is to put Humber River Health on the radar for donors of all levels. “There are philanthropists in Canada who care a lot about the future of Canadian healthcare [and] we want to make sure HRH is on the radar.”
The content is supported by a suite of assets for TSA, OOH, print and an updated website, each highlighting a challenge faced by Canadians in today’s system, from patient outcomes to hallway medicine.
The media plan includes a selection of high-viewing opportunities including the World Series, NHL and cinema placements.
The “Healthcare Lives” platform is supporting the largest and most ambitious fundraising effort since the opening of the new hospital, with the goal of raising $100 million to reinvent systems of care.
