The challenge

MultiCare Health Systems was opening five urgent care clinics in Spokane, its first in the area for the Tacoma-based hospital system. Our job was to introduce the brand to the community — which meant reintroducing the idea of urgent care.

At Indigo, patients enjoyed friendly, fast and convenient care — different from what many patients had come to expect from urgent care. At Indigo, you’d be greeted by a “clinical concierge,” who’d check you in and guide you through your visit. The furniture would be comfortable, the blankets cozy, and the coffee and tea on the house.

The challenge for our client: snagging patients’ attention in a busy health care marketplace — and convincing them that maybe, just maybe, going to urgent care could be … pleasant.

We needed to bring the Indigo experience to life for our target audiences — especially women with children, who make most of the health care decision for their families, and men, who are less likely visit a doctor when they should. And we needed to do it in a way that felt relevant to our community and stood out from the health care crowd.

The strategy

We decided to address the challenge head-on, directly addresses the common experiences — or perceptions — of urgent care and to turn them inside out. Because MultiCare aimed to set its clinics apart by meeting human needs — with warm, comfortable spaces and kind, thoughtful care — we wanted our campaign to feel human as well: friendly and relatable.

We decided video would be the best way to show people encountering the Indigo experience. Their surprise would stand in for our viewers’ surprise when it turned out urgent care could be good.

What we did

We produced a pair of video ads starring some relatable characters — the kid who keeps mildly injuring herself, the guy who “doesn’t need a doctor, ever” — who interacted with pleasant Indigo staff. We set the action in a bright, comfortable Indigo clinic. And, because urgent care isn’t for trauma or serious illness, we took the opportunity to poke some gentle fun at the kind of events often send people there — the poison-ivy necklace, the fishing fly in the palm.

Working on a fast timeline, we also created billboards, digital ads and other collateral (expressions of Indigo’s existing brand) to support the clinics’ opening. Our media placements targeted those audiences we knew we needed most.