Connections February 2024 - 9

Storytelling in marketing
How a Dartmouth Health campaign comes to life
Storytelling is an age-old concept,
one that goes back thousands of
years to people gathered around
a fire passing along news and
knowledge. They probably knew
then what we know now: People are
more likely to remember something
if it's wrapped in a story.
For that reason, today's marketers
often use storytelling to communicate
a message to an audience, making it
relatable, engaging and memorable.
They also hope the message will
inspire action.
" Rich storytelling is the best marketing
you can have, " says Katherine
Adams, marketing manager for the
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics. That's
especially so, she adds, if the story is
told by someone who has gone through
the experience themselves.
Case in point: a current 12-week
campaign in New Hampshire and
Vermont that's designed to encourage
people who are considering bariatric
surgery to sign up for an introductory
session where they're given information
about the procedure. " They walk them
through it, tell them what's going to
happen, what's going to be required, "
Adams says. " The majority of the
people who come to the introductory
session sign up to have the surgery,
so the goal for this campaign is to get
people to make that call to sign up for
the session. "
To make that happen, Adams and
her team focused the campaign on a
story about Krystal, a patient who had
a 166-pound weight-loss journey that
began at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics
Manchester. You can see Krystal before
and after when you go to the " landing
page, " a web page created specifically
for marketing, on the Dartmouth
Hitchcock Medical Center and
Dartmouth Hitchcock
Clinics website.
There's also a
short, beautifully
crafted video where
Krystal tells her story
of the depression and
anxiety and other health
factors that caused her to
gain weight, and how this impacted her
life. Among the experiences she shared
was not being able to do the hiking she
loved because she quickly became out
of breath, and feeling uncomfortable
while kayaking.
Then, she tells those watching the
video what their future could look like
after bariatric surgery-having the
energy and the breath for hiking, and
even for the considerable challenge of
summiting Mount Washington. " Krystal
shows people the quality of life that's
possible through bariatric surgery, "
Adams says. " That was the angle we
wanted to take with the campaign,
because anyone can say, 'Hey, come
to us, we've got great outcomes,' but
having a patient share their experience
is so different. It could encourage
You can visit the
bariatric surgery
landing page and
see the video of
Krystal's weightloss
journey here.
someone who's unsure about
taking that next step to take
the step. " In marketing, the
term is " call to action. "
Marketing also uses
other tools to drive traffic
to the landing page, from
search engines like Google,
online videos and streaming ads to
our owned channels, social media and
digital signage.
The team that put the paid campaign
together includes Chris Cammock,
director of Creative and Production
Services; Mark Washburn, senior
photographer, who took a day of his
Labor Day weekend to shoot the
photographs of Krystal on Mount
Moosilauke; Victor Carbonneau,
video editor and content producer;
Tim Swaan, video producer and
technical manager; Elliot Thompson,
video producer editor; and Peter J.
Mlodzik, senior UI designer, who
created the landing page.
" It takes a village, " Adams says.
" None of this would have been
possible without their help. "
https://www.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/bariatric-surgery
Connections February 2024

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