TV campaign shoot project management

THE MAKING OF A NEBRASKA MEDICINE TELEVISION CAMPAIGN

There is nothing that quite compares to the excitement of working with an award-winning motion picture company and an exceptional creative director to create a stellar television campaign! During my first year as a marketing strategist at Nebraska Medicine, I was truly fortunate to be provided the opportunity to oversee the coordination and project management of the hospital’s multi-year brand campaign TV spots. The director of marketing at the time and one of the most amazing female leaders I’ve ever known, Crista Madsen Latham, trusted a total newbie with this important task. I am eternally grateful for her guidance and mentorship early on in my career.

Had I ever been involved in filming a TV campaign? Heck no. Did I jump at the chance? Hell yes! I dove in head first, listened with intent, learned countless new skills and executed every task put in front of me without question, no matter how large or small. 

• Project Scope: Multi-year brand television campaign for a world-renowned medical center.

• Target audiences: Primary business-to-consumer (B2C) including local and regional midwestern families, gearing messaging towards females in the household, who are the decision makers for healthcare services. Secondary business-to-business (B2B) including referring primary care providers. 

• Objective: Reinforce Nebraska Medicine as an industry leader in healthcare. Highlight its world-renowned status for specialty and surgical care across multiple service lines to help increase net new patients and physician referrals for increased revenue.

Nebraska Medicine was well positioned as an industry leader in patient care, including specialty and surgical services. From primary care to cancer care, transplant, neurology, cardiac and many other specialties, Nebraska Medicine was internationally and regionally renowned. The main objective of this campaign was to reinforce the organization's esteemed standing among target users as the primary choice for extraordinary patient care. 

At that time, I was leading the marketing strategy for a variety of hospital service lines, including Heart and Vascular, Neurosciences, Orthopaedics, Bariatrics, ENT and Gastroenterology. As the primary liaison between multiple service lines, hospital leadership and key stakeholders, I was skilled at building and managing relationships. 

I was no stranger to executing end-to-end project management of multiple strategic marketing plans simultaneously, in coordination with a fantastic team of other strategists, creatives and Communications/PR professionals. Additionally, having been employed for 14 years at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), I had extensive knowledge of the UNMC/Nebraska Medicine campus and facilities. I took those skills and translated them to this new challenge. What I didn’t already know, I figured out as I went along! 

Was the project: 

• Chaotic? Sure, a little (ok a lot) . . . There was a mind-boggling amount of balls to juggle. 

• Long hours? You bet… lots of early mornings and late nights. It’s all about capturing just the right lighting – sunrises/sunsets do not exist to accommodate us; to catch them in all their glory, we must oblige them. 

• An incredible challenge? Definitely. But the success of every great product is founded on an incredible vision and a lot of determination and hard work.

• Magical? 1000% . . . Envision your favorite book of all time. Now imagine pulling the images and words right off the page and seeing them brought to life on the screen right before your eyes. I loved every…single…second. 

Scouting locations (so fun!): For several days, from the crack of dawn til dusk, we scouted… I was thrilled to ride side-kick to the legendary Rod Jensen (producer/director, Great Plains Motion Pictures) and the unparalleled Gretchen Willis (creative director, Writing the Range). We drove miles of backcountry roads and rooted around dozens of office buildings, commons areas and surgical suites in search of clean lines, the best lighting and unique vantage points to discover the perfect location for each shoot. Project Management: Visualize the game Tetris… yeah, it was like that. Luckily, I like puzzles! Great Plains had crews flying in from around the country, so there was no room for scheduling errors. I coordinated all stages of campaign project management, including: 

Location scouting | Staging site selection | Master production schedule | Talent selection | Scene coordination | Shoot logistics | Production quality | Patient privacy | Relationships | Vendor management

Highlighting Nebraska Medicine as a well-known leader in Serious Medicine. Extraordinary Care, the campaign hit its mark of reinforcing Nebraska Medicine’s standing as the primary choice for patient care and strengthening relationships with referring providers. Watch the full TV spots below!