| PR Intelligence |
| February 14, 2001 |
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| Use Animation to Get Your Message
Out |
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| So, you want to hire a spokesperson, but
you don’t want to deal with some of the pitfalls
that come with a person’s reputation or actions?
Consider a persona that you can more closely control:
a cartoon. |
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| Betty Lovell, APR, president of Lovell
Public Relations, suggested hiring a cartoon as a “spokesperson”
for a health network in 1988. Her client, a non-profit
consortium of nine medical centers called Dallas Medical
Resource, went into an agreement with the popular cartoon
character, Cathy, and of course, the woman who draws her,
Cathy Guisewite. |
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| “Shopping is good for your health,”
was the tagline on many of the ads meant to underscore
the message to shop around for your doctor and your healthcare
provider. |
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| Guisewite often jokes about Cathy’s
love for shopping in the comic strip. Also, Cathy hit
at the consortium’s target market—women, who
make 80 percent of the healthcare decisions in a household,
Lovell says. |
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| Before coming up with Cathy, Lovell considered
asking a fitness expert to be the spokesperson. But not
only did Cathy the cartoon fit the campaign’s message,
she fit their budget better as well. |
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| “The licensing agreement was by far
less expensive,” Lovell says. “It was probably
a third of the cost of a typical spokesperson.”
Guisewite also discounted her fees based on what the consortium
could afford. |
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| Not having much of a budget for the national
campaign, Lovell asked Guisewite to come up with five
basic images—some were general but others were specific
to certain topics such as cardiovascular or muscular health.
This provided some choices of artwork that could be used
for a variety of ads. It also meant that Lovell would
not have to go back to the cartoonist all the time for
new art, which reduced costs. |
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| Before Guisewite agreed to do the project,
Lovell struggled for five months to even get a meeting
with the cartoonist. But her persistence paid off. |
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| “Don’t give up, but don’t
be obnoxious either,” Lovell advises. “Spokespersons
can quickly discount you unless you take the right approach.” |
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| Explain your campaign in detail—and
exactly what their role will be to secure their help,
Lovell says. |
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| The campaign won an American Healthcare
Marketing Group award, Lovell says. |
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| Although the consortium disbanded in 1994,
the association with Cathy continues. One of the hospitals
that had been part of the consortium still uses the images
today, Lovell says. |
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