Finding Healthcare Nirvana: Behind ICU Medical’s Award-Winning Plum Duo Campaign
When ICU Medical acquired the Plum infusion system, the challenge was clear: overcome skepticism and demonstrate that the revamped Plum Duo and LifeShield IV system could truly simplify workflows and elevate patient care. The result was a human-centered approach that depicted each audience in an enlightened and peaceful state of professionalism.
Our work recently won silver for Print/Out-of-Home Campaign of the Year among suppliers, vendors and pharmaceutical companies in AdAge/Modern Healthcare’s Impact Awards. To dive into the campaign’s genesis and execution, we sat down with two of its driving creative forces: Wally Stoneman, SVP and Creative Director, and Mike Wheeler, VP and Design Director at Mower. Here’s what they had to say.
The Plum infusion system came with both an opportunity and a challenge—how did your team approach rebuilding trust and reshaping perceptions around the product?
We were impressed by the new and innovative technology the client walked us through at the beginning of the project. Couple that with the beta audience reactions— the verbatims from nurses, pharmacists and IT pros—and our perceptions of the audience were already reshaped. We just had to find a compelling way to spread the message.
The campaign moved away from the category’s typical technology-driven messaging to focus on the confidence of caregivers. What inspired that human-centered direction, and how did you land on “confidence” as the emotional core?
We approach EVERYTHING from a human-centered standpoint and make sure it stands out in the marketplace. Our strategy team did a great job of sifting through verbatims and other research to guide us down the confidence path. Which ultimately is an offshoot of the client’s main ethos: they were founded and exist to make things easier for caregivers and patients.
Can you talk about how the creative idea for visual “nirvana” came to life and what you wanted audiences to feel when they saw it?
Looking through the verbatims, we were struck by the serious sense of awe the new product had on people. It truly seemed to give them a level of peace. From there, it’s not a far leap to get to the idea that we were taking the audience to a better place. Which simultaneously led to a sketched image by Mike of a nurse in lotus pose levitating and the phrase Nursing Nirvana. The client then challenged us to use that same kind of wordplay and imagery for the other audiences: pharmacists and IT pros. After many rounds, we landed on IT Utopia and Eupharmia.
How did you ensure the creative remained authentic to caregivers’ real-world experiences while still breaking through with a strong emotional hook?
We incorporated some actual verbatims (or very close paraphrases) in our headlines, so we knew we were speaking the language of our audience. The emotional hook really came from delightfully unexpected visuals of people that looked like our audience, only they were in zen-like poses and at complete peace. Reflecting the effects of the product.
Mower often emphasizes the idea of emotional brand connections, or “Making Fierce Friends.” How did that philosophy influence the work for ICU Medical, and what does it mean in the context of a B2B healthcare environment?
Let’s get something straight: that philosophy influences ALL of our work, B2B, B2C, peer to peer. For this particular project, it was simply a matter of using our audience’s own words to spread the message to their peers. And visualize how this product benefits their lives, according to the reactions from user testing.
Any thoughts based on this year’s show results about where healthcare marketing is headed—and how emotion and storytelling are evolving in this space?
With all of the chaos, controversy and doublespeak in society right now, it’s more important than ever to be authentic. Regardless of industry or product. To tap into the human truths that will truly resonate with our audience. To speak to them in their own language through concepts that stop them in their tracks in a smart, relevant way.
When we saw the innovative leap of this product based on the previous iteration, it was truly like when Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. It was that big of a leap from complicated to simple; inhuman to human. We found a way to capture that revolution.
Read more about the campaign in AdAge here and learn about Mower’s healthcare marketing capabilities here.