Northwell Health continued its push to rebrand itself with an advertisement that aired on CBS during the Superbowl game on Sunday night.
The 30-second commercial was part of an ad campaign blitz by the company after deciding on a name change from North Shore-LIJ Health System in January.
“Since we changed our name, we’ve launched a rebranding campaign and we’re out there pretty aggressively,” said Terry Lynam, Northwell’s chief public relations officer. “And most of our marketing investments will continue on for the next six month.”
Lynam said the ad that aired during the Super Bowl was not paid for out of the health care system’s current rebranding budget, but came instead from a member of the system’s board of directors, who asked to be anonymous.
Lyman also declined to disclose how much it cost to broadcast the ad in the tristate area.
A 30-second national ad spot during the game came with a minimum $5 million price tag and reached an audience of 105 million people. The tristate area viewership, which Northwell went with, reached some 3.5 million viewers.
“We’re not going to say how much we paid for the ad,” Lynam said. “But do the math.”
The first part of the commercial, which was released online a month before the big game, was shot just after midnight on New Year’s day in one of Northwell’s hospitals. It showed Daniella and Eli Malakov of Forest Hills, cuddling their new born child surrounded by doctors and nurses just after midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Northwell said in a statement on Thursday it is trying to take a different approach with the ads than other health care providers that feature testimonials of patients who’ve recovered from disease.
The ad has so far generated more than 2 million views through Northwell’s social media outreach, the company said.
An emerging trend for advertisers seeking to maximize the Superbowl buzz is to release a portion of the ads on TV and social media weeks before the game airs giving viewers a glimpse to the ads to create some anticipation and build momentum since commercials and the half time performance have become a part of the broadcast.
“Marketing campaigns are very different today and they’re trying to capitalize on the buzz generated online,” said Rich de Simon, creative director at ECG Group, a Melville based marketing agency.
“If you make a good commercial, it gets a lot of talk and commercials are a little bit more about what happens after it airs,” said Simon, whose company has created marketing campaigns for companies like Canon, Vaughn and Dowling College.
Fred Candiotti, a partner at CGT Marketing, has a different take on the strategy of releasing ads online before the air during the Superbowl.
“Studies have proven that most companies advertising on Superbowl night don’t really get the return on their ad. It’s more of an image thing,’ he says.
“What I don’t like is the previewing in advance. When some of the ads are previewed, that to me is silly because the impact is gone. If it’s done right though, it can be beneficial.”
Since Northwell serves the New York metropolitan area, the Superbowl ad was broadcasted regionally in the tristate area.
“If nothing, the best thing a commercial can do is raise awareness. They’re spending a lot of money and if you could get a lot of buzz and it’s going to have those eyes,” Simon said.
Northwell’s name change was first announced in September of 2015, saying North Shore-LIJ no longer described the scale of the system’s operations.
The Great Neck-based health system operates 21 health-care facilities in and around Long Island and employs 61,000 people.
