A New Day in Health: Alameda Health System Rebranding Campaign

Background: AMF Media Group spearheaded a rebranding campaign for Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC), a public health care provider in Oakland, California, to reposition the provider from a safety net hospital for the uninsured and victims of violence to a health care option of choice ahead of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).    ACMC’s reputation included specific connotations with its flagship Highland Hospital, associated with the movie “Fruitvale Station,” featuring high-profile gun shot victim Oscar Grant, and with a prominent “Rolling Stone” magazine article about injured Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. Due to the ACA, ACMC needed to reset to not only attract new patients but also to protect its current population and ensure that it would be competitive against larger, private providers. 

Program background: AMF determined that ACMC could build off of its strengths, including its top urgent care centers. ACMC was also known as a premier teaching hospital, with one of the most sought after residency programs in the country.  AMF created a multi-year, multi-faceted campaign including a new name--Alameda Health System (AHS)--and a reputation shift communicating AHS’s world-class care providers and facilities.  The “A New Day in Health” campaign had to serve the urban market and appeal to surrounding neighborhoods with its four wellness centers and its recent affiliation with  two regional hospitals. The campaign unapologetically declared AHS’s quality to a diverse audience using simple words juxtaposed against relatable imagery—i.e. a baby’s hand reaching to grasp its parents’ finger. Not only is this a universal experience we can all relate to, but the “Word Cloud” speaks directly to AHS’s core values such as “highly trained” and “care first.” The television advertisements’ voiceover has a tone of trustworthiness and authority, and is recognizable as an African-American Oscar Award-winning actor.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  After 12 months, a study by NRC Ticker showed consumer awareness of the health system’s brand has more than tripled. Positive media placements went from zero to 43 with no negative coverage. Press coverage is now 12-1 negative to 10-1 positive--a complete reversal. AHS doctors are often quoted as experts and there have been positive stories about AHS care on the front page of each local regional daily newspaper and on all area television stations. 

Conclusions:  Today, AHS is known as a world-class health care provider in the Bay Area. Its patient and family centered system of care is highly regarded, and is always true to the mission of “Serving All.” 

Implications for research and/or practice: Through “A New Day in Health,” AMF proved that AHS could communicate its message to a new market without alienating the old. No matter what place you have on the economic spectrum, AHS would serve you with high quality medical care, and in fact, they had been doing this for almost 150 years even through they never touted that in the past. In the current marketplace, non-public hospitals can learn lessons from AHS about how to engage with a patient population it hasn’t targeted before.