Health Care Will Never Be the Same: Mayo Clinic Breaks Convention to Usher in Future of Innovation

Today, Mayo Clinic launched its latest advertising campaign, inspired by the innovation, technology and patient-centric care that has secured its standing as the No. 1 hospital in the nation for the past seven years, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

“With this new campaign, we aim to reinforce that transformation isn't just a vision at Mayo Clinic, it's what we're doing today and every day,” said Mark Pagnano, M.D., medical director, Department of Marketing for Mayo Clinic, a champion of the creative project since its inception.

The new campaign, ‘Transforming Health Care,’ builds on Mayo Clinic’s 2020 campaign, ‘The Power of Answers,’ to create visually stunning metaphorical representations of the futuristic practices used today across its hospital network. Each of the 30- and 60-second spots — ‘Imaginable,’ ‘Predictable’ and ‘Seeable’ — illustrate the ways Mayo Clinic is literally removing barriers through its innovation and team-based model of care.

Mayo Clinic’s new internal creative agency developed the campaign concept and strategy, which centres on engaging, vivid visuals. The campaign features words frequently heard by patients and people in a health care setting. Through interventions inspired by Mayo Clinic’s very own technology — currently ranked first out of 300 health care organisations in Newsweek’s list of ‘World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2023’ — these words visibly change from negative to positive in each spot.

“At Mayo Clinic, we have reimagined health care and continue to challenge what was previously commonplace — the unknowns, the limitations, the lack of options,” said Sherri Gilligan, chief marketing officer, Mayo Clinic. “We’ve dedicated ourselves to removing these barriers from the patient experience during treatment and are applying that same dedication to bring these capabilities to life through our latest advertising creative.”

To bring its groundbreaking practices to life visually, Mayo Clinic’s creative team selected directing team Espadaysantacruz and 1stAveMachine as their production partners. To capture the state-of-the-art work taking place at Mayo Clinic, the team took its production partners on a tour of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, providing a firsthand look at the spaces, technology and talent that would ultimately be infused into the final creative work.

The cutting-edge innovations developed at Mayo Clinic pushed its creative team and production partners to innovate their own design abilities, filming processes and creative treatments. Instead of relying on computer-generated graphics to illustrate the technology, which ranges from surgical robots to AI and data stored in the Mayo Clinic Platform, the teams worked collaboratively to build each scene in real life.

To accomplish this feat, the team researched, developed and created entirely new production techniques to replicate the ways Mayo Clinic’s innovative practices remove the “un” from words like “unsolvable,” “untreatable” and “undefinable” to create a positive reality. The technology featured in the foreground was filmed in front of state-of-the-art LED walls and floors to create unique backdrops and lighting environments.

“We set out to create a campaign that translates the high quality of care we provide our patients into an imaginative creative campaign, because ultimately, our goal is to inspire patient confidence when they choose Mayo Clinic as their health care provider,” said Wes Weleczki, executive creative director at Mayo Clinic. “With this campaign, we are challenging the category’s traditional approach to advertising, much like we continue to challenge traditional approaches in health care more broadly.”

The high-impact TV spots will air nationally in association with a national PGA sponsorship and in select local TV and OTT markets in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida throughout the year. The ads will be accompanied by digital and social extensions.