Situation

Children’s Hospital New Orleans is the first and largest freestanding children’s hospital that provides the highest level of care for the sickest babies, children, adolescents and young adults in Louisiana and the Gulf South. To continue to provide the most advanced care possible, hospital leaders knew it was necessary to expand their facilities and create an innovative environment of healing. As a result, in November 2021, Children’s unveiled a four-year, $300 million campus transformation project that included 230,000 square feet of new clinical care space enhanced by family housing, gardens, playgrounds and greenspace. With this project came the opportunity for Children’s to re-introduce their organization to the community as the region’s leading pediatric health care leader.   

During the grand opening of the new campus, the most significant expansion project in the hospital’s 67-year history, the local media did not cover the transformation project or other aspects of Children’s growth to the degree that hospital leadership expected. To overcome the media drought the hospital was experiencing, Children’s partnered with Gambel Communications to create a year-long integrated public relations campaign to increase positive media stories.

Strategy

In partnership with Children’s, Gambel established a campaign goal to increase positive public awareness for Children’s Hospital through print media coverage in the local daily newspaper, centering around the main two pillars of the hospital’s strategic plan: growth and operational excellence. The campaign’s success would be measured by the quantity of earned media coverage, securing at least one thought leadership award for Children’s president and CEO as well as executing sponsored content opportunities to leverage key story lines. To ensure the campaign's success, Gambel and Children's agreed to meet on a weekly basis and Gambel would provide monthly media coverage reports.  

Based on the research phase of the campaign, Gambel identified critical story lines that would be incorporated into the campaign strategies. These included topics like Children’s subspecialty services that aren’t available anywhere else in Louisiana, their efforts to lead the way in child mental and behavioral health, recruitment of pediatric physician specialists to New Orleans, future expansion announcements and of course, the campus transformation. Additionally, Gambel recognized that the president and CEO of Children’s was relatively new to the community but highly respected in his field nationally. The team included strategies to elevate his profile locally. Gambel took these story lines and built an editorial calendar and crafted key messages for each.  

To complement earned media, Gambel partnered with the daily newspaper to create a sponsored content strategy that would run the duration of the campaign in all markets in southern Louisiana. The sponsored content pieces covered a variety of the identified key story lines and incorporate patient experiences along with thought leadership for some Children’s top recruited physicians. The two, two-page spreads in a statewide magazine focused on the campus transformation and the announcement of the $10 million child enrichment center.  

To increase earned media for the identified story lines, Gambel organized and moderated an editorial board meeting with the local daily newspaper and key members of Children’s leadership team. In lieu of asking for a specific story, the meeting served as reintroduction of Children’s as a regional health care leader and focused on Children’s goal of transforming the health of our next generation. Preparation included the creation of meeting materials and facilitating a rehearsal meeting with Children’s participants. Gambel also coordinated a desk-side exploratory meeting with this media outlet’s sole health care reporter for the entire state to learn about future story priorities and better understand how Children’s could provide value to those. 

Utilizing the editorial calendar, Gambel pitched key story lines to members of the local media with a concentration on the local daily newspaper over the course of the year-long campaign. The stories focused on the economic impact Children’s recruitment efforts have on the community, the impact have having top physicians in Louisiana, in-depth looks at key programs and the different areas of growth of Children’s over the last five years. Gambel positioned Children’s president and CEO as a contender for a local award called the A-List, recommended him for a profile feature in local society magazine and nominated him for a state-wide person of the year award.  

Results

Overall, the year-long integrated public relations campaign that Gambel created and executed on behalf of Children’s exceeded the established goals and objectives. 

Together Gambel and Children’s determined the campaign’s success would be measured by the quantity of earned media coverage, securing at least one thought leadership award for Children’s president and CEO as well executing the identified sponsored content opportunities to leverage key story lines. As a result of the year-long integrated public relations campaign, Gambel aided Children’s Hospital in securing more than 900 local and national media mentions, resulting in an estimated nearly 3 billion views. The president and CEO received two awards recognizing his leadership in the community and 22 sponsored content stories were published highlighting key story lines.  

With a focus on earned print media in the local daily newspaper around Children’s main two pillars of the hospital’s strategic plan, growth and operational excellence, Gambel earned 66 story placements for Children’s in the local daily newspaper. Gambel also earned multiple feature stories in two business publications, dozens of interviews on four television stations as well as a contributing story in New Orleans Family Magazine.  

The editorial board meeting with Children’s president and CEO, board president and two of their top physicians was attended by six members of the daily newspaper’s editorial team. The meeting directly met the goal of reintroducing Children’s as the leading regional pediatric health care resource and achieved an added benefit of several after-meeting one-on-one conversations. The Children’s leadership team was satisfied that the editorial team better understood who Children’s was today compared to who they were five years ago directly as a result of the meeting.  

The sponsored content stories with the local daily newspaper were viewed by more than 954,738 readers, received more than 18,000 online story views with 17,955 minutes read. The most popular stories were Children’s campus transformation and their Behavioral Health Center. The additional sponsored content stories were viewed by more than 543,780 readers.

To elevate Children’s president and CEO’s leadership role within the community, Gambel nominated and secured recognition as a member of the A-List in Adore Magazine. The executive’s profile was featured in the September issue, and he was recognized at the A-List celebration event at the daily newspaper who owns Adore Magazine. He was recognized by St. Charles Avenue Magazine as a Changemaker. Combining his leadership role with the economic impact his leadership has brought to the community, he was interviewed for a feature story by Biz New Orleans Magazine that resulted in an invitation by Greater New Orleans, Inc. president to be a guest speaker on a radio interview about the impact Children’s is having on the health care landscape of the state of Louisiana.