[caption id="attachment_37726" align="alignright" width="405"] LION'S SHARE: Boomtown creative director Andrew MacKenzie, coastal managing director Glen Meier and creative group head Tim Jones with the silver Lions Health Award. Picture: FREDLIN ADRIAAN[/caption]
A PORT Elizabeth advertising agency has won an international award for touching the hearts of doctors.
Boomtown was brimming with excitement yesterday as creative group head Tim Jones brought home the silver Lions Health Award, which the agency received at the inaugural Lions Health Awards in Cannes.
The awards are a new addition at the famous Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
The Bay agency won for a creative campaign which the company started last year to recruit foreign doctors to work in rural Africa, on behalf of client Africa Health Placements (AHP).
The campaign involved mailing a personalised little wooden box, with a recorded 30-second radio advert placed inside the box, which could be heard only if the doctors used their stethoscopes to listen to the exact frequency of the MP3 advert.
The advert starts with the beating of a heart, which is followed by a personal call directed at the graduate doctors to save lives in Africa.
To date six doctors had signed up to work for AHP due to this recruitment method. Four have confirmed their placement in sub-Sahara Africa.
On how this life-saving, creative idea came about, Jones said it was one of those obvious things that jumped out at the team because stethoscopes were everyday objects for doctors.
With the help of partners, including overseas suppliers, the first 100 prototypes were manufactured and sent out last June to medical schools and graduate doctors across the globe. A further 100 devices would be sent out this year.
The device offered a very powerful marketing tool, exactly because it got doctors' undivided attention and they were guaranteed to listen to it via their stethoscopes, Boomtown creative director Andrew MacKenzie said.
The same campaign also won several other advertising awards including a bronze Loerie, silver Clio, silver Clio Healthcare, gold Epica, and gold Assegai.
Boomtown coastal managing director Glen Meier said receiving the accolade showed the talent that the agency was attracting. - Cindy Preller