New England Baptist Hospital

New England Baptist Hospital wanted to expand its core audience base, strengthen its position as the region’s premier orthopedic specialist, and highlight its connection with the Boston Celtics. As one of several hospitals being merged into a new regional system, it also needed to establish itself as the category leader among a group of peers.

Informed by research that illuminated revealing details about the Baptist’s audience and reputation, we worked with the hospital leadership team to refine its brand positioning. Over its 125 year history, it had become recognized as the category leader for age-related orthopedic issues; now, it sought to broaden that base with a younger, more active audience. The hospital has an impressive reputation as an organization that truly cares about the total wellbeing of its patients, working earnestly to help them achieve pain-free movement through surgical as well as non-surgical intervention. We distilled this essence into a new tagline: “Every Move Is Extraordinary.”

To support this new tagline, we developed a visual approach to the brand that showcases aspirational, dramatic images of the human body in motion. A combination of professional athletes and everyday people were cast, in a variety of movements and scenarios, to demonstrate the crucial role that movement plays in all aspects of life. We featured players from the Boston Celtics—the first time in the Baptist’s 30-years as the team’s official hospital that players promoted the brand. We shot with Avery Bradley and Al Horford, and interviewed each of them about their experiences with the hospital. We designed a hallway installation for the main campus that used brand imagery, illustrations, and information about the impact of basketball on the human body to create an immersive, walk-through experience. This was one of several branded environment projects, including a redesign of the main entrance, environmental graphics for sponsored wings, and a full design program for the Baptist’s rehabilitation-focused Sports Performance Center. We extended the brand online with a new, user-friendly website featuring an easy-to-use backend for hospital staff to make changes.

A new audience was brought in to the Baptist family that broadened its reach and contributed to a meaningful increase in new patients: adult patients under 50 years old, with activity-related issues.