Over the course of their 60-year history, Hoag has grown from a single hospital to a regional network of care delivery consisting of three hospitals, 11 urgent care centers, 5 specialized institutes and more, with a premium brand known for personalized care and world-class physicians.

Over the past decade, we’ve been proud to be involved with executive leadership to impact nearly every aspect of Hoag—with a core focus on brand, institute marketing and patient acquisition.

We began our relationship by activating their dormant brand, and established a framework by which they could market and measure according to their customer segments.

We then led Hoag through the development of a concierge medicine model to provide GenX and millennials with healthcare the way they want it, with a tiered product offering by segment.

Over ten years, we’ve developed several brand campaigns for Hoag, and this was critical at a time when local competitors were outspending Hoag significantly and new competitors such as City of Hope were establishing a presence in Hoag’s service area. For decades, Hoag was known as the hospital on the bluffs in Newport Beach where mothers would go to have their babies. The purpose of these campaigns was to position Hoag as much more—a prominent regional health system with world-class specialists on par with nationally recognized names such as Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. Annual brand studies validated the significant impact of these efforts.

One of our big breakthroughs with Hoag happened when we made a recommendation to “plus up” their Open Enrollment campaign by bringing in Hoag’s competitive differentiator: personal service. We suggested the creation of the Hoag Personal Service Team, which was a direct phone line staffed by Hoag’s experts. Anyone, Hoag patient or not, could call the number during Open Enrollment with questions about navigating the process. Hoag’s PST would answer these questions even if it didn’t lead to a conversion into the Hoag network. 

 It was so successful that the program doubled historically strong response rates. And it was soon expanded by adding a healthcare-specialized call center to handle the increased volume. To this day it’s promoted in every Open Enrollment campaign. 

They always stepped up and exceeded expectations.

NINA B. ROBINSON / VP MARKETING / HOAG HEALTH NETWORK