Nail Communications, an award-winning creative agency, announced the launch of a new campaign for Lifespan, Southern New England’s largest health care network. The campaign aims to acknowledge and support health care systems already faced with chronic staff shortages that were pushed to the breaking point by the pandemic. Lifespan is one such network, which now finds itself with 2,500 open positions.
With this unprecedented number of vacancies, Lifespan understood that it would need to do something dramatic to prevent any disruptions in crucial care. Working with its longtime agency partner Nail Communications, Lifespan decided to stop advertising. Campaigns for cardiac care, orthopedics, and all other service lines were paused.
The one exception came on March 10, when for one day Lifespan ran a teaser ad on TV, radio, newspaper, and digital that stated, “This is the last Lifespan ad you’ll see for a while.”
“Their staff has been nothing short of heroic,” said Alec Beckett, Creative Partner at Nail. “But they have been stretched too thin and need help. We thought the best way to get it to them was to ‘give them the mic’ and let them talk directly to the community.”
A few days later, the ads Lifespan had been running throughout the region were replaced with ads from “Julio” and “Kayla” and “Ana” — real Lifespan employees sharing their experience.
To see the work, click HERE.
“At the end of my shift, we have patients hold your hand and tell you ‘Thank you for everything you have done,’” said Romell Taylor, registered nurse at The Miriam Hospital and Lifespan employee of +20 years. “We just want nurses out there to know that Lifespan is a nice place to work, we have a lot of support, so if they want to join in, we are here to help them navigate that.”
Unscripted and raw, the stories and images were gathered by a small team from Nail that went behind the scenes and talked to 30 Lifespan employees from all over the network—from janitorial staff to surgical techs to CNA’s—giving them the chance to tell their stories and ask for the help they need.
“While their tagline is ‘Lifespan. Delivering health with care.’ we know full well that it really means ‘Lily. Delivering health with care.’ Or Romell, or Brook, or Derrell, and so on,” added Beckett. “And we hope this campaign gets them the help they need and deserve.”
About NAIL Communications
NAIL Communications is where every brand finds it’s fascinating. For 24 years, NAIL has made award-winning advertising, design and branding work for regional, national and global brands. To learn more, visit nail.cc.
About Lifespan
Lifespan, Rhode Island’s first health system was founded in 1994 by Rhode Island Hospital and the Miriam Hospital. A comprehensive, integrated, academic health system with The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Lifespan’s present partners also include Rhode Island Hospital’s pediatric division, Hasbro Children’s Hospital; Bradley Hospital; Newport Hospital; Gateway Healthcare; Lifespan Physician Group; and Coastal Medical.
