Our design work on primetime TV!
Blink and you’ll miss it, but isn’t that the best thing about cameo appearances?
The camera pans across our recruitment fence banner as it follows consultant neurosurgeon Dr Kevin O’Neill walking through the main entrance of Charing Cross Hospital.
It’s Episode 3 of the ground-breaking BBC documentary Hospital, which has been attracting plenty of attention…not only for its heart-rending patient stories, but for its no holds barred coverage of the challenges faced by a chronic shortage of available beds at a major acute hospital.
BBC2’s ‘Hospital’ documentary
The series is set at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, an organisation that NHS Creative has been providing recruitment marketing services to for the past six months.
Michelle Dixon, Director of Communications at the trust, explains the reasons behind letting the cameras in:
“We wanted the chance to use the interest in medical programming to show the great care all our staff and hospitals provide, as well as the innovation and commitment. But we also wanted to see if there was a way of sharing the growing challenges, especially of how NHS organisations like ours can best work with our patients and partners to respond to changing needs and demands. The series covers the huge range of day-to-day activities, from the small acts of kindness that make such a difference to an individual to ground-breaking research trials that help change practice world-wide.”
For me, the abiding memory of the documentary is the exceptional care that was provided by all staff at the trust, demonstrated by their dedication and commitment, as well as by their personal touch and integrity. What better platform can there be than this for promoting the trust as a great employer?
And it’s not just the BBC that’s been helping to promote the trust’s recruitment brand. Placing an external fence banner outside Charing Cross Hospital involved a financial outlay of less than £250. That would not even be enough to buy you a listing on most commercial job boards, let alone an ad on a billboard.
The full fence banner in all its glory
When it comes to marketing messages to promote your organisation, are you maximising the potential of your own organisation’s estate? If you want to use outdoor media, why pay to rent expensive media space when the NHS already owns one of the largest estates in the UK?
The entrance to Charing Cross Hospital has a footfall of many hundreds of thousands of people every year. It’s prime media space, and should be treated as such. Plus, with all the media interest on the NHS, you never know when the next film crew will be passing by!