Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine’s marketing department is emphasizing its strong brand while “not resting on our laurels,” its new leader told Becker’s.
The 11-hospital system and academic medical center already has long waitlists for its high-acuity specialties, including oncology, neuro and organ transplants. But that doesn’t mean Michigan Medicine stops promoting itself.
“I worry a little bit more about the retail services — primary care and other things — whether or not every consumer is willing to wait just because of the brand, or, if they do have other options, they’ll go for convenience or easier access,” said Christine Woolsey, who became chief communication and marketing officer of Michigan Medicine in September.
The health system’s brand includes the trademarked Block M, so recognizable in part because of University of Michigan’s football prowess. The institution also has a powerful alumni and philanthropic network with a strong emotional attachment to the school. The medical center thrives in clinical care, research and innovation.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, Ms. Woolsey noted. The health system is exposed both to healthcare’s financial challenges and higher education’s political fight with the Trump administration, including National Institutes of Health funding uncertainty and H-1B visa restrictions.
Michigan Medicine’s marketing arm also doesn’t have an “unlimited budget” so must be strategic with its spending, Ms. Woolsey said.
“Is it trying to build volume, or is it more of a brand play? We have to do both. I believe we have to be in the market with our brand all the time,” she said. “We don’t always have the money to do that in a comprehensive way across all mediums, but I do think we need a brand presence, because our competitors have one.”
Some service lines and physicians, particularly newer ones, still need to be promoted, while other marketing campaigns are more about maintaining that reputation and attracting new talent, she said. Promoting convenient options like virtual care to younger consumers is also important. It just comes down to deciding between “direct-to-consumer” or “physician-to-physician-referral” marketing.
Ms. Woolsey also leans toward campaigns with quantifiable outcomes. “A lot of times you’ll hear, ‘We want a billboard,’ and it’s sort of like, well, we can’t really measure the impact of that,” she said. “So we’re big fans of digital and other types of campaigns that you can measure and actually see an outcome downstream from if you have the data sources.”
Her team includes web developers and other tech talent; in addition, she works as a “trusted partner” with IT on security, compliance and vendor vetting. Over the past few years, Michigan Medicine’s marketing team has consolidated about 300 clinical websites into four enterprise sites, streamlining the digital front door for patients.
Ms. Woolsey views generative AI as a productivity assistant for marketing and communications staffers, not a content creator. There’s too much at stake in medical communication to get it wrong. She worries about the hit to Michigan Medicine’s brand if the health system starts airing videos with AI-generated physicians instead of real ones.
She is also contending with the shift from SEO and keywords to AI-generated search, and said health systems everywhere are trying to figure out how to show up in AI-created summaries.
At the moment, Ms. Woolsey is focused on publicizing the health system’s recent philanthropy-driven growth, including a new 264-bed pavilion opening in November and ambulatory expansion to Oakland County, Mich.
“We’re not resting on our laurels of having a powerhouse brand and just thinking, ‘Well, because [patients have] always come, they will continue to come,'” she said. “We have to be nimble and make sure we’re keeping up with what consumer preferences are and how to get that loyalty.”
