Heidi, an “AI Care Partner” that helps clinicians save time and reduce burn out through an array of AI tools, is laying out a unique set of desirable "side effects" in a new brand campaign that puts a twist on traditional pharma marketing tropes.
Independent Australia-based creative firm Cocogun and media agency TRG joined forces with the AI health platform to promote “a sense of relief” for clinicians working in healthcare systems across the U.S., Heidi explained in a July 7 press release, bringing “humor, relatability, and entertainment into a category awash with earnest takes and ultra-sincere clichés.”
“Heidi’s new campaign flips the familiar language and tropes of much-maligned Big Pharma advertising into something optimistic: a dose of Heidi may result in clearer heads, calmer days, and more present care,” the company said in its release. “And, ultimately, a sense of relief for clinicians and the leaders of healthcare systems across the U.S.”
The campaign, which launched globally across TV, YouTube, radio and digital media channels, builds on the company’s new brand platform “relief, on repeat” through a series of ads fronted by a “Chief Medical Officer with a little swagger and plenty of warmth,” Heidi said.
In a 60-second ad attached to the campaign, said chief medical officer (“Dr. Steve”) sits at his desk, flipping through purported brain scans of C-suite hospital executives, all of which shows a head filled with stressful imagery such as a maze of stairs or simply the term “ROI” in giant text.
“This one used to be me,” the CMO says, somberly holding a scan depicting a giant mushroom cloud in place of a brain.
Now, with the doctor using Heidi and in “chaotic medical institution condition remission,” he moonwalks through the hospital in a much more relaxed state as a voiceover begins to list Heidi’s potential side effects, explaining that the AI tool “may cause relief from budget swelling, alongside an acute rise in ROI.”
Users may also experience a “reduction in IT-related hostility,” the voiceover says, as a hospital IT employee pulls a needle out of a Dr. Steve-shaped voodoo doll.
“If side effects persist, you know you’ve made the right choice,” the hospital exec says in the ad, cutting a ribbon to officiate a hallway dubbed the “Dr. Steve is Awesome” wing. After a list of more positive “side effects,” such as “the unusual sensation of being popular among your medical staff,” the video ends with the voiceover advising viewers to “ask your CIO, CTO or CMO if Heidi is right for you.”
“We wanted to make something that treated clinicians like the whole, complex, occasionally exhausted humans they actually are,” Heidi’s head of brand Hayley Stafford explained in the release. “Relief starts small. But it compounds. We couldn't help but take that idea as far as it could go.”
Cocogun’s co-founder and creative partner Ant Melder found it a “joy to bring a relatable smile to the theme, in a way that cuts through the sea of sameness, tidal waves of triteness, and waterfalls of worthy,” Melder added.
Heidi has enabled care for over 2 million patient visits this week, according to its website. The free AI platform promises to “vanquish the paperwork” with its scribe note-taking tool and help confirm treatment plans with its evidence feature. The Heidi remote, meanwhile, allows healthcare practitioners to record visits without having to hassle with WiFi or cell phone problems as the first clip-on AI mic built for clinical documentation, according to the company.
Founded by Thomas Kelly, M.D., Waleed Mussa and Yu Liu in 2021, the company is refreshing its promotional arsenal as AI adoption spreads across the healthcare ecosystem at an increasing rate, matching what’s becoming an “unsustainable” administrative load on clinicians and suggesting a need for specific, accurate tools, Heidi explained in a July 3 blog post.
Heidi is one of several AI companies specifically targeted to reducing clinical burdens in healthcare systems among an ongoing provider shortage, with others such as Akido Cape’s ScopeAI and Zelis rolling out AI solutions as well to speed up workflows.
At the same time, patients are turning to AI technology for medical guidance on their own, with an eHealth survey last month finding that almost two-thirds of Americans who have asked AI tools for medical advice acted on the AI’s recommendations without consulting a doctor first.