Easy on the Antiseptic

Do you find these images disturbing?

If you’re a physician or nurse, they’re no big deal. If you’re not, well, you be the judge. Being a pretty chill dude, I’m simply curious. Aren’t these agency’s ads taking a big risk here?

Maybe not too big a risk. Maybe just enough.

As some of the top people at StoneArch Creative, a Minneapolis agency that specializes in health care clients, suggested to me last week, these images make it clear what StoneArch does—and that it’s not afraid of a little blood.

StoneArch is one of those smaller agencies in the Twin Cities that’s been doing well despite the downturn. It’s also looking to get some more attention. It’s not all that small: It now has 37 staffers, earned about $9.5 million in revenue in 2007, and has picked up 22 new clients (with no losses) in the past year. This past month, the agency gathered its people from various nooks and crannies in the St. Anthony Main complex and moved across the river to the Mill City Museum office building, where everyone can be in the same space.

The MCM building also is home to architecture firm Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle (which converted the building from a burnt-out hulk of a flour mill into a magnificent office and event structure), design firm Duffy and Partners, and the McKnight Foundation, well-known for (among other things) grants program for local artists. A creative-class phoenix rising from the ashes of the riverside industrial decline.

It also offers what for StoneArch is a requisite view of the Stone Arch bridge. It’s location as brand.

With its chic new digs and its 25th anniversary coming up, StoneArch has sharpened its own branding, streamlining its logo and changing its slogan from “It’s How We Think” to the catchier, more playful “We Cure Common.” (It’s also the theme of its upcoming open house, which it is putting together itself. That’s another distinctive niche for the shop: Event planning, primarily for med-tech clients, makes up about a quarter of its work.)

The agency’s clients include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Boston Scientific, UnitedHealth Group, and Abbott Northwestern. Everyone on staff has some kind of medical or health-care marketing background—there’s even a nurse on staff for advice and guidance. Its Web site portfolio shows the breadth of its work (it’s not all health care). The overall tone is mostly serious but not solemn—and not solely serious. Check out these print ads for the ReSound Dot hearing aid:

There’s a bit of scalpel-sharp edge here that (in my experience anyway) is remarkable for health-related marketing. For some clients, StoneArch’s ideas have pushed things even further. The client’s not always isn’t ready—but many are getting prepped for right-brain surgery.

“Clients are more interested in taking risks,” says Jessica Boden, StoneArch’s head creative. More and more seem to be saying: Go easy on the antiseptic.

BTW: In case you didn’t see the news, Minneapolis-based Pocket Hercules was recently named Advertising Age’s Small Agency of the Year for the Midwest. Runner-up was another local shop, Mono. (Dig their coolly minimalist Web sites, too.) As AdAge’s Jeremy Mullman notes, “With Pocket Hercules, Mono is evidence that Minneapolis is the new bastion of Midwest creativity.” See ya, Chicago.

Yep, I tweet. How about you?

Comments

[Andy Santamaria]

I really like what this agency is doing. It's picking a niche and going after it aggressively. Their clientele demonstrates that too. Having said that, when it comes down to accounts, the work has to do the talking...And it does! Anyone looking to get healthcare/medical accounts better be ready for some serious competition.