Most health stories can be broken up into three distinct categories:
1) Cool new ways you can stay healthy.
2) Gee whiz stories about medical breakthroughs and research.
3) Sad or inspiring stories about people dealing with health problems.
Each of these health stories requires a very different teasing strategy. When teasing the first category, useful health stories, make sure the story is actually useful to a majority of your audience. Far too often I see very specific promises that are of use to practically no one. “If you suffer from lupus, we’ve got great news for you tonight!” It is very useful, but only to a few people. Useful information health stories should be ubiquitous: eating better, cancer prevention, over-the-counter remedies, better sleep, etc. Ask yourself, “Is this information useful to most people or is it only useful to a small segment of the population?”
When doing one of these stories, take a moment to do a quick bit of math. Take this tease for example: “If your child has asthma, we’ve got new treatment options for you.” First of all, how many people in your audience have children? Say 40 percent? Okay, what percentage of those children have asthma? Say 1 in 10? That works out to four percent of your audience. Let’s double the number because I’m sure there are grandparents who might be interested too. That means that eight percent of your audience will use this information. In situations like this, you might want to focus on another part of the story so it is not a “how to” story. Perhaps you can make it a people story that features a heartwarming story of a boy with asthma, or perhaps it is a story that focuses on interesting aspects of the treatment. Changing the story’s focus will still attract parents of asthmatics, but now it has a chance of bringing in everyone else too.
Avoid showcasing science and research breakthroughs as useful information stories. Most often, we show lab rats and research laboratories when teasing these stories. How many times have you see those ubiquitous pictures of people moving around strange liquids in test tubes? How about androgynous, white-coated researchers gazing at mysterious life forms under a microscope? These pictures are an instant clue that this “breakthrough” will never happen in my lifetime. These images prove the story has nothing to do with real life and that any kind of meaningful treatment might be ready for use on my grandchildren. We’re showcasing the dullest part of the story.
When teasing these medical breakthrough stories, remember that the story is about the results of the study, not the technical specifics of the research. If the story is about a breakthrough in birth defects, show healthy kids playing, not researchers. If the story is about a breakthrough in bone density, show people playing tennis or walking with a cane. Don’t focus on the dull clinical study, focus on the how this breakthrough may affect real life.
An alarm should go off in your head when the tease video shows pill bottles, test tubes, lab employees, mice, university campuses, microscopes, glass trays, or bubbling liquid nitrogen tanks. If your tease contains the phrase “researchers at the university of (insert name here),” you have failed.
Analyze the research story and look for its potential benefits down the road. The story isn’t about cholesterol levels, it’s about fewer heart attacks and living longer. The story isn’t about prenatal blood allergies, it’s about happy families with smiling healthy children.
Graeme Newell is a broadcast and web marketing specialist who serves as the president and founder of 602 communications. You can reach Graeme at gnewell@602communications.com.