Margaux Childers, account manager

Like me, you’ve probably heard the news about the aging Baby Boomer generation and the fact that people are living longer. But, have you stopped to think about how these trends will affect you? I did – at the young age of 28 – when I started working with our client, Senior Care at Wishard.

This nationally recognized program has been around for several years and responded to the needs of our community’s aging population by expanding its services. But Wishard wanted to do more. To help raise awareness and increase the number of patients to the program, Wishard asked Borshoff to create an advertising strategy.

Digging deep into the topic and talking with seniors one-on-one, my eyes were opened. I learned about the challenges seniors face every day. For example, caregivers carry much of the burden of making medical decisions, providing information to the patient and helping their loved one complete day-to-day tasks.

So, I asked myself, “Where would I turn if I needed to care for my aging parents?” It was hard to imagine adding this responsibility to my already busy schedule…most people find it overwhelming and stressful. That’s when I understood how Senior Care at Wishard could help.

Working closely with the Wishard team, we created a great strategy to reach both the caregiver and aging adults in our community. The main component of our campaign was a comprehensive Web site resource – www.LivingLongerBetter.org – that provides answers to common questions from lifestyle and social issues to medical problems. We advertised the site through print and Web ads, as well as a radio spot. In the first month of the ad campaign, the program has seen a spike in number of phone calls and appointments. Our instincts were right… this is a great opportunity to help people!

I came across so many little facts in my research that I was unaware of, like the number of adults aged 65 and older will reach 71.5 million people by 2030.* This represents nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population. Stop and think… who’s taking care of all those people? Well one day, it could be you and me. But in the meantime, I’ll leave the heavy lifting to the doctors and staff at Senior Care at Wishard.

*Source: Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics.

This entry was posted by Borshoff on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.