The Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine has hired Terri & Sandy as its first agency of record to help the clinical network shift cultural conversations around fertility treatments.
"We want to make it comfortable to talk about at any stage of your life," says Constance Rapson, chief marketing officer at the center, which is known as CCRM. "The whole adage of 'Having it all' is transforming, and wanting to have a baby at any stage of your life should be part of having it all."
CCRM decided to begin its first consumer brand campaign because it now has 10 facilities around the country and the multibillion dollar fertility industry is growing rapidly, Rapson says.
Terri & Sandy, an independent shop that was Ad Age's 2017 Small Agency of the Year, will spearhead a campaign meant to reach a wide range of potential patients, including couples, single parents and donors at all stages of the reproductive process. The initiative, which will debut in April, will be centered around digital video and social content, extending into print and radio. The budget was not disclosed.
Women's Marketing, a women-led independent agency that pitched for the account in parternship with Terri & Sandy, is leading SEO, digital analytics and media buying duties on the campaign. Havas Formula is handling the PR and influencer strategy for the effort.
"We've moved into an age of opening up conversations about men and women around our different experiences, and fertility is a part of that," says Rapson.
Women have been getting the message that they shouldn't get pregnant right away, only to be asked "Why aren't you pregnant?" once they're older, Rapson says.
"In an ideal world, from puberty to your early 20s, we would talk about prevention and how your body works and then preservation of fertility and fertility assessments, and then identify how you want to start a family and have conversations around pregnancy and genetic disease prevention," she says.
"That cultural narrative will take a long time to shift, but we have to start now," says Rapson.
In addition to creating the new campaign, Terri & Sandy will revamp CCRM's website and introduce a new logo for the brand. The shop will also roll out b-to-b initiatives later this year, including a digitization of CCRM's provider outreach efforts and a campaign to target healthcare providers and practitioners.
Terri Meyer, co-founder and CEO of Terri & Sandy, says the agency is excited about the win partly because "it's a piece of business that helps people achieve their dreams." The center also has a personal link for Meyer, who says her cousins were able to have their babies because of CCRM.