Within Weeks 1.7 Million People Saw a Profitable Partnership You Can Emulate
Nurses, janitors, lab techs, doctors even the CEO and a cancer patient donned pink hospital gloves and danced around a hospital in my home town, Portland Oregon. The “Pink Gloves Dance” video of it has been viewed over 1.7 million times in just the last couple weeks. The singer whose music was featured in it, linked the video to his Web site, writing on his Facebook page that it “is awesome … medicine will always be close to my heart and this is such a worthy and important cause.” The dance was choreographed by a volunteer who’s in-laws brag about it.
It’s probably the first video project to get covered by media as diverse as Huffington Post, eMaxHealth, L.A. Times and PopEater.
Imagine your organization cavorting for a cause in a way that leverages value and visibility for all partners – touching the hearts and mind of those in your “market.” Here’s why partners wanted to participate and some suggestions for you to craft your version of this success story to grow your business or cause. 
Hint: Imagination + the right partners + a specific plan that speaks to the sweet spot of mutual benefit and brings out the best in all players increases the likelihood of a contagious outreach campaign.
Sweet Spot of Mutual Benefit: Motivate more women 40+ to get a mammogram every one or two years and reduce their risk of breast cancer.
The Players in this Partnership
1. The hospital, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, and its staff, especially nurses whose average age nationally is 46.8.
2. The campaign underwriter, Medline sells medical products to hospitals.
3. An association of nurses who work in operating rooms (AORN), thus use gloves, and are key influencers re product choices and most of them are women.
4. The National Breast Cancer Foundation which has received almost a half million dollars from Medline (partly from the $1 per box of gloves donation) to provide education and free mammograms to those in need.
Keys to Involving the People You Seek to Reach and Serve
• Create a video that:
- Features people, props and settings that matter to your key market.
- Involve captivating action (dance or other group interaction).
- Have emotional appeal (fun, startling, cute, heart-warming, funny…).
- Is brief.
- Has an easy-to-remember title tied to your core message.
• Create a Key Core Message: Women over 40: Get a mammogram. Every year or two.
• Reinforce that message and benefits to all players with an awareness of how your campaign supports Key Sub-messages:
- Because we are a caring, smartly collaborative, well-run hospital that honors all staffers and its patients we strongly back a cause that matters to all of us.
- As a cutting edge supplier of medical products we pick one single cause that matters to our employees and our customers – and go all out to generate value for that cause.
- Because we believe deeply in quality of care for our peers and for the patients we serve as AORN and hospital nurses we highlight this cause, as partners with Medline with the Breakfast Forum at our annual conference
- Because we are proud to work at our hospital and we trusted that appearing in this video would shine a positive spotlight on it and on the cause we were happy to participate
• Leverage Full Value Out of Your Partnership by…
- Choosing a specific, vivid word picture tie-in: “pink gloves” = reduced risk of breast cancer, get a mammogram.
- Combining in-person activities with online opportunities to get involved: Video, web sites and blog + breakfast.
- Inspiring bragging rights: As the book Connected shows, emotion is contagious to the third degree: one’s positive emotion affects those with whom one comes in contact – and those they are around. See how many people three or more steps away from this campaign already enjoying telling others about it.
- Turn it into an annual tradition. Medline sponsors that Breakfast Forum at AORN’s annual conference. Each year another hospital could create another “in motion” video, in partnerships with Medline and AORN to put another local angle and a fresh spin on their ongoing story.
See more ways to profitably partner.
