The winner of the Ad 2 Honolulu 2012-2013 public service campaign is — drumroll, please — the dental clinic at Aloha Medical Mission.
The organization of advertising industry professionals ages 32 and younger will create an advertising, marketing and public relations campaign that could be valued at around $1 million.
One task the club will surely tackle early on is to re-brand the dental clinic. When people hear Aloha Medical Mission, they think of the organization going to different countries with its medical outreach, said Ad 2 public service co-chairman Branden Gedeon. The perception remains accurate, but the dental clinic, in place since 2002, needs for more people to know about it, and for that it will need branding, he said.
"They have (dental) chairs, facilities and dentists, but they don’t have people coming in to get their teeth fixed," he said.
It is estimated that 430,000 people in Hawaii lack adequate dental care, and the clinic, Hawaii’s only free dental clinic, serves 120 people a year.
The clinic’s 12 volunteer dentists and volunteer hygienist provide examinations, X-rays, fillings, cleanings, extractions and oral health education and could be serving many, many more people, Gedeon said.
Because the population most in need of services is unlikely to be surfing their smartphones, tweeting and Facebooking, some nontraditional marketing will be added to the mix, he said.
The dental clinic needs to get its message out to low-income residents who would be eligible for such services and are in the greatest need for them.
That could include staging events and providing shuttles to the clinic, or any number of other ideas currently being considered.
Gedeon also noted signage in shopping areas and parking garages that has helped previous Ad 2 recipients reach the desired targets of their messaging.
Funding for the dental clinic comes from the state, private grants and donations.
Ad 2 Honolulu and Aloha Medical Mission will hold a launch party at Vice Inferno at Ward Centre from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4. The public is invited to the event, for which admission is $10. Proceeds will go to finance events related to the public awareness campaign. Gedeon said additional donations beyond the $10 cover will be gratefully accepted.
The ad club has a long history of winning national Ad 2 awards for its public service campaigns in competitions against fellow clubs, which have been reported on in this space.
Not to "bachi" anything, but the club has a three-peat going for its public service campaigns, awarded at the past three national Ad 2 conferences. The club has won many annual awards, not just for its public service campaigns, but for many other aspects of club operations and community impact.
The Hawaii Heart Foundation was the 2011-2012 Ad 2 Honolulu winner, and the club’s work for the nonprofit can be seen online and around the community.
Boys and Girls Club of Hawaii was the 2005-2006 pro-bono campaign recipient, and then-Executive Director David Nakada described the campaign’s impact as "just shy of earth-shattering" in July 2006. Results exceeded the organization’s expectations, he said.
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ON THE NET:
» www.alohamedical-mission.org
» www.ad2honolulu.org
