Arkansas Children's

Arkansas Children's

Connecting access to care with the magic of childhood.


How our LET THEM PLAY campaign is designed to improve reputation and stem out-migration.

Building awareness
Arkansas Children’s is respected across its state, but known for care in Little Rock, not in the biggest city in its Northeast corner, Jonesboro. To address that, Arkansas Children's turned to Core Health to develop a campaign to reintroduce its newly renovated children’s Jonesboro clinic. For residents, the Arkansas Children's presence in their corner of the state meant they wouldn't have to drive out-of-state to get the specialty care they deserved.

Connecting with the healthcare consumer
We determined Millennial Moms are the “bullseye” of the target, those most likely to have children under the age of 18 at home. Research showed they rate being a good parent as one of the most important goals in their lives. We used that information to reach an insight that would differentiate and build a vital emotional connection.

Increased appointments and brand awareness
We designed a campaign to increase appointment requests and brand awareness and affinity in the face of strong competition, while building a magical connection between Arkansas Children's and families in the area. It’s the result of collaborative thinking between our team and our client – a partnership that affirmed crystal-clear strategy and creative that sparkles. 

According to quantitative research, the brand’s unaided awareness in Northeast Arkansas doubled in 2020 over the prior year, as did the brand’s share of experience (percentage of total healthcare experiences in the market). 

The campaign was recently recognized with a Silver Award from the Service Industry Advertising Awards in the full integrated campaign category.

stay close

The concept phase

Our challenge was to convince families that with the Arkansas Children’s Jonesboro Clinic, parents in Northeast Arkansas didn’t need to drive out of or across the state for specialty care.

We needed a call-to-action that said “stay close” to deliver on our desired perception. We needed something that built a powerful link between that simple, rational need to believe in great local access to care with the ultimate emotional driver of parents – being a good parent and giving their children great lives. Once we recognized the emotional needs of the audience, the insight that drove our concept was simple.

Because kids deserve the best specialty care. And you deserve easy access.

Our concept grew from there ...

Stay Close saying

Girl with butterflies
Boy with fireflies
Boy with bubbles
what it feels like words

Creative execution

LET THEM PLAY doesn’t lead with statistics listing the number of specialties or specialists. It shows parents what they wish for their children. A normal, fun and adventurous childhood. Time playing. Time with family, friends and their favorite pastimes.

Core created an outstanding campaign for our Jonesboro Clinic because it is clearly grounded in 'voice of the customer.' Both the campaign development process and the execution itself are perfect examples of how we are aligning ourselves with best-in-class external partners - partners who are helping us evolve our marketing approach and improve our impact to Arkansas Children's.

Jeff House – Vice President, Strategic Marketing
Arkansas Children's Digital ad laptop.png

Emotional connection

By bringing specialty care closer to home, Arkansas Children’s is giving children a little more “normal” so parents can let them be kids just a little bit longer.

“Finding that emotional connection was imperative for this opportunity. We challenged our team to create something that felt imaginative, playful, curious and warm.” – Jerry Higgins, Creative Director

We made sure that connection would be felt across a wide variety of media, incorporating the eye-catching animations that would become the campaign's trademark as often as possible.

ACH airplane print ad
ACH bubbles billboard zoomed in
ACH Child playing with train
ACH guitar print ad
Two ACH girls in a tent reading books
ACH kid painting V4

Get in Touch