Despite being a global med tech company with advanced products for heart surgery they are known by their product names, and not as Getinge products. This creates a business challenge since being seen as big is vital for being trusted and thereby being selected as a supplier of products that could mean the difference between life and death.

The brief: Make Getinge more known and strengthen the position as a trusted partner within cardiac surgery.

The target audience: Heart surgeons, and hospital staff within cardiac surgery.

Priority markets: US, and in addition UK, Japan and China. The budget for an international campaign was limited so we needed earned media.

Campaign goal: To generate international impact among our niche audience to make Getinge more known and associated to heart surgery. We wanted our audience to get curious and visit the site to learn more – about our idea, and about Getinge.

Dexterity is key to successful surgery. Every heart surgeon knows that, making them have a very special relationship with their hands. And they find all sorts of ways to exercise their ability to work with their hands with high precision. Our idea was to get their attention by finding a new, funnier, and more rewarding way of dexterity training, while connecting to this special behavior. After discovering that surgeons over-index in terms of interest in cooking, we found a surprising clash with the ability to create an immediate interest and engagement: cooking + surgery. The Heart Surgeon’s Cookbook was born. A cookbook demanding such a high level of dexterity it could provide heart surgeons with a ground-breaking and interesting way of dexterity training. And a cookbook where we made it clear that there are a lot of similarities between surgery and cooking.

Our audience was heart surgeons, and we knew it was a true challenge to cut through and catch their interest. Through research, we learned they have a very critical mindset when addressed in their professional role. However, we also found out that they are very curious and interested in relevant work-related topics when addressed outside of their professional domain.

This created a great opportunity: to connect with them as the curious and passionate human beings they are, not just as the rational ‘business decision makers’ they are used to being treated as. That’s why we needed an insightful topic that could catch the heart surgeons’ interest as humans, fit for the media they prefer to consume, making them curious to know more.

The messaging and assets could be tweaked depending on the vertical, but our key message was always around dexterity and the hands of the surgeons.

To further nurture the engagement with the heart surgeons the cookbook was created together with a reputable heart surgeon and a Guide Micheline Star Chef. Why? Because the critical heart surgeons have a high interest in other heart surgeons. But also, to craft a variety of different PR-angles to the story.

The campaign started in January 2024 by sending the physical cookbook to selected media on the key markets, pitched with relevant angles depending on kind of media vertical. Simultaneously, we spread the initiative through bought media (social and online) with a variety of angles: the story of the cookbook, the uncommon collaboration with a heart surgeon and a chef, the dexterity practices etc. All with the purpose to create such a curiosity they would like to know more and go the web page to find out more, about the initiative and about Getinge.

The idea of a cookbook for heart surgeons worked!

The story generated 400+ pieces of earned media. It was picked up in broader health media outlets, where we knew we would reach our audience, including BBC Health Check, Times Radio and high-profile health news in Japan and China.

The earned stories generated 5,3M estimated views with a PR-value of almost 2M USD. The potential reach was 457M.

The campaign films about the initiative were viewed more than 14 M times. Proving the content was seen as engaging Click Through Rates 500% above goal.

But most importantly: The audience became so curious they wanted to know more about Getinge and the cookbook, generating 514,000 clicks to site, 1,400% above target. The cookbook is now used by surgeons in 23 market.

In all, we managed to reach our specific audience, driving engagement and building the brand in new ways.