The number of qualified candidates who applied to the program tripled from previous years ...

This was the first year that Duke’s most desired, most qualified candidates also chose Duke as a match for their school of choice.

The Challenge

A national decline of interest in family medicine among medical students, caused Duke Family Medicine Residency Program to close its doors to new recruits for over a year while the University reconsidered its approach. When the decision was made to continue the program, Duke was faced with less than three months to re-launch the program at the nation’s largest  annual conference. In addition, they were still facing fierce competition due to the shrinking pool  of potential family medicine residents.

What we did

Given the accelerated timeframe, VisionPoint Marketing conducted an abridged version of our Strategy Phase. We conducted high-level analysis and gained insights from competitor research, reviews of past messaging, and key one-on-one interviews with applicants who had chosen other residency programs over Duke. We met with groups of key stakeholders to quickly identify the  business goals for the program. In addition to achieving a recruiting goal from a standing start,  Duke University’s program had the added challenge of overcoming a perception that the program was not thriving due to closing the doors to new recruits for the past year.

VisionPoint determined the key to success was to clearly communicate Duke’s differentiators and  re-position the program in a way that focused on the newly developed, cutting-edge curriculum. At the one and only annual conference to recruit prospective family medicine residents, the re-launch strategy was communicated in the exhibit space via projected motion graphics that highlighted the program’s key messaging points, and used an updated visual approach that gave a fresh new look to the program while leveraging the strong ‘Duke’ brand. Printed material and a new web site were also developed in time for the conference.

Results

VisionPoint completed all materials and deliverables in time for a very successful re-launch at  the conference. The number of qualified candidates who applied to the program tripled from  previous years and, according to the division administrator, the quality of candidates improved  tremendously after VisionPoint Marketing’s re-launch of the program. In fact, this was the first year that Duke’s most desired, most qualified candidates also chose Duke as a match for their school of choice.

Potential residents truly understood and appreciated the value of Duke’s new family medicine residency program, which has gone from a program on the verge of being non-existent to one that is raising the bar within the health care community.

Web site url: http://dukefamilymedresidency.mc.duke.edu