This article was written by Jessica Levco, a freelance healthcare writer who covered the 26th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference (HCIC) for Greystone.Net. 
Starting in 2019, Corewell Health, based in Michigan, made a commitment to video messaging. However, the team realized it was spending too much money on outsourcing its video needs — a price tag of about $40,000 a month. In 2021, the team decided to take everything in-house. This meant building their studio, investing in video equipment and hiring a videographer.
Now, it was time to get the camera rolling. Michael Yoder, lead digital marketing specialist and Philip Taylor, studio manager/lead communications specialist, told the behind-the-scenes story of how it was done to attendees at the 26th Annual Healthcare Internet Conference.
Creating an in-house studio required more than just lights, cameras and microphones. It also required investment in equipment, such as:
- Drones to add a new dimension to video services
- A teleprompter to make delivery of key messages easier
- Music subscription
- A second shared photo library to help with production efficiency
Corewell Health uses StreamYard, a live streaming studio, which gives them the ability to broadcast and produce live videos from anywhere. Corewell Health has 70+ social media channels and can stream videos to multiple channels, simultaneously. The team can produce a live-streamed broadcast with up to 15 people on camera from multiple locations.
The team has produced:
- 40+ Streamyard broadcasts and recordings (media briefings about COVID-19, community conversations on DE&I topics and a virtual donor series)
- 450+ virtual events/recordings through Zoom and Microsoft Teams (webinars, board updates and more)
- 100+ culinary medicine classes
- 90+ original messages (executive messages, marketing campaigns and recruitment videos)
The most popular video series was the Plant Power Challenge in January. More than 5,000 people registered (from six out of seven continents) and attendees learned everything from the art of draining chickpeas to how to properly season vegetables. Their most popular video was about a plant-powered breakfast, which reached 62,500 people with 17,400 views and 473 reactions, comments and shares.
They’ve also seen success with a respiratory therapy recruitment video (it reached more than 74,500 people with more than 45,000 views) and a five-part marketing campaign series that netted a total of 30,000 views (an example of one of the videos).
Because the videos have been so successful, it seems like everybody at Corewell Health wants to do a video, Taylor says.
“Now, we spend some time educating people on how long it takes to produce a video is tantamount,” Taylor says. “It might take about an hour to shoot, but we still need three to four hours to edit. We encourage more live-streaming than pre-recorded messages because when it’s recorded, everybody wants four to five takes.”
In the first six months of launching their production studio, the team saved $250,000 on what they previously spent on outsourcing their video needs. It was a big win for their CFO, who gave them his blessing to build a second studio at their main office building. It will primarily serve as a broadcast hub for the healthcare system that spans the width of the state.
“We also want to build small rooms at our other regional hospitals for streaming and recording,” Taylor says. “That way, we can bring more leaders and the medical professionals into a better situation that you would see in Zoom or Microsoft Teams, and not have to ask them to spend time traveling to our main studio.”
Has your healthcare marketing team had success with video marketing? If so, your colleagues want to hear about it! You can share your story at HCIC23 in Los Angeles next November. BOLO for the Call for Speakers opening in January. Look for announcements via email and social media.