Luquire Launches OrthoCarolina ‘A Better Choice’ Rebrand

Creative included brand identity, platform development and an integrated communications plan

Last winter OrthoCarolina, one of the nation’s leading orthopedic and sports medicine providers, came to Luquire with a desire to boost awareness of its brand in a cluttered healthcare category. OrthoCarolina was facing two major challenges: being significantly outspent by larger hospital systems in the area, and a lack of differentiated messaging that accurately and succinctly explained all the brand offered.  

An integrated team of Luquire creatives, client engagement professionals, and media and public relations teams dove into extensive research-gathering mode to begin developing a brand platform, positioning and creative campaign and communications plan that would reintroduce the brand to the public in a wholly unique way. The goal? To bring OrthoCarolina top of mind for consumers when it matters most.  

The insight that eventually became the campaign’s North Star was a widely held belief by consumers assuming they had to go directly to the emergency room or through their primary care providers for a referral to see an orthopedic specialist. The overall complexities of navigating health care, coupled with low awareness levels of the wide range of services OrthoCarolina offered, were preventing consumers from making the best health care decisions for themselves and their families. 

Dubbed “A better choice,” the campaign leverages humor to break through and stand out in a saturated category. The integrated campaign tells relatable stories to connect with prospective patients, leaning into the fact that while consumers have a choice when it comes to their health care, there is only one BETTER choice for orthopedic services: OrthoCarolina. 

Rounding out the campaign was the work of Luquire’s media and public relations teams, who worked side by side to streamline earned and paid efforts to ensure the new campaign would be seen by the target audiences of parents, weekend warriors/active adults and individuals over age 50. Luquire’s paid media team trafficked ads through a number of channels meant to capture the attention of the desired audiences, including OTT/CTV, YouTube, Paid Social (Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest), Waze, Display and Paid Search.  

Meanwhile, the PR team began pitching a joint patient-physician story that perfectly showcased how and why the provider lived up to its newly revamped ethos. The story, which profiled an OrthoCarolina patient’s severe progression of Lyme disease, leaving her in need of dozens of fusions and joint replacements by a half dozen OrthoCarolina surgeons (including Dr. Glenn Gaston) was picked up by NBC’s TODAY in a story that ran the day of the campaign’s launch.  

We are excited to see what’s in store for OrthoCarolina’s future – and we’ll be there at every step of the way.