Conversions in the healthcare placement category are particularly difficult to achieve as we are asking doctors to make massive lifestyle sacrifices, and leave behind potentially lucrative careers in first world countries. However, the rewards are tremendous as they positively influence the lives of thousands. There are no restrictions on direct mail to the target market in the Netherlands.

The objectives of the campaign were to solicit enquiries from, and placement of, graduate doctors and health care professionals, from a database of first world graduate doctors, into rural communities in Southern Africa.

Partners were sourced that could develop and produce the sound chips and manufacture the devices.

A prototype was approved and final production of the first 100 units was completed in just over 2 weeks.

The packages were boxed, mailing list approved and final parcels sent out on 17 June 2013.

This was followed up by a personal phone call from an Africa Health Placements representative 1 week later.

Phase 2, another 100 units, is due to be implemented in early 2014.

The strength of the solution lay in the doctors using the one thing we knew they would have: their Stethoscope. The communication also spoke to them in a very personal manner and secured their undivided attention as they listened to the message which is only audible via their Stethoscope.

A total of 32 enquiries were generated out of the 100 units sent out, resulting in four doctors being placed in Sub-Sahara Africa. Each doctor serves a community of 80,000 people, so the campaign has positively impacted on the lives of 320,000 people. Africa Health Placements Twitter followers increased by 23,000, and the campaign made over 200,000 unique impressions on Twitter. The online case study reached just under 15,000 views, and the case study was reposted on 69 different blogs, ranging from AOL Online, ADWeek, Trend Hunter and PSFK. It even made ad of the month for German trend magazine HAPTICA, and was voted the second best South African ad of the year on marklives.com.

The campaign combined two traditional mediums, direct mail and radio, to create the world's first stethoscope radio advert. We recorded a 30 second radio advert and compressed the audio to the exact frequency and level needed to only be audible through a standard stethoscope. When the graduate doctors placed their stethoscope it activated a pressure sensitive device that triggered the MP3. Not only did the mailer spark huge interest from the target market, but it created a completely new medium to communicate to doctors through their own stethoscopes.

With 20% of the world's population, Sub-Sahara Africa languishes with only 2% of the world's physicians. Attracting and retaining health workers is critical to solving the massive public health issues in the region. Conversions in the healthcare placement category are particularly difficult to achieve as doctors are asked to make massive lifestyle sacrifices, and leave behind potentially lucrative careers in first world countries, the rewards are tremendous as they positively influence the lives of thousands.

Africa Health Placements aims to enhance the healthcare delivery system in Africa through the provision of Human Resource Solutions and Services from first world countries.