Radio Education Campaign Wins ESCRS Practice Management and Development Marketing Prize

Bilic Vision Ophthalmology and Orthopeadic Polyclinic, Zagreb, Croatia, was named the winner of the 1st Marketing Case Competition at the close of the ESCRS Practice Management and Development programme in London. Represented by its founder,Nadežda Bilić, MD, PhD, Bilic Vision's entry focused on its successful radio education campaign to attract more cataract-age patients to the clinic. On an investment of €11,000, the clinic was able to generate an 8% increase in new patient visits based on the twice-weekly, two-minute health information series over a 12-month period. The clinic tracked if the news patients came via word-of-mouth, its website or the educational radio series.

The judges, Paul Rosen, chairperson of the ESCRS Practice Management and Development Committee, and Kris Morrill, medeuronet, felt that the Bilic Vision entry demonstrated the goal of the competition – to illustrate a marketing campaign developed on a small budget with a good return on investment. However, both Rosen and Morrill noted that making a decision amongst the four finalists was a difficult choice as each entry was unique and creative.

„The four finalists gave compelling presentations of their marketing campaigns, but in the end, we felt that Dr. Bilic and her team demonstrated that they had put into place learnings from attendance at previous ESCRS Practice Management and Development programme workshops,” said Rosen.

The runners-up were:

-         Augenklinik Bellevue, Kiel, Germany – T Herbst, J Foerster  - RELACS® as a product and marketing tool for laser-assisted cataract surgery

-         Nunemiso Clinic, Seoul, South Korea - Hyung-jin Koo, MD, Smile campaign

-         Clinicas Oftalmologicas Centrofama, Murcia, Spain  - ReLEx Smile Launch

The winner receives a €1,000 bursary to attend the XXXIII Congress of the ESCRS in Barcelona  as well as the opportunity to present at the 2015 ESCRS Practice Management and Development programme.