The latest phase of the American Medical Association’s new marketing campaign tries to enlist patients in the national doctor group’s overarching effort to increase membership and showcase the AMA as a powerful organization.
In new magazine ads, running in Parents, People and Newsweek magazines, patients are given envelopes with an AMA logo and urged to send “your doctor” a thank-you note. Patients can download one of six cards on the AMA’s Web site, www.ama-assn.org/go/thankyou.
The ads don’t bluntly put patients to the task of asking their doctors to join the AMA. Instead, the ads coax consumers and patients into letting “your doctors know how much you appreciate all they do for you and your family.”
On the back of one recent print ad the AMA offers patients and consumers eight “great ways to help make your relationship with your doctor even better,” asking them, among other things, to prepare ahead of time for appointments and be understanding when a doctor’s schedule is hectic.
Through the end of this year, the AMA said, it is also running a “heavy schedule” of television and print advertising “aimed at physicians as well as America’s patients,” the Chicago-based group said.
The ads, which will include a spot Sunday night during the second game of the World Series, are highlighting everyday accomplishments of AMA members.
The blitz is part of a $20 million marketing campaign the AMA announced in June that tends more toward consumer ads and marketing and away from traditional approaches such as direct mail to reach physicians.
A large number of members is key to the group’s clout.
AMA membership has dropped 20 percent since 1993, and was down to 244,530 as of the end of 2004, representing less than 30 percent of the more than 800,000 doctors in the United States.
The AMA hopes a new image of doctors will help reverse the decline.
“The next step in this visible campaign highlights physicians’ dedication to their patients ,” said AMA Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Michael Maves.
“[The ads] acknowledge physicians and their contribution as selfless champions for medicine,” Maves said.
“This campaign celebrates the caring and compassion of the medical profession and the heroic work that physicians do each and every day across this country,” he said.
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AMA officials have said they hope to begin seeing results from their campaign in the next year.
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