CASE STUDY

Repositioning Cancer Care to Drive Awareness, Screening, and Market Share Growth

MaineHealth is a leading health system serving communities across Maine and Northern New Hampshire, offering comprehensive cancer care close to home. Facing increasing competitive pressure and evolving patient expectations, MaineHealth partnered with True North to elevate its cancer brand and drive measurable growth across prevention, screening, and treatment services.

THE CHALLENGE

MaineHealth needed an integrated strategy connecting brand, performance, and measurement

The cancer program was facing:

Increased regional competition for oncology services
Fragmented consumer awareness of available cancer screenings
Market share erosion in select service lines
A need to align messaging with updated brand positioning and drive awareness to resources integrated within digital solutions

MaineHealth needed to:

Strengthen brand perception around comprehensive cancer expertise
Educate patients about prevention and early detection
Create clarity for patients navigating a complex cancer journey
Translate brand awareness into increased consideration and preference to drive service line growth

The Strategic Approach

True North developed and executed a comprehensive cancer awareness and growth strategy grounded in insight, aligned to MaineHealth’s refreshed brand platform.

PART ONE

Insight driven messaging framework

We created a strategic messaging architecture centered on:

Personalized care and expert guidance
Access to leading-edge treatments and technology
Patient-centered experiences
“Here through it all” continuity across the cancer journey
Comprehensive care close to home

This framework ensured consistency across awareness and screening efforts.

PART TWO

Dual-funnel performance strategy

True North deployed an integrated upper- and lower-funnel strategy to build market visibility, educate patients and support networks, and drive screening conversions.

Key elements included:

Paid search to capture high-intent treatment and screening demand
Programmatic media to expand reach and educate at scale
Social media campaigns to humanize the cancer journey
Multimedia educational assets that featured a statement from a real person and then when clicked, an answer from MaineHealth was provided

These efforts connected brand awareness directly to patient acquisition outcomes.

PART THREE

Measurement with business alignment

True North aligned campaign KPIs with business impact, tracking:

Engagement and actions to the website
Cost per action efficiency
Market share implications

Embedding measurement into campaign architecture gave MaineHealth visibility into which channels were driving awareness and website traffic.

The treatment campaign delivered strong performance

36.07% conversion rate via paid search at $13.71 CPL

13.29% conversion rate via programmatic at $11.95 CPL

4.23% conversion rate via social at $26.78 CPL

Explore the campaign landing page

Why our strategy worked

An integrated approach that drove measurable performance.

Unified brand and performance strategy

True North ensured brand messaging and conversion strategy were developed together, not separately.

Insight-led creative

Messaging reflected real patient anxieties and decision triggers uncovered through consumer insight work.

Integrated funnel design

Lower-funnel appointment-driving tactics worked in concert, creating measurable impact.

Continuous optimization

Performance data-informed ongoing channel allocation and creative refinement, improving efficiency over time.

A nationally recognized award-winning campaign

2025 Platinum Award for Digital Media Microsite

2025 Best Digital Marketing Campaign of the Year

Building a long-term growth partnership

MaineHealth’s cancer growth strategy evolved into a scalable, multi-service line performance marketing partnership.

Through strategic alignment, measurement clarity, and disciplined optimization, True North helped MaineHealth increase screening awareness, improve lead generation efficiency, regain competitive market share, strengthening its position as a comprehensive cancer care destination.

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