The making of a nonfiction healthcare campaign
The making of a nonfiction commercial campaign
Date
Mar 17, 2025
Category
Spotlight
Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, wanted a different kind of brand campaign. In the past, ad agencies came up with flashy commercials that succeeded in elevating Vanderbilt’s image as a regional leader, but now the marketing team faced a different problem. Data showed that while people generally regarded Vanderbilt as the best, they didn’t get the sense that it really cared about them. Vanderbilt needed a campaign that humanized its brand, and came to us for help.
VIDEO: Jill Austin discusses her experience working with Stonecastle Pictures on Vanderbilt Medical Center’s nonfiction commercial campaign.
TL;DR Just want to see the commercials? Head over to this link to watch the entire campaign.
Finding our real people stories
Working directly with Vanderbilt’s strategic marketing team, we proposed filming real patients and their physicians as they shared their stories of personal connection. Where most healthcare ads zoom out and paint in broad institutional strokes, we wanted to focus tightly on the relationships between patients and their physicians as they walked together through a diagnosis.
This being a nonfiction campaign, however, we had to prove this idea with real people. Our rule was no actors and no “tossed lines.” These stories would be completely authentic. So we fanned out across the Vanderbilt system in search of our cast of characters.
VIDEO: "More than a patient" commercial for Vanderbilt Medical Center
Filming the documentary commercials
If we’re known for anything at Stonecastle Pictures, it’s how we manage to blur the line between documentary and commercial production. We make ads that don’t feel like ads, and that requires a lean, hybrid workflow.
We came to the set each day with loose storyboards built around our extensive pre-interviews with the characters. Since we knew the emotional beats even before the interviews, we could schedule our shoots around scenes, much like scripted productions.
On the set as the Stonecastle crew prepares for an interview
At times, however, an unplanned, magical moment would unfold that freed us to toss the storyboards altogether. For example, our commercial featuring a six-year old named Hannah was re-imagined on the spot when she defiantly, and hilariously, refused to be directed. Surrendering to her impulses, we emerged with one of our favorite spots of the campaign. Watch it below with this in mind: none of it was planned.
VIDEO: "Hannah's hospital" commercial for Vanderbilt Medical Center
Quote I think the idea that we pulled off warming Vanderbilt up in a really genuine way, that’s not easy to do. There are people across this country that are trying to do what we achieved here. So that’s kind of a career highlight. — Jill Austin / Vanderbilt Medical Center
An anthem to bring it all together
Stonecastle Pictures produced ten commercials for the Vanderbilt campaign which aired regionally in Tennessee and Kentucky. In advance of the campaign kick-off, we also produced an anthem bringing together some of the campaign’s best moments.
