The physical therapy profession boasts more than 204,000 licensed practitioners in the U.S. and several financial media have named it one of the fastest-growing industries in the country for several years. Only 3,400 of those clinicians are certified to practice the McKenzie Method® of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy® (MDT), a unique form of PT that focuses on self-treatment.
The McKenzie Institute USA based in Syracuse represents one of 28 international branches providing postgraduate study programs and promoting MDT. The Institute offers several courses required for certification in MDT.
The Institute came to ABC in search of ideas for boosting enrollment and positioning the organization as a resource in the burgeoning physical therapy field. We accepted the challenge, igniting a campaign that began with a handful of print ads and collateral and now includes several digital and video components.
Current physical therapy students and recent grads became an obvious target as they were already deep in the process of learning and generally uncommitted to a particular school of thought. We started developing ads that would appeal to this impressionable demographic.
The Institute, with an assist from ABC, had assembled a library of webinars, podcasts, feature articles and other resources over the years. We made this considerable volume of content the centerpiece in a series of clever and colorful ads strategically placed in PT student-focused publications.