How do you build a brand that changes lives?
We helped our client shift from institutional promotion and toward a deeper emotional driver of human behavior. For Northern Light Health, that driver was connection in an increasingly isolated world.
THE IMPACT
22.9M
Impressions
62%
Increase in click-thru rate
+15
Percentile increase in internal engagement scores from the previous year
THE CHALLENGE
Reposition a traditional brand to a catalyst for life-saving human connection.
Our challenge was more than branding; it was an opportunity to change — and save — lives. We took that challenge seriously. As we introduced Northern Light Health’s new unified name and their position as the largest system in Maine, we also built something larger. We were building a brand that delivered immediacy, emotional relevance and human connection. And even more importantly, we gave our client the platform to address one of the most pressing but under-recognized public health challenges in Maine: social isolation.
OUR APPROACH
Strategy: The Post-Health System Brand
Consumers are not just comparing your health system brand to other health systems; they are comparing it to Uber, Amazon and Starbucks. So why are health systems still building the same old health system brands?
For Northern Light Health, we created a Post-Health System Brand.
This approach shifts brand building away from institutional promotion and toward a deeper emotional driver of human behavior. A Post-Health System Brand is not about the organization. It is about the human condition it can meaningfully impact. For Northern Light Health, our research revealed a foundational truth: Social isolation is a growing health crisis in Maine. So social connection became our driver.
We ignited a movement to bring isolated Mainers together.
Instead of promoting services, we helped Northern Light Health address isolation directly by building a statewide movement centered on human connection: “How Are You?”
The strategy became a simple but powerful cultural platform: a question transformed into an intervention. Not a routine greeting — but an invitation to pause, notice and engage honestly about physical, mental and emotional well-being.
“How Are You?” became a catalyst for authentic conversation. A signal of care in everyday interactions. A bridge between people who might otherwise remain disconnected.
Connection that moved beyond care delivery.
We reframed the role of Northern Light Health: not just as a care provider, but as a potential catalyst for human connection. “How Are You?” evolved into a statewide movement designed to reduce isolation by strengthening everyday human connection.
It connects Mainers to each other, encouraging meaningful personal interaction; connects them to their communities, reinforcing belonging and shared identity; connects them to their health, normalizing conversations about mental, emotional and physical well-being; and connects them to Northern Light Health, repositioning the system as a facilitator of connection, not just care delivery.
Creative activations
Our work works.
THE RESULTS
Holding steady in turbulent times.
Despite more than a year of reputational issues and negative press coverage, measures of brand reputation, satisfaction, likelihood to use and likelihood to recommend all remained consistent with the previous year’s results.
“Simply put, How Are You? is a celebration of humanity … it turns a routine greeting into a genuine invitation to care, engage and smile.”
Suzanne Spruce, SVP of Northern Light Health and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
