The LIFESAVERS(R) of Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

The Chesapeake Rotary Christmas Parade has been an annual tradition for the past 40 years! In the second most populous city in Virginia, it still has a small-town feel, with people putting out chairs to save their seats six weeks in advance. Now, a parade float is a non-traditional advertising channel, but with the theme of “Christmas Candy Land”, we knew we had a unique opportunity to stand out for the thousands of attendees.

As a health system, we save lives every day. Our tagline is “Innovative for Life”, focusing on what our clinical teams do to help people live their lives, especially after a health crisis. We get people back to living. Now, how does that fit into the parade theme? LIFESAVERS® candies, of course! Different than what you’d expect, but completely contextually relevant to us! We created a custom 18-feet-long/four-feet-tall LIFESAVER roll, pulled by our “ambulance”, wore different colored LIFESAVER aprons, and handed out over 500 branded jumbo glowsticks. The glowsticks were so popular, we ran out halfway through the route. Walking the one-plus mile course, we heard lots of ooohhhhs, aaaahhhh, and “I get it”s. The float was recognized as the “most notable” by the parade press. Innovative for Life (Savers) indeed!

We even displayed it on campus for the week following so the clinicians could feel proud of the lifesaving work they do every day! Plus, the Facebook post led to the highest engagement we've seen over the past two years!