Convergence Corner: Logan Altman on Creating a Campaign to Honor 'Healthcare Heroes'

Logan Altman’s position of chief impact officer for Doing Good Works isn’t just some flowery title or gimmick. He really does use his business and his platform for, well, doing good. The very essence of the company is to use promotional products to make an impact and help those who need it, and not just with their marketing. Altman remembers one particular promotion that helped celebrate the health care heroes of Kaiser Permanente who made a difference during the pandemic, allowing their company to show their gratitude through products, print, and even video.

Print & Promo Marketing: When and how did you first start selling print and promotional products together, and why was that a good move for your business?

Logan Altman: We really began back in 2014, and the idea behind Doing Good Works was that we wanted to be a business that does social good. … We could really leverage a lot of marketing spend to make a lot of social impact. So back in 2014 the idea behind using promotional products to make life-changing impacts for young people in the foster system was really the idea, and it’s been fantastic ever since.

PPM: Can you tell me about a promotional campaign that you’ve worked on that blended both print and promo together that stands out to you?

LA: One of the areas we really focus on is creating meaningful promotions, and one of our larger organizations we partner with, Kaiser Permanente, right after the pandemic wanted to do a really unique gifting initiative to all 10,000 of their San Diego region staff that helped to highlight the gratitude that leadership had for their exemplary service in terms of all things the pandemic. So they had approached me and said, ‘We really want to elevate this. What could we do to show them that we really value them for their contribution that’s very unique?’ So we created the idea of doing a custom die-struck challenge coin that called out for them as a healthcare hero, we incorporated in the Kaiser San Diego logo, little mantras, and because they’re near the beach a lot of beach-type themes. And then what we did was incorporate a little print card, it was a small 2x2” bi-fold card that came from leadership, from the CEO down there, and said, ‘Thank you so much for all of your efforts, commemorative challenge coins are often given in the military to support valor and recognition, and we want to provide that to you.’ There was also a little QR code on there that scanned to a website that we had put up with a special video from this CEO and the leadership team. What we did was we put that all in a very special little velvet pouch, we had fulfilled it all and packaged it all together, and then distributed it out through their courier service. So, not only was it a really meaningful promotion, but we partnered it with a print piece that told a little bit more of a story, and actually tied technology into it afterwards, which was really fun. That led to about seven more locations across the U.S. copying that same kind of promotion.

PPM: How did you select the products you used for this campaign? Did they come to you with it?

LA: We came up with that idea after I had been given a challenge coin from someone that was, ironically enough, that had been a health care hero in the pandemic, just to show me, ‘Hey, look what my location gave me.’ I had no idea that I would turn that around and create something unique. So when the opportunity arose and leadership said, ‘We don’t really know what to do, what would be unique that’s not just another promotional piece off the shelf, that we could use to really honor or health care workers?’ I actually pulled it out of my desk drawer, and said, ‘How amazing would it be to incorporate the local region and the colors and tell a story to tie it all together?’

PPM: What advice would you give a distributor looking to work on a similar project?

LA: Be flexible and be creative. That for me is something that I really take to heart. I think about what are ways that we could solve a problem, but create something that’s going to have meaningful impact? And so, when I think about a campaign where somebody comes up to me, and they say, ‘What can we do to really elevate the experience?’ Don’t look at it as, ‘What can we do to find the cheapest thing?” What can I do that’s ultimately creating something that maybe helps to check all the boxes? It’s understand the customer, understand the demographic that they are working with, and continue to work to find the most meaningful solution that, at the end of the day, somebody can say, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before, I’m so grateful that my organization did something like that,’ because you can tell that a lot of thought went into it. Really, think outside the box is the advice that I would say.

Are you a distributor who blends print and promotional products together and want to be considered for a future edition of Convergence Corner? Email content director Brendan Menapace at bmenapace@napco.com.