The Clever Marketing of OrthoCarolina

When we happen upon a company that is doing different things in the marketing world, we stop and look. In the case of OrthoCarolina, we stop and admire. It is hard to go around any corner in Charlotte and not see something that has been cleverly calculated and effectively executed by the OC team.

If you don’t know, OrthoCarolina is “one of the nation’s leading independent academic orthopedics practices serving North Carolina and the Southeast since 1922. They provide comprehensive musculoskeletal care including operative and non-operative care, diagnostic imaging and rehabilitative therapy. Widely known for musculoskeletal research and training, their physicians have specialized expertise in foot & ankle, hip & knee, shoulder & elbow, spine, sports medicine, hand, pediatric orthopedics, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. They have over 130 surgeons amongst 25 plus locations to conveniently serve our patients.”

The creative mind behind the clever marketing of OrthoCarolina is Blair Primis, Vice President of Marketing. Blair is a rare breed in the marketing world. He sees beyond the traditional and he is constantly blurring the lines of what a doctor’s office “should be.” You can see this nontraditional approach to the marketing of OrthoCarolina all over Crown Town, but specifically in their unique sponsorships & outdoor advertising campaigns.

• Sponsor of the NoDa Grand Prix – with signage at the location of the highest crashes.
• Purchased multiple Billboards in collaboration with Adams Outdoors Advertising (titled Broken) Watch this cool video.
• Sponsoring a Cruise Cart that provides FREE rides to Charlotteans on behalf of OrthoCarolina.
• Main supporter of the ever popular (and growing) NoDa Run Club – Clean Graffiti was used to help denote the route.
• Wraps any and every truck that he can – ever wonder what OrthoCarolina was delivering to the gas station? 🙂

Here at #thesavageway, we’ve had the pleasure of knowing Blair for almost three years. He was the first one to see our idea of cleaning sidewalks (aka Clean Graffiti) and say YES, let’s make this happen! Clean Graffiti (a Clean Message on a Dirty Sidewalk) provided OrthoCarolina with a new opportunity that “pushes the line.” (Also, Blair’s motto). We’ve been able to hit the streets (pun intended) with a direct line to their potential market: runners, walkers, bikers, etc.

One of the cool things about Blair and our work with OrthoCarolina is the brainstorming process. We will come to the table with a slew of ideas, from huge-we-never-think-it-will-actually-happen ideas to simple brand recognition campaigns, and every single time Blair pushes us to the next level. He challenges what we think about our boundaries and pushes us to think even BIGGER!

Some of our favorite #thesavageway/OC Clean Graffiti campaigns over the past few years include “Running Messages” and “Watch Your Step.”

Our latest campaign was for the Winston Salem and Kernersville market. Naturally, we wanted to take Clean Graffiti to the next level for Blair, so we commissioned a local artist, Matt Hooker of Hooker Media, to help us design something unique and original.

OrthoCarolina is great at what they do – fixing broken bones. But they are also great at something that should be a priority for other companies – building community. Blair has done a superb job of building community by hiring local, small companies (like us), supporting charity events, helping organizations grow and being honest along the way.

We are grateful that we’ve been an OrthoCarolina partner for the past (almost) three years and we look forward to the fun, crazy, awesome things that Blair will have up his sleeve in the future.