Promote a New Site Launch

Mercy Uses Virtual Open House to Introduce New Web Presence to Community

Mercy Medical Center

In their words...


"Geonetric not only helped us build a new site, they helped us introduce the site to the community in a unique way by helping with the virtual treasure hunt.  It was great to see the community explore the new site and 'attend' the open house from the comfort of their own home."

Melissa Erbes
Marketing Specialist
Mercy Medical Center 

Read more rave reviews

Introducing a New Resource to the Community

When Mercy Medical Center began planning for its site launch, they decided to make a big splash. Mercy developed an online virtual open house to introduce the community to the newest health information resource in town. And the community took notice!

Taking a Tour - From the Comfort of Home

Mercy developed a virtual open house concept. The home page copy welcomed visitors to the new site and showcased its new features. On the site, visitors could:

  • Take a cyber tour, which included an official unveiling by Mercy's President and CEO during a live Webcast.
  • Print a coupon for a free cookie to be redeemed at a later time.
  • Participate in a virtual treasure hunt, which encourage visitors to interact with the site's features, like its Find a Doctor functionality and wellness tools. After finishing 10 activities like "Find the name of Cedar Rapids' only Endocrinologist," participants could register to win a new laptop.

Mercy promoted the virtual open house and treasure hunt through many offline channels including print and radio. The campaign also had a strong social media presence with:

  • Facebook advertising
  • A Facebook event
  • Numerous Twitter posts

People who participated in Mercy's social media activities were also included in a drawing to win a Zune HD media player.

Impressive Turn-Out

When the big day arrived, Mercy received impressive local media coverage on both the new website and virtual open house, and the community showed up!

Within two hours of the launch, more than 400 treasure hunt forms were completed and over 30 cookie coupons were printed.

More than 360 people logged on for the virtual open house Web cast on launch day - which is a higher turnout than Mercy's in-person open houses.

Mercy allowed the treasure hunt to run for a full month, and during that time a total of 1,206 treasure hunt forms were submitted.