Mark Oborn will be available for one hour from 6pm on 13th October for a live Q&A session to answer your questions on how you can best market your practice to help grow your implant business.

Register now to have your questions answered in this live session where Mark will answer as many questions as he can within the hour.

Mark spent 25 years as a dental technician working exclusively within the high quality sector of the private market.  After 15 years of running his own laboratory he now also has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) majoring in marketing, innovation and creativity. Mark is also a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and Master Practitioner of Hypnosis which further assists him in the skilful art of marketing communication.

In one of the largest transactions of the year to date, specialist dental adviser Christie + Co has sold six dental practices based in the East Midlands operating as Jordan Dental.

Jordan Dental is a progressive and well run group of predominantly NHS practices in excellent locations in Nottingham, Derby and Mansfield. The portfolio has been sold to {my}dentist, the largest corporate operator in the UK. The price was undisclosed.

Acting for the Jordan family, Christie + Co undertook a confidential marketing process from which {my}dentist was chosen as the preferred bidder. Clare Emery, Senior Associate at specialist solicitors Harrison Clark Rickerbys acted for the vendors.

Simon Hughes, Director and Head of Medical at Christie + Co comments: “I am delighted that Christie + Co was chosen to act for Dave Jordan in the sale of his business. He took advantage of strong market conditions and we were able to agree and conclude terms much more quickly than can often be the case with NHS practice sales. We wish {my}dentist the very best with their acquisition which gives them a significant and quality presence in the Nottingham dental sector.”

Dave Jordan of Jordan Dental comments: "It was a pleasure working with Christie & Co, the team showed great understanding of our needs and guided us through the difficult decision to sell something that we had worked so hard to build from scratch. I wish the team at {my}dentist every success in the future and trust that the group will continue to flourish as part of a much bigger operation."

Robert Pilling, Director of Acquisitions at {my}dentist adds: “I am delighted with the acquisition of the Jordan Dental Group and look forward to working with the practice teams over the coming months and year ahead. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Jordan family on choosing to sell to {my}dentist and also to the Christie + Co team who supported the acquisition process in a very professional manner.”

On Wednesday the 7th of October, GDPUK were invited to the launch of Denplan’s new TV advert which will air on our screens from Saturday night (10th Oct) and will run for approximately 3 weeks.

The campaign demonstrates Denplan’s huge investment and commitment to dentistry and the dental practices that they work with. An impressive £1.2 million has been spent on this campaign.

After a short consultation period, Denplan have used the advertising agency “brothers and sisters” to design the advert. Established since 2008, they have a number of famous campaigns in their portfolio including the Thierry Henry advert that aired this year which can be viewed below. Great advert, especially the part when he joins Alex Ferguson and Brian Kidd on the Old Trafford turf!

The Denplan advert

So what does the advert entail? It shows a young man taking a selfie on a day out but everytime he smiles, he snaps his horrendous teeth. These teeth are obviously quite extreme to get the message across and were created by the special effects team at Fangs Fx. (If you click on the link, it gives you a great idea of what they are capable of!) So the bloke starts coming up with ways to cover his teeth, eg putting his cat in front of his mouth or putting his hand in front of his teeth. The producers behind the advert have gone for something that will make the viewers smile and also gets people interacting, which seems to be the current trend for TV adverts, as exposure is limited with the way we all watch TV these days. Let us know what you think, when the advert airs over the weekend? Does it make you smile?

The aim

Denplan would like to increase brand awareness, plus of course help Denplan’s member practices stand out in the competitive market of attracting / retaining patients. Practices have been sent a large amount of marketing material that will be used to engage with patients, so in conjunction with the advert, it will provide excellent opportunities to talk to their patients and forms a part of their practice marketing.

Denplan conducted some selfie research which gives further credence to the campaign. A YouGov survey revealed that a staggering 5.6 million selfies are taken in an average day by adults online which equates to an incredible 2 billion plus per year!  Three quarters (74%) of adults have worried about how their teeth look in photographs and a third of adults (33%) have smiled but purposely not shown their teeth due to being embarrassed by them, so selfies and smiles was an easy place for Denplan to focus their efforts. 

The Impact

So from a dental perspective, what impact will this bring on UK Dentistry? A few thoughts to consider:-

1. Obviously there will be a huge impact for Denplan dental practices but will other dental plan providers also receive a boost? I believe it gets people thinking about their teeth and their dentist, so its a positive piece of marketing for all dental practices.

2. It is fantastic to move away from traditional tv dental advertising and instead Denplan have embraced a modern and fresh approach…. Everyone at the event agreed that this was a brave move and the small crowd were certainly positive about the message that Denplan are hoping to achieve.

3. The use of social media and a hashtag #doitforyourselfie taps nicely into a younger, celebrity obsessed crowd but if it gets the public visiting the dentist on a more frequent basis and talking about dentistry in a positive light, then surely this is a good thing? Dr Roger Matthews (Chief Dental Officer) of Denplan mentioned that motivation is key with patients and he believes that running this campaign could be a great way of motivating patients to visit their dentist on a regular basis and that is obviously the overall aim of the campaign.

4. Dentists are often negatively portrayed in the media but I believe it is refreshing to see a slightly humorous take on the Dental world but with a positive message that people in Britain our proud of their smiles and possibly the work dentists have done on their teeth? This will hopefully be demonstrated over the next few days, as the public share their selfies on www.doitforyourselfie.co.uk. Already a number of selfies have been uploaded!

Unfortunately I can't provide a copy of the advert just yet but I will update this blog with the advert once it has had its premiere. Over the next few days we will be keeping a close eye on the microsite, to see whether it captures the public imagination and the general reaction from the dental community on social media. We certainly hope it does capture the imagination and as stated previously, it achieves the positive message that Denplan are striving for. Please let us know what you think and how the advert will be received?

** Blog now updated**

The advert is due to be shown at 15:28 on ITV1 on Saturday afternoon.

#doitforyourselfie

www.doitforyourselfie.co.uk

Denplan has today announced that it will be running a high-profile national TV advertising campaign throughout October.  The ad has been produced by one of the UK’s leading creative agencies, Brothers and Sisters.  They successfully demonstrated a unique and creative approach to answer Denplan’s brief by developing an innovative strategy connecting the importance of good oral health and visiting a dentist with the current social phenomenon of the “selfie culture”.  

The first airing of the TV ad will be on primetime television during the Scotland v Samoa Rugby World Cup match on the afternoon of Saturday 10^th October and it will be aired for three weeks on a host of popular channels, including ITV, Channel 4, Sky and Channel 5. 

The aim of the ad is to capitalise on the unique strength of the Denplan consumer brand which will work in partnership with Denplan’s member practices own brands to help them stand out in a competitive market. The ad will provide dentists with the ideal opportunity to talk to their patients about the benefits of joining Denplan. The ad has also been created to help Denplan engage with a larger audience and build affinity with more consumers, alerting them to the importance of loving their teeth and looking after their oral health and encouraging them to find and talk to a Denplan dentist.

Richard Ward, Head of Marketing at Denplan commented: “The ad has moved away from the typical clinical or educational advertisements that could be for any number of dental products. Instead, viewers will see a memorable, impactful ad using humour to engage them.  The ad plays on todays’ selfie-obsessed culture by using humour to dramatise what happens when people lack confidence about their teeth whilst taking a selfie.  There is also a fun interactive element with the incorporation of a hashtag (#doitforyourselfie) encouraging people to generate and post their own selfie via Twitter, Instagram. Facebook or via www.doitforyourselfie.co.uk.”

Denplan conducted some selfie research which gives further credence to the campaign. The YouGov survey revealed that a staggering 5.6 million selfies are taken in an average day by adults online which equates to an incredible 2 billion plus per year!  Three quarters (74%) of adults have worried about how their teeth look in photographs and a third of adults (33%) have smiled but purposely not shown their teeth due to being embarrassed by them*.

Richard Ward continued: “We want everyone to feel proud of their smile, so the TV ad highlights the importance of preventive care and encourages patients to seek advice from a Denplan dentist. We’ve also produced a lot of supporting collateral for our member dentists and their practices to use, to support this nationwide campaign so that it becomes a real talking point with both their new and existing patients. 

“All practices have been sent a #doitforyourselfie pack which contains a range of marketing tools to help practices make the most of the campaign, including some eye catching background posters and a selfie stick so that practice teams can encourage patients to take a “post check-up selfie” and enter  the #doitforyourselfie competition. There are also post check-up selfie stickers to give to participating patients.” 

Denplan’s Chief Dental Officer Roger Matthews has also been involved in advising on the campaign and says: “Research has shown that using humour to emotionally engage with people creates more impact and recall than non-humorous adverts, so we were confident that the humorous approach was the right way forward for Denplan’s dental ad. That said, this meant it was vitally important to consult dentists in the making of the ad, especially when we were working on producing the tooth and gum prosthetics.

“We wanted to ensure the ad remained sensitive to real dental conditions that are no fault of the patient – such as chipped or misaligned teeth - but at the same time we needed to convey a positive feeling towards the importance of visiting the dentist regularly and having a good oral health routine to prevent problems before they start.  Without paying adequate attention to your teeth and oral health, it’s possible that people’s teeth may not always look or feel good, which can impact confidence.”

As one of the UK’s leading providers of corporate dental plans, with more than 1,900 schemes covering over 190,000 employees, Denplan is also encouraging companies to take note of the campaign and use the opportunity to raise awareness and educate employees about the importance of good oral health. Promotional marketing packs containing a double-sided selfie zone poster have also being sent to Denplan’s corporate clients with employees also eligible to enter the #doitforyourselfie competition.

Simplyhealth who bought Denplan in 2011, has invested £1.2 million into the project, making it Denplan’s biggest advertising campaign to date. The Denplan ad supports Simplyhealth’s long term everyday health strategy – of which Denplan and dentistry is a key part. 

www.doitforyourselfie.co.uk

#doitforyourselfie

References

*Source: Online YouGov Survey for Denplan. Survey was carried out online with 2,077 UK adults. The figures have been weighted are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).