CDA takes to the skies

Cosmetic Dentists of Australia (CDA) took to the skies this month with the first of a series of advertisements in the Virgin Blue in-flight magazine, Voyeur. The move is part of the new strategy to broaden the CDA message for 2005.

"Last year's campaign heavily focused on the use of the major glossy magazines, such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire and television advertisements to reach the Australian cosmetic dental audience," said CDA founder Carl Burroughs. "Although it was highly effective in gaining a response and will remain the foundation of the 2005 CDA campaign, more niche marketing will be undertaken to spread the reach of the campaign and also go after smaller but potentially lucrative groups.

"The profile of the Virgin traveller is bang on the money for CDA - motivated, upper to middle management or self-employed over the age of 40 who travel very regularly. The fact that the magazine has a captive audience of at least an hour will also help with the effectiveness of the medium."

In addition to the Virgin Blue magazine, additional adverts have been scheduled in Golfers Digest and Management Today. According to Mr Burrouughs, these highly targeted groups will help put a male focus on what has essentially been a campaign directed at female audiences.

Emerging trends

CDA recently celebrated its first anniversary and having been fully operational for over 12 months now, has found certain trends are emerging.

"We've noticed that the advertising we're undertaking is becoming more effective and our brand is becoming synonymous with high-level cosmetic dentistry," Mr Burroughs said. "It also appears that demand is growing with an ever-increasing awareness of cosmetic dental procedures not only due to CDA's advertising, but also editorials run by newspapers, magazines and on television.

"It is this increasing demand and awareness that is helping the CDA advertising to work so well and CDA members will benefit greatly in 2005 from all the foundation work done last year."

CDA membership

CDA has been designed specifically for practices that are already undertaking large amounts of cosmetically-focused dentistry through their own referrals and marketing, but want to do more.

"CDA is not designed for every dental practice in Australia," Mr Burroughs said. "In fact, numbers will be limited to less than 100 members nationally based on the number of practices a location can sustain. Practices also need to have the capacity for new patients as there is little point in joining CDA if you are already booked out six months in advance with high-level cases.

"Where CDA worked best in 2004 is when the practice enjoyed the bigger cosmetic cases that came through and was also able to handle the large numbers of teeth whitening and general work that was also created by the campaign.

"External advertising will never create as qualified a patient as a referral and although CDA is highly targeted to reach a desired audience and enquires are screened, the leads generated still have to go through the same buying curve as a potential patient that walks in off the street or responds to your own advertising.

"The main difference here is that you know they are cosmetically-motivated and looking to improve their smile. If a member's practice can handle the additional work that inevitably comes from or this type of marketing, it can work really well. A practice that can fill a young associate's diary with teeth whitening and general work, whilst retaining the more complex cases for the senior dentist, will have the best return from CDA."

Mr Burroughs said that geographic location had not played as big a part as initially thought to the success of the members. In fact, some of the areas perceived to be less affluent have returned some of the best results.

"The demand for a getter looking smile is high and from every aspect of society. A couple living in an outer suburb of a city have the same desire to look and feel great as someone who lives in the inner city. The main difference is that their mortgage will probably be lower, their kids may not be in a private school and they're probably driving a Holden instead of a BMer, all of which means they can have more disposable income." Mr Burroughs said that it would also be interesting to see whether the recently launched patient finance schemes would make a difference to the uptake of cosmetic procedures this year now that dentistry had a way to compete with Harvey Norman in the discretionary purchase arena.

"In 2005, CDA will continue to deliver the boldest dental marketing programme available in Australia and we will continue to constantly fine tuning our activities to produce better and better results for our members. Based on our successful first year, we have a better pricing structure and greater market coverage through intelligent media placement and innovative marketing activities. If you want to grow your practice through achieving more cosmetically focused dental procedures then please give us a call."