Strategic Pete · Senior living & long-term care
Senior Living Marketing Agency
for Operators, Ownership Groups & Associations
Most agencies pitching senior living can buy you move-in leads. We build the story that makes families, referral sources and caregivers choose you before they ever see an ad — and we have already run it at state scale.
Strategic Pete produced People Worth Caring About, a long-form documentary series about long-term care: 28+ episodes, 21 unscripted stories filmed across 7 Nebraska communities representing 7 different ownership groups, distributed nationally on Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV and Amazon Fire. For the Nebraska Health Care Association it drew 80,000+ views in six months and 32.1 million in social media reach.
That is the difference between an agency that markets senior living and an agency that has filmed inside it — seven Nebraska communities, seven ownership groups, and five more states since.
Book a call with PeteSee the case studiesRead this before you enquire
We are not a move-in lead vendor and we do not sell local search packages. If what you need this quarter is more paid tours from a three-mile radius, a local performance shop will serve you better and cost you less. We are worth talking to when the problem is bigger than the ad account: families who cannot tell your community apart from the one down the road, referral sources who do not know what you stand for, caregivers you cannot recruit, and a board that wants the story told properly rather than loudly.
What we actually run for senior living operators
Eight capabilities. They are bought together far more often than separately, because occupancy, recruitment and reputation are the same story told to three different audiences.
If you only want one of them, say so on the call. We will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing on its own.
Occupancy, recruitment and advocacy are one marketing problem
Every senior living operator we have worked with was running three separate marketing efforts that never spoke to each other: paid ads aimed at adult daughters, a careers page aimed at CNAs, and a government-relations effort aimed at legislators. Three budgets, three agencies, three versions of who you are.
The perception gap is the real problem
Families arrive already frightened, carrying an image of long-term care they got from the news. Prospective caregivers carry the same image, which is why recruitment is hard. Legislators carry it too, which is why funding is hard. Fix the image once and all three get easier. That is what we mean by mapping the perception gap, and it is the first thing we do.
Proof beats persuasion in this category
You cannot argue a family into trusting you. What moves them is watching an ordinary shift reveal extraordinary humanity — a real caregiver, unscripted, doing the job. In Nebraska, state senators began quoting scenes from the film during discussions about funding and workforce shortages, and a long-term care association used it as part of the advocacy work that helped secure Medicaid funding. No campaign asset we could have written would have done that.
Then, and only then, the performance layer
Once the story exists, the media plan gets cheap: earned press, owned social, targeted paid distribution to caregivers and adult children, and search pages that answer the questions families actually type. Running that layer first is what produces expensive impressions and no move-ins. If you want the full commercial engine behind it, that is our B2B marketing agency practice, and this page is the senior living version of it.
How the work actually gets made
Five moves, in this order. Skipping straight to the fifth is what most senior living marketing looks like, and it is why most of it underperforms.
Map the perception gap
We find the distance between what your community actually is and what families, referral sources and prospective staff believe it is. Interviews, review mining, referral-partner calls and a read of every page that ranks for your name.
Find the stories that already exist
Nobody has to invent anything. In seven Nebraska communities we found 21 stories in two weeks with a three-person crew. Your building has them too — they are just undocumented.
Film them without sanding down the truth
No actors. No scripts that sand down the truth. Psychological safety on set, and the subject remains the hero. Human, not Hollywood — which is exactly why families believe it.
Put it where the decision is made
Smart TV distribution, owned social, paid distribution to caregivers and adult children, earned press, screenings for referral partners and boards, and QR-coded handouts where policy is argued. Placement is a strategy decision, not a delivery step.
Convert attention into admissions, applicants and advocacy
Tour enquiries, applications and legislative support are three different conversion paths off one asset. We build all three and measure them separately, because a film nobody acts on is an expensive keepsake.
Who we work with
Five buyers, one category. The work differs in emphasis, not in method.
Skilled nursing & long-term care operators
Census pressure and a workforce shortage at the same time. This is the buyer the Nebraska work was built for, and the material transfers directly.
Assisted living & memory care
A family choosing between three communities that look identical online. The differentiator is almost never the building — it is the people, and nobody is showing them. See how families choose an assisted living community.
CCRCs & multi-site ownership groups
One brand, several buildings, and a marketing function that has to serve all of them without flattening what makes each one local.
State & national associations
Advocacy, workforce pipeline and industry image. The Nebraska Health Care Association engagement is the reference case, and it reached legislators, classrooms and national television.
Senior care nonprofits & foundations
Fundraising and awareness on a budget that has to justify itself to a board. One facility reported its largest fundraiser ever after a screening.
Selling into senior living rather than operating in it — software, staffing, supplies, services? That is a different buyer and a different page: B2B healthcare marketing agency.
What the work has produced in this category
Every figure below is published, and every one of them comes from long-term care work — not from an unrelated industry with the logos swapped out.
80,000+
views in six months
For the Nebraska Health Care Association, whose non-profit arm funded the series. Nearly 100,000 by July 2025.
32.1M
social media reach
Social reach, not television viewership — we keep those numbers separate on purpose. Alongside it: 7.9M+ TikTok views, 558K+ likes, 475K YouTube views.
21
stories, 7 communities
Filmed over two weeks in April 2024 by a three-person crew, across seven Nebraska communities and seven different ownership groups.
And what the figures do not show
A long-term care association used the documentary as part of its advocacy work to help secure Medicaid funding — proof that the right story is not just content, it is leverage. State senators quoted scenes during funding and workforce debates. The series was adopted into curriculum by the UNO Department of Gerontology, the Nebraska Health Careers Pipeline for grades 3–12, and the Nebraska HOSA Spring Conference. It won the Bright Idea Award from the Nebraska Healthcare Marketers, two Prism Awards from the AMA Lincoln Chapter, and a Nebraska Admiral.
It also premiered theatrically at the Rococo Theater on 24 October 2024 — the first state in the U.S. to premiere a long-form long-term-care workforce documentary in a theater.
An agency, a video vendor, or your first in-house marketing director
Three genuinely different purchases. Two of them may be the right one for you.
| What you are buying | A local performance agency | A video production vendor | Strategic Pete |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who they answer to | The ad account | The shot list | Your occupancy, hiring and reputation numbers |
| What they start with | Your budget and your radius | Your brief and your brand guidelines | The gap between what you are and what people believe you are |
| What you get in month one | Campaigns live | A schedule and a treatment | A positioning read, a story inventory and a plan for three audiences |
| Recruitment marketing | Rarely — different budget line | No | Built in, because it is the same story |
| Advocacy and association work | No | No | Yes — the Nebraska work reached legislators and classrooms |
| What happens when the retainer ends | The leads stop | You own the files | You own the positioning, the library and the distribution |
An in-house marketing director is the fourth option and often the right one at scale — we have helped operators hire and brief theirs rather than compete with them.
Where we are the right answer — and where we are not
A strong fit
- You operate senior living, skilled nursing or memory care and cannot explain what makes you different in one sentence.
- Recruitment is as urgent as census, and both are being marketed by different people.
- You are an association or ownership group that needs the whole category understood, not just your logo seen.
- A board or funder wants evidence that marketing did something, and you would rather show it than assert it.
- You are willing to let real staff and residents be filmed honestly.
Not a fit
- You want more paid tours this month and nothing else. Hire a local performance shop.
- You want a polished corporate video with actors and a script. We do not make those.
- Nobody internally can give a crew access to a building for two days.
- You need a Google Business Profile and map-pack programme — that is not what this page sells.
- The decision has to be made without anyone senior in the room. This work needs an owner.
What people in the category have said about it
The first ninety days
No engagement starts with a camera. It starts with finding out what people already believe.
Days 1–30 — the perception read
Interviews with families, staff and referral sources. A review and search audit for every term a family types before a tour. A read of how your competitors position themselves and where the category-level assumptions are hurting all of you. You get a written positioning read and a story inventory.
Days 31–60 — the plan and the pilot
A message architecture for three audiences — families, prospective staff, and whoever holds the purse strings. Then one pilot asset produced properly, not six produced cheaply, so the approach can be judged on something real.
Days 61–90 — distribution and measurement
Placement across owned, earned and paid, plus the screening and referral-partner plan. Three conversion paths instrumented separately: tour enquiries, applications, and advocacy or fundraising response. By day ninety you should be arguing about results, not about whether anything shipped.
Questions we get asked on the first call
What does a senior living marketing agency actually do that our team cannot?
Three things, usually. It settles what you stand for so that every audience hears the same thing; it produces proof that families and staff will believe; and it puts that proof where the decision is made rather than where it is easiest to publish. Everything else — the posting, the ads, the newsletters — your team can do, and often already does.
Do you make the films yourselves, or do you brief someone?
Ourselves. If what you want is the production on its own rather than the marketing engagement around it, that is a different page: healthcare video production. This page sells the engagement; that one sells the film.
We sell products and services into senior living operators. Is this the right page?
No, and the distinction matters for what we would build. Your buyer is an administrator or a procurement committee, not a family. Start at B2B healthcare marketing agency instead.
Will you promise us a number of move-ins?
No, and be careful with anyone who does before seeing your census data, your referral mix and your local competition. What we will do is instrument three conversion paths from day one so that whatever happens is attributable rather than argued about.
How much does this cost?
We will give you a number, not a range, and it comes after the first call rather than before it. What we can tell you now is that this is a strategic engagement, not a per-video purchase, and it is priced accordingly.
Do you only work in Nebraska?
No. The Nebraska work is simply the most thoroughly published. The series has expanded to Ohio, New Mexico, Kentucky, Florida and North Dakota, with further seasons filming in Florida, North Dakota and Texas during 2026.
Tell us what families are getting wrong about you
That is the whole first conversation. Bring your census trend, your hardest recruitment role and the thing you wish people understood about your buildings.
Book a call with PeteRead the Nebraska case study firstRelated reading
- B2B marketing agency — the full commercial practice this page sits inside.
- B2B healthcare marketing agency — for companies selling into healthcare organisations.
- Healthcare video production — the production side on its own.
- Case studies — including the Nebraska long-term care engagement.