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Most marketers will agree that engaging your audience is critical to establishing customer relationships and building your brand. Last year, the “Life Has a Plan” initiative from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield incorporated this approach into an effective integrated marketing and brand awareness campaign. “Life Has a Plan” was recognized with several AMA|Rochester Pinnacle Awards, including the 2014 Marketer of the Year Award for a non-profit group.­

Overall, the objective was to increase awareness and create preference among target audiences by establishing an emotional connection with the brand. The “Life Has A Plan” campaign was planned and produced to support a long-term image campaign, direct marketing campaigns, member engagement and retention.

The campaign leveraged insights from research, then creative was developed and reviewed with stakeholders. Finally, several concepts were tested and the “Life Has a Plan” concept was chosen, having shown to have the strongest emotional connection. The messaging stated “health care may be changing, but our commitment to helping you keep up with all of life’s changes never will.” Supporting the brand was the tag line: National Strength, Local Focus and Individual Care.

Paid, earned and owned media were a part of the campaign. The LifeHasAPlan.com microsite and “Share Your Moments” contest was created to personally engage consumers and reinforce our local presence. Consumers were able to enter a photo or video through a computer or mobile device for a chance to win a healthy prize or be featured in advertising. When LifeHasAplan.com launched, visitors could enter in four different categories, including: Life Has Surprises, Life Has Commitments, Life Has Victories and Life Has Play. The site was expanded in October to include new categories: Life Has Family, Life Has Victories, Life Has Courage and Life Has Joy. Using these photos in Excellus BCBS advertising gave consumers the sense of belonging; reaffirming their sense of safety and security with our brand.

In spring of 2013, before the opening of the new individual health exchanges, the campaign was launched with an internal party to celebrate the brand and start the collection of image assets on the microsite. In advance of the external launch, employees were encouraged to enter their own photos and videos for a chance to win a vacation day. Posters, flyers and magnetic frames were distributed to promote the contest. The cake featured images submitted by the marketing team. Playing off of the Life Has Surprises theme, surprise snacks were dropped off at meetings, which also promoted the contest. Hundreds of employees submitted photos.

The campaign was formally launched using an integrated approach of paid, earned and owned media. Paid media included TV, billboards, newspaper ads, Facebook ads, online display ads, online pre-roll videos, rich media, and search engine marketing, which generated awareness and drove engagement on LifeHasAPlan.com. The plan was amplified by leveraging owned media — promoting the contest through Excellus BCBS monthly member health summaries, enewsletters, corporate web site, YouTube channel and Twitter channel. The campaign continued to gain momentum by fostering earned media with educational videos, infographics, press releases and tweets. The social sharing component of our LifeHasAPlan.com site encouraged visitors to share their own submitted photos with others on Facebook and Twitter, further extending the impact of the campaign.

Increasing awareness and creating preference among our target audiences was the primary objective for the initiative. The campaign met that objective with a 20% increase in awareness of Excellus BCBS among non-customers. Excellus BCBS moved from #5 in awareness to #1 among non-customers. In the B2B market, brand image increased from 60% in 2012 to 71% in 2013.

The campaign also generated engagement, leads and membership. In just the first few months, LifehasAPlan.com engagement included 166,000 visitors, including 1,500 unique photo or video submissions. The under-65 consumer targets realized 15,000 email leads and 21,000 standard mail leads in just three months.