SITUATION
Kaiser Permanent, the nation's largest nonprofit healthcare service organization, was suffering from a multitude of problems: weak brand positioning, declining enrollment, negative attitudes, skeptical targets, and a widely dispersed workforce of 160,000 employees across 15 markets. In addition, its advertising and media looked and sounded just like every other health-care company, yet in reality, KP is unlike any other.

My team and I worked closely with KP across various functions to lead brand, campaign and digital media strategies, campaign concepts and creative execution, including updating an ailing website, digital assets and OOH.

My Role:
• Brand, Product & Campaign Messaging/Copy Writing
• Brand Strategy & Experience Design
• Campaign Design & Creative Execution

INSIGHT/SOLUTION
Category barriers included severe skepticism among consumers, advertising was undifferentiated and key constituents "stopped listening." A critical insight was uncovered through our research - health is associated with happiness, optimism and the balance of mind, body and spirit (the idea of promoting health and well-being, as well as treating illness.) With this in mind, and hoping to make a strong emotional connection with our audiences, we repositioned the KP brand through a campaign entitled "Thrive".

RESULTS
KAISER PERMANENTE IS NO LONGER JUST ANOTHER HEALTHCARE COMPANY. IT'S THE CHAMPION OF A POWERFUL CAUSE

The "Thrive" message has resonated with audiences across segments and across all markets and solidified Kaiser Permanent's position as the true personal-health advocate.

The innovative media approach was highly successful. Proprietary brand tracking research continues to show positive movement vs. benchmark against the attitudinal measures most important to KP, including increases in ALL regions for categories like excellent care proactive about healthcare, an innovator in healthcare, willing to select or renew with KP and overall opinion about KP. To date, the campaign has been responsible for adding more than 450,000 new members. Unaided awareness has risen 59%.

From a media buying standpoint, our tough-minded buyers lowered CPMs by 2-4% (with lower budgets) and improved added value by 251% within the first year.

This much lauded campaign:
• CHANGED THE FRAME OF REFERENCE FOR HEALTHCARE SERVICES. REINVENTING THE LANGUAGE OF "MANAGED CARE"

• CHAMPIONED A CAUSE STANDING FOR MORE THAN JUST CO-PAYS AND BENEFITS

• REDEFINED THE SYSTEM RATHER THAN HAVING TO "WORK THE SYSTEM"