Kaiser Permanente Launches New National Ad Campaign Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
Kaiser Permanente, the nation's oldest HMO, on Monday will launch a national $40 million advertising campaign designed to "promot[e] a hipper, more contemporary Kaiser" through images of "healthy people, food and lifestyles," the Wall Street Journal reports. The campaign, created by Michigan-based advertising firm Campbell-Ewald, represents a "daring approach" for Kaiser, according to the Journal. Instead of working to demonstrate the value of Kaiser products, the campaign will "talk about where [the HMO] stand[s] on health," Bernard Tyson, Kaiser's senior vice president of brand strategy and management, said. Using the word "thrive" to highlight Kaiser's history as a not-for-profit organization with a mission to prevent and treat illnesses, the campaign seeks to "counter negative perceptions" that the HMO is "a huge impersonal bureaucracy with long waits to see a doctor," according to the Journal.
The campaign includes a billboard display of fresh blueberries with the words: "Be pro-antioxidant." A television spot shows a young girl diving into a swimming pool and emerging as a healthy, mature woman, with a message reading: "Life is a journey. Live it well." According to Nancy Kritzler, a health care account director at marketing firm Rubin Postaer and Associates, "Health and well-being" are the new key words in the industry.
The Journal reports that the Kaiser campaign -- which includes radio, billboard and print ads -- is timed to coincide with the upcoming "open enrollment" season, when many employers are given the once-per-year opportunity to renew coverage or switch health insurers. The TV spots are set to premiere on morning news programs in California and other Kaiser markets nationwide, and then run during prime-time. The radio spots will be broadcast in all regions where Kaiser operates and the print ads will run in several major metropolitan newspapers (Rundle, Wall Street Journal, 7/30).