Health insurance ads: from mind-numbingly boring to interesting and fun.
Let’s say you wanted to promote health insurance in a world experiencing a glut of health-insurance marketing. Now, increase your difficulty by focusing your marketing through the prism of medical insurance codes, a subject even insurance agents and doctors must find incredibly dull. How would you put your message in front of the healthcare-buying public? How would you make consumers want to think about your service, much less care about it?
We don’t usually tip our hats to other agencies and their clients, but in this case, they’ve clearly earned it. In their current campaign, UnitedHealthcare® and their agency, Leo Burnett, have figured out not only how to get consumers to pay attention to a message about health insurance, they’ve managed the nearly-impossible: Entertain, inspire and earn a conversation with consumers who always have more important things to think about.
You’ve probably seen the ads. They illustrate a series of highly hilarious – but very probable – situations in which consumers could injure themselves and the humorously arcane medical codes applicable to them. Each of these scenarios is well acted and brilliantly directed; the characters (for the most part) come off as real rather than goofy caricatures. The ads present an effective message about how UnitedHealthcare simplifies the complex healthcare system and it’s really hard to grow tired of watching them.
So all of us in healthcare marketing should take note: Well-done humor can make even boring, technical topics approachable. And, most important, it can make your brand immensely likable.
Even if you’ve already seen the commercials, treat yourself to another viewing:
Jeff Goldman
Jeff Goldman is an Associate Creative Director at Brown Parker & DeMarinis with a 20-year track record of success covering most aspects of business communications, driving sales and consistently winning an array of coveted industry awards for clients as diverse as healthcare providers, tech properties and leading beer brands. He has worked all over North America as a writer, a creative director and as a principle in his own marketing agency for brands such as AOL, Exxon Chemical, Goodyear, Jiffy Lube, KFC, LexisNexis, Microsoft, Miller Lite, Northern Arizona Healthcare, the Seton Healthcare Family, Southwest Airlines, Taco Bell, the Walt Disney Company and many more.