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Virgin / Humana One “Extend Your Range” Site & Campaign
Click image to view video case study.
In 2006, Humana One teamed up with Virgin to launch a new concept in health insurance called HealthMiles Plus, which combined an individual health insurance plan with a “health rewards” program. Our team was tasked with producing all consumer- and agent-facing components for the launch.
HealthMiles Plus offered incentives for participants to maintain a healthy lifestyle. For example, participants could track their exercise using a special USB-enabled pedometer, then upload their exercise data to earn points redeemable for exclusive Virgin-related premiums like music downloads and concert tickets.
The first challenge facing Humana One was educating their independent insurance agents about this new and unique program.
The client quickly realized their typical “coffee, donuts and a PowerPoint” agent training program wouldn’t suffice for such a high-profile launch. The involvement of Virgin demanded a far more upscale and innovative approach that reflected Virgin’s unique brand identity.
To complicate matters, HealthMiles Plus featured a glossary of unfamiliar, consumer-oriented jargon that agents needed to learn and understand in order to effectively sell the plan.
Independent insurance agents are, by and large, a hard-boiled lot. They’re primarily interested in the bottom line: What’s in it for me?
They were also crucial to making HealthMiles Plus a success. Our program had to stoke agents’ interest in the plan, while teaching them the new terms and concepts they would need to explain to their customers. We had to capture their interest, generate excitement, and arm them with the information they would need to explain the plan to customers in plain language.
Our concept, “The Extend Your Range Invitational,” employed a golf theme that appealed to Humana agents’ competitive nature. The theme also provided the touchstone for a multichannel campaign that centered around a Flash website featuring an interactive tutorial about HealthMiles Plus, as well as an “edu-taining” driving range game.
The campaign also included email, dimensional direct mail, a full complement of sales collateral, and a series of agent events held at golf clubs around the country.
The animated case study above provides an overview of the campaign.
Special thanks to Plan B for providing the case study.
Dex Banner Ads
"Dex Suggests"
"Dex Three Ways"
"Dex Inside"
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The character of Dex, the spokesman for Dex Directories, is well known within the company’s service footprint, thanks to their long-running, witty “Dex Knows” campaign. He is most associated with Dex phone books, as well as their online directory at dexknows.com.
In the summer of 2009, the company rolled out a major upgrade to their online search capabilities. They also launched a campaign targeting Google and Yahoo by positioning Dex as the “local” alternative to big, anonymous global search engines. Mobile search was a key component of their new capabilities, and they launched apps for a variety of mobile devices as part of the rollout.
These banner ads were designed to drive awareness of the new Dex search capabilities, particularly their mobile apps, while leveraging the equity of the Dex character. In a nutshell, the message the client wanted to convey was: Now your favorite phone book and online search is even better. Use Dex to find exactly what you’re looking for, right in your neighborhood, in the book, on the web or on your mobile device. The challenge was to convey that message conceptually rather than verbally — a task made even more difficult due to tight file size restrictions. Simple animations and hard-hitting copy did the trick.
These banners were delivered to users within Dex’s local market footprints around the country.
Peridot Precision Manufacturing Website
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Peridot Precision Manufacturing provides ultra-precise miniature and micro-miniature manufacturing services to the electronics and medical device industries. No mere “machine shop,” Peridot elevates their work to an art form, and they work closely with their clients to develop innovative solutions to design and manufacturing challenges.
Staffed by a crew of mad scientists and led by an owner who possesses both an MBA and an MFA, Peridot’s corporate personality is quirky, to say the least. So when we developed this website, as well as the accompanying print ads and sales collateral, we sought to carve out a unique identity that would set them apart from the myriad “ordinary” machine shops in northern California.
As a writer, my challenge was to translate the highly technical subject matter into accessible, clever copy that clearly explained their capabilities, while capturing the company’s distinctive culture. So I interviewed the owners and staff, conducted extensive competitive research, and developed a brand voice that’s confident but not arrogant, and knowledgeable but not jargony.