1. 9/30/2011
Take the Risk Out of
Starting Over
in Healthcare Marketing
DMA:2011
Michael Meadows, Highmark Inc.
Tom Reid, Hacker Group | HealthHG
Background
&
Situation
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2. 9/30/2011
Background
• Highmark
– Serves 4.8 million members in Pennsylvania and
West Virginia
– One of the largest Blue plans in the nation
– 19,500 employees across the country
– Mission:
• To be the leading health and wellness company in the
communities we serve
• Michael Meadows, Highmark
– Director - Senior Markets Marketing
– 7 years of health care marketing experience
Background
• Hacker Group | HealthHG
– Full service direct / digital agency
– HealthHG dedicated insurance practice
• Tom Reid, Hacker Group
– Executive Director and Chief Strategist
– 24 years of agency and client-side experience
Medicare Advantage Market
• Medicare Advantage market is highly regulated
– Marketing materials filed with CMS
– Enrollment limited to 8 weeks per year
• Mature & change resistant – most seniors have
some type of additional coverage now
• Many stakeholders
– Sales, Product, Brand, BCBS Association, Compliance
• Mistakes are costly – no time to recover
• Intense pressure on marketing efforts
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3. 9/30/2011
• Operational complexity: multiple brands, products,
regional competition
• Product-centric marketing
• Launched market segmentation approach to
messaging a year prior
• Limited marketing performance metrics
• Not satisfied with lead volume or cost-per-lead
results
• Needed a more scalable and predictable
approach to improving results
Strategies
for
Reducing Risk
When Starting Over
Strategies for Reducing Risk
• Level set on performance and metrics
– Agree on available market
– Use historical results and industry
benchmarks to set realistic objectives
– Establish metrics that will be used to judge
success
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4. 9/30/2011
Strategies for Reducing Risk
• Combine new creative / messaging with
known winning formats and offers
– Draw upon winning formats for same
audience
– Focus on the immediate objective:
engagement vs. selling a specific product
Strategies for Reducing Risk
• Understand the Audience – What problem
are we trying to solve?
– Bombarded with information in a short period
of time
– Searching for help with a complicated
decision
– Different views on health care
Strategies for Reducing Risk
• Maximize audience reach
– Integrated media strategy
– Develop offers that appeal to the shopper
– Solution messaging versus product specific
messaging where possible
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5. 9/30/2011
Starting Over!
Starting Over: Evaluation
• Begin with an analysis of media budget
allocation and performance
– Benchmark prior year media mix
• Establish next year objectives
– Brand awareness vs. immediate results?
– Available market, available budget
– Leads, Members, Cost-per-Member
Starting Over: Implementation
• Mitigate marketing risk with multiple
touches, formats and executions
– More shots on goal with many touches
– Variety works with rotation strategy
– Enables lots of testing in the season
• Make it easy to respond
– Maximize response by using multiple
response channels
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6. 9/30/2011
Starting Over: Implementation
• Media mix –
– DRTV
• Align production and media budget
• 60s vs 90s vs 120s?
• Tune media spend weekly
– Mail
• Many packages and components
• Harvest credibility from DRTV
– FSI (Free Standing Insert)
• Format testing makes a difference
– Test and Measure EVERYTHING!
Starting Over: Implementation
• Fulfillment
– Speed and accuracy count
– Opportunity for more than just fulfillment data
processing
• Marketing Database
– Response management and lead qualification
– Fulfillment management
– Daily and weekly metrics on each vehicle
• Weekly Metrics Review
– No surprises
Results
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7. 9/30/2011
Starting Over: Accomplishments
• Significant increase in market engagement
– Reallocated budget to more efficient vehicles
• Increased mail by 190%, from 1.1mm to 3.2mm
– Shifted DRTV budget to media vs. production
• Reduced overall DRTV budget by 21%
• Increased number of spots run by 31%
• Ran 11,100 spots vs. 9,100 spots prior year
– Delivered 54% more response
• 51,400 vs. 33,300 in prior year
Starting Over: Accomplishments
• Identified controls
– 3 winning mail packages above 1.4%
– Winning lists / newspapers / stations
• Improved results tracking and attribution
– Direct marketing credited with over 2x the
sales of prior year
• Reduced marketing acquisition costs
– Lowered marketing cost-per-member by 63%
Starting Over: Accomplishments
• Reduced data processing costs by 30%
and produced a robust marketing
database
• Clear view into campaign performance on
weekly basis — all key metrics:
– Summarized pipeline view of each vehicle
and execution
• Solicits / Response / Leads / Cost-per’s
– Regional performance
– Segmentation summaries
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8. 9/30/2011
Creative
Starting Over: Mail Examples
23
Starting Over: FSI
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9. 9/30/2011
Starting Over: DRTV
Conclusions
Starting Over: Key Learnings
• More online
– Over 5% of response via online
• DRTV
– Motion graphics & 60s spots paid off
• Mail
– Testing paid off: 3 winners identified, enabling
more efficiency gains in subsequent year
• FSI
– Focused distribution yielded higher response,
lower cost-per-member results
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10. 9/30/2011
Taking the Risk out of Starting Over
• Take time to do the evaluation
• Set clear, measurable performance metrics
• Build on what works
• Provide solutions for audience problems
• Cast a wide net
• Identify operational gaps
• Review and optimize often
Postscript: 2010 – 2011
Does the approach scale over time?
Response Volume Cost per Response Cost per Member
Year Gain over Prior Year Gain over Prior Year Gain over Prior Year
2011 32% -3% -14%
2010 9% -4% 20%
2009 54% -36% -63%
• Consistency: delivers year after year
• Improvement: testing and refinement drives cost
per response down year over year
• Results: continued growth in the face changing
regulations and fierce competition
Starting Over: Questions?
Thank You!
Michael Meadows, Highmark Inc.
Tom Reid, Hacker Group | HealthHG
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