Helping a healthcare provider rise above the competition during open enrollment
Client: Rocky Mountain Health Plans
Background
Insurance companies face wild competition and market fluctuation while trying to earn consumers’ attention during annual open enrollment periods. Determined to rise above the fray, Grand Junction-based insurance provider Rocky Mountain Health Plans worked with Parallel Path to humanize the brand with an integrated campaign anchored around an authentic, cinematic, and localized short storytelling film series called “Life on the Western Slope.”
Challenge
The marketing team at Rocky Mountain Health Plans (RMHP) had their work cut out for them. Insurance companies only have a three-month open enrollment period each year, giving marketing a small window to reach, educate, and convert consumers. Parallel Path encouraged Rocky Mountain Health Plans to think differently – and think big – to meet their customer conversion goals. Parallel Path developed a strategy that integrated traditional media to amplify the reach of RMHP’s message beyond the digital landscape. We crafted and executed an extensive, high-frequency media campaign named “Life on the Western Slope” to reach audiences. It succeeded and continues to exceed all expectations of reach and impact.
Solution
Messaging can break a campaign or make a great one. For the Life on the Western Slope campaign, Parallel Path chose to align the messaging with essential human needs such as safety, family, friends, accomplishment, and purpose. When humans are confident in their safety, we have the space to feel free, less stressed, and healthy. That’s exactly the peace of mind that RMHP provides its customers.
To convey this message, we anchored the integrated marketing campaign on stunning film content that tells the stories of Colorado residents protected by RMHP, directed, shot, and edited by the talented Roos Brothers. Each of the films in the series features a real person; no actors or scripts are used during the shoots.
The first three films in the Life on the Western Slope series ran from October 2017 to January 2018 and garnered over 6.3 million views. The series also continues to collect awards including a Webby and an Official Selection at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival, and was a finalist in the 2019 Banff Mountain Film Competition.
The Life on the Western Slope campaign owes its success not only to the stunning quality and content of its films, but also to the data-driven tactics that amplified the campaign’s reach beyond the digital landscape. As a first step, we analyzed and benchmarked the impact of previous campaigns on branded search queries as an indicator of brand intent. Then, Parallel Path’s approach and framework enabled real-time optimizations of the marketing campaign. Real audience engagement data was measured during the campaign to influence the content, asset rotation, and distribution across more than 25 traditional and digital media channels.
Outcome
It would be an understatement to call this campaign a success. In the last two years, the Life on the Western Slope campaign has driven more than 97 Million Brand Impressions, 11 Million Video Views, and 80,000 Campaign Landing Page Views. And we’ve seen +25% Brand Search Inquires Year over Year.
In an age of media oversaturation, sound bites, and distractions, it’s the brands like Rocky Mountain Health Plans that have the courage to lead with authentic content that will continue to have more meaningful relationships with their customers.