Health Insurance plans in the U.S. differ from state to state, which limits the benefits we can talk about. Also, 36% of the U.S. population is covered by Medicare or Medicaid—government insurance administered by private companies like UnitedHealthcare.  We cannot mention specific products or benefits of Medicare or Medicaid without

On any given day, you could break your toe, get the flu, or be in a spacecraft accident. No, really. There’s an actual medical code for each of those.

There’s also a code for falling into an open manhole, hurting yourself intentionally with a paintball gun or getting a sunburn. There are more than 76,000 official ICD-10 codes. They’re used by doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies and public health authorities around the globe to classify ailments. Each of these “Ways in” has its own code. If you’re bitten by an orca, for example, code W56.21XA will be noted on your medical record.

We took those real codes and used them to tell funny stories of the ways people got into the complex health care system. And, once they were there, we showed how UnitedHealthcare helped make the system less confusing, less expensive and just plain more human.

The “Ways In” campaign effort launched in the U.S. on March 16, 2015 across multiple channels: Network and cable television, online video pre-roll, digital banners, paid social, radio, out of home and experiential marketing.

Various aspects continued through April 30, 2016, with new media being added as we went along, including efforts to the U.S. Hispanic market.

While spending less than the health insurance category average, the campaign has been able to amass 4.7 billion total impressions.

The “Ways In” campaign launched with the TV commercial “Our Song.” It immediately went viral, becoming the most shared ad in the world for three weeks running. As the campaign added executions in different media and built momentum, its fame and impact on the UnitedHealthcare brand grew dramatically.

With only 25% of category spend, the campaign drove 97% of the health insurance category’s earned digital (search, social commentary and organic video views). To date, the campaign films have garnered 79.5 million online views, 15.7 million of them earned, an earned view rate of 20%.

We surpassed our 12-month communication goals by more than 200% across all metrics in just 9 months.

KPI

9-month actual gain

12-month goal

Unaided Awareness

+20%

+9%

Brand Impression

+23%

+7%

Member Trust

+15%

+7%

This launch of the “Ways In” campaign for UnitedHealthcare spanned multiple channels including TV, radio, out-of-home, digital, social and experiential, all working in concert and unified by a common creative idea.

Our target was everyone: all U.S. adults (English and Spanish speakers) who have dealt with the confusing healthcare system.  So we’re talking everyone from 18 to 100+. With such a broad target, UHC needed multiple media platforms to start moving the needle.

The campaign kicked off with TV, out-of-home and banners to build awareness and establish a recognizable campaign.  Pop culture references increased breakthrough and talk value.  Longer-format film was used to encourage sharing.  Twitter and Facebook connected to trending topics and poked fun at the ridiculously complicated health care system, positioning UnitedHealthcare as an ally in simplification. Sponsorships and promotions brought the campaign to life and demonstrated in the real world how UnitedHealthcare was saving people from the complexity of the health care system.

The health insurance category in the United States is a challenge. People don’t want to deal with it – health insurance is complex, confusing, and costly (U.S. health costs average 20% of household income).

Judging from health insurance category ads, you’d never know this. Happy scenes of healthy people and vague promises of “wellness” are the norm. We busted those conventions by using humor. And by telling stories of people who’d been injured and needed to use their health insurance. When they did, we showed how UnitedHealthcare made health insurance simpler, easier and less expensive for people to use.

The “Ways In” campaign was UnitedHealthcare’s first consumer brand advertising effort. Our goals were to build trust and affinity—get people to like UnitedHealthcare so they’d be more open to engaging with us. Specific objectives were (in 12 months):

• Unaided awareness +9%

• Brand Impression +7%

• Trust +7%