We Won! 31st Healthcare Advertising Awards

After 18 years in business, it’s still extremely exciting for everyone at VSBrooks ADVERTISING when we hear that we won an award. So when we recently found out that we won awards for a print campaign we created for our client CarePlus Health Plans, we were downright ecstatic.

Healthcare Marketing Report – The National Newspaper of Healthcare Marketing – awarded us and CarePlus two silver awards in its 31^st Healthcare Advertising Awards. We won for the stellar campaign we created to advertise CarePlus’ Medicare Annual Election Period (October 15 – December 7), the time when Medicare recipients over 65 can change their health plan.

The Healthcare Advertising Awards are the oldest, largest and considered the most widely respected healthcare advertising awards. A national panel of judges grants awards to entries that exemplify exceptional quality, creativity and message effectiveness.

In the statewide member testimonial campaign, we showcased today’s "senior" – not the traditional grandmother in a rocking chair of yesterday. We spent months identifying CarePlus’ members who are reinventing themselves for their next act – opera singers, dog walkers, motorcycle riders and more – to speak to their active lifestyle.

CarePlus Health Plan's award-winning print campaign.

It’s our business to create mind-blowing, unconventional ads. And we do it well. And … we love it. Not only do we wake up every day eager to develop amazing advertising for the healthcare industry, but also education, government, real estate, travel, retail and non-profit, among many others.

What will our next award be? Who knows. But we know we’ll have one heckuva great time creating the advertising to deserve it.

Shopping for healthcare is not like shopping for shoes or food – not yet anyway – but it’s getting there.

Today, television commercials for prescription medications put the decision-making power squarely in the hands of the consumer, who then can request a drug by name. Informational sites, such as www.webmd.com, allow visitors to make an initial diagnosis, while data- and survey-driven sites (www.HospitalCompare.hhs.gov) let customers choose their hospitals, based on what previous customers had to say. That’s right – customers – not patients. They are browsing before they buy.

The traditional “clinical” way of marketing healthcare services, doctors, clinics and hospitals has given way to a more personalized, interactive approach, one that assumes the consumer is educated, curious and engaged in his or her own care. Even insurance companies are becoming more approachable and friendly to appeal to the “shopper” in us all, employing the use of storefronts once reserved for buying fun, retail-y stuff, like clothes and furniture." Diana Brooks was quoted in a recent Miami Herald Business Monday Article saying that, "Some of them are doing kiosks in malls, and those are geared more to the individuals. What I see, though, is that right now, they’re having to advertise a lot more aggressively and go out there and find the people. The people aren’t necessarily walking in so much. And that’s just a function of the economy."

How do we know all this? VSBrooks Advertising has more than 15 years of experience in healthcare marketing and advertising. We know the consumer and their mindset, and we know the tools at their disposal are changing. We help our clients keep up and get in front of the curve.

What are you doing to help your potential customers make an informed decision?

THE TARGET AUDIENCE IS SHIFTING.

    For years, the biggest target audience age for marketers was between 18 -24. Well the target has moved or rather aged toward Medicare. As Ana Veciana-Suarez writes in her article, "Baby boomers, the generation that once vowed to never trust anyone over 30, begin turning 65 this year."
   The Miami Herald has published two articles by Veciana-Suarez today that really flesh out this pivotal shift in the demographic and what they can expect in Medicare.
Turning 65? Time to brush up on the details of Medicare, explains how medicare will affect this new senior population.
A cheat sheet on the four parts that comprise Medicare, further explains the complexities of medicare.

Baby Boomers: How many will be missing out on Medicare?

By: Cristina Alvarez

   Hey, there was a time, in my twenties, that I dreaded the thought of turning thirty and becoming an old bag. And then the thirties went by and they were pretty darn good. The forties were actually very revealing. I even found a hot boyfriend at forty-five. I now remember longingly when I turned fifty and am approaching the Medicare coming of age with trepidation. Perhaps my heart is skipping a beat or maybe it’s just fibrillating.
   Anyway, don’t they say that the fifties are the new thirties? I’m getting confused with all the numbers and decades. But what I do know is that in 2011, the oldest boomers will become 65 and enter the Medicare club.
We are not aging gracefully (although some would say it’s totally the opposite), utilizing our country's greatest brains to develop new forms of cosmetic surgeries, exercise mechanisms, skin preparations, and even miracle garments, to hide the inexorable action of gravity. I guess some can pull off the Botox and nips and tucks and look handsome. Well, you know how others look, rather like zombies in dire need of sleep.
   But I’m digressing… baby boomers better fez up! Quickly. If not, you’ll be missing out on the enrollment window of three months prior and three months after your birthday, and pay a penalty for it. What’s more, you could actually be disqualified for the Medicare Supplement, horror of horrors!
   If you’re a Supplement Medicare insurance company, think about the opportunity now. It has been researched, I swear, that older people rely more on intuition than rationality. That sounds irrational, right? For me, intuition is pent up rationality, waiting to jump out, but without an attitude. So if you are a marketer for this segment, employ images that promote strong positive emotional responses. Following that trend of thought, first impressions, which have a heavy emotional charge, are also more durable for older than younger adults. So be very careful and put your best foot forward.
   First you engage them and then you throw information at them. They do want the information, but get them interested first. But oh please, don’t give them more than what they need. Remember, their clock is ticking away, so be respectful of their time. That doesn’t mean you’re going to give them choppy phrases or bulleted lines. Older adults process thoughts slower, so be clear, but to the point. If you can, make a little story of it, peppered with emotional cues. You can’t lose with a. information they need, b. to-the-point information, c. information that touches their soul in some form.
   One thing that us mature audiences hate are absolutist statements about religion, politics, philosophy, companies, about almost everything. So make sure you present your information deferentially, in the “if you allow me to explain” mode. But… take advantage of our greater sensitivity to subtlety… go ahead, don’t be shy, throw in a metavalue about your services to make it more attractive… it’s allowed, and good marketing too. But put it within context and make it holistic. For older adults, it’s about the whole experience, because they’ve reached a point of synthesis in their lives.
   Baby Boomers are turning 50 at a dizzying rate of 1 every 10 seconds. That's more than 12,000 each day and over 4 million a year for each year of the next decade. And for the health plan companies out there trying to cash in on this emerging target, 2011 will be a wild feast. By the way, analysts say that this increase in the number of Medicare enrollees is projected to contribute 2.9 percentage points to growth in Medicare spending by 2017. Not good for the government, and eventually, not good for the aging.
   Typically, emerging markets consist of younger (or underdeveloped) people coming of age (or to quote an Evangelist, people “Seeing the Light!”) and beginning to consume a product that wasn’t available to them before for reason of price or maturity. In that sense, we can truly say that the Baby Boomers are babies that have finally grown up. Not grown old. Medicare will become the insurance for the boomers, not the insurance for those on their final trek. Some say the healthcare system is not prepared for their grand and copious entrance, that 36,000 geriatricians would need to be activated by 2030.
   Who knows about those geriatricians? 65-year-olds ain’t no grandparents no way no more. They are mature, coming of age, sophisticated consumers. They do not feel antediluvian. In fact, they feel energized, ready for another round. Many boomers will work past their seventies, and at more than 100 million strong, this group and other customers born before 1965 will be - in fact are - the single most important consumer group in the U.S., in addition to being the wealthiest, best educated, and most sophisticated of purchasers. They’ve become the new customer majority.
   By the way, new statistics just came out on life expectancy: a man currently age 65 can expect to live until age 83, and the average 65 year old woman until 85, according to the Social Security Administration. And why would they lie? For them it’s best that we all conk out sooner rather than later.