Who: Rexall and Bensimon Byrne, with TA2 for audio, school for editing and Lev Bravo for post-production. Media Experts and Northern for media.

What: A launch campaign for the pharmacy chain’s new loyalty program, “Be Well,” a multi-faceted app-based program that in addition to offering users the ability to earn and redeem points, also provides tools for tracking health, wellness and medical history, and offers the ability to order prescriptions directly through the app.

When & Where: The three-month campaign includes TV, radio, programmatic advertising (online video, digital banners, native ads) and social (Facebook and Instagram), as well as search and e-mail marketing. There is also some in-store advertising.

Be Well launched in May, right after Rexall ended its approximately 20-year association with Air Miles, but marketing support was paused during the pandemic.

“It’s a very cheery, upbeat message about managing your health and wellness, and we just said it didn’t feel like the right time to go to market,” said Carolyn Hynds, Rexall’s vice-president of loyalty, CRM and analytics. “There were a lot of bigger things that consumers were thinking about, so we decided to continue with [the Be Well] launch…but [postpone] our campaign until now.” 

Even without a major marketing push, Be Well is off to a strong start. According to Hynds, the program has amassed more than 1.3 million members who are using either the card or app, with more than 35% of transactions in its approximately 415 stores completed using Be Well. 

Why: Rexall president Nicolas Caprio says that Canadians believe that traditional loyalty programs are not meeting their needs. “They want more than simply rewards,” said Caprio. “They want better tools, better data, and better ways to ultimately manage and improve their health and wellness.”

The app also addresses a key customer concern during the pandemic: ordering and picking-up prescriptions. According to research in a new report commissioned by Rexall called State of Wellness, one-third of Canadians have missed or knowingly delayed a prescription refill because the process isn’t convenient.

The State of Wellness research also found that 75% of young Canadians are willing to shift to digital services to manage their health and wellness, while 44% of respondents said that COVID had made their ability to manage their health more complicated.

How: The messaging is built around three key elements, said Hynds: the ability to use Be Well for loyalty point earnings and redemption; the Rexall family of brands, and consumers’ ability to use the Be Well app to fill prescriptions and receive a text notification when they are ready for pick-up. Those messages are all delivered via a series of 15-second ads.

The campaign’s launch spot, “Wellness is Everywhere,” equates people’s day-to-day life with a workout, with visuals of people completing everyday tasks while a voiceover delivers encouragement like a trainer in a fitness class: “Let’s kick it up a notch,” and “You got this.”

The creative strategy is built around the insight that wellness is everywhere and open to everyone, says Bensimon Byrne’s partner, executive creative director Joseph Bonnici. “It acknowledges all of the little choices and efforts you already make every day that benefit your health and well-being and turns the idea that wellness is reserved only for the super-athletic and fit on its head,” he said.

And we quote: “Wellness is a highly individualized journey, where one size absolutely does not fit all. Be Well is here to offer better value, greater benefits and a path to better health compared to any other loyalty program currently on the market.” — Rexall president Nicolas Caprio