Who: GreenShield, with Broken Heart Love Affair for strategy and creative; Heads+Tales for PR; and Epitaph for media.
What: “The Reverse Waiting Room,” the not-for-profit healthcare brand’s first national campaign. It not only represents a full repositioning for the 65-year-old none-profit, but also introduces its new Greenshield+ platform.
When & Where: The campaign launched on Sept. 25, and is running across TV in English and French, supported by social media and YouTube, as well as paid editorial, influencer marketing, PR and paid search.
Why: Launched earlier this year, GreenShield+ is described as a “first-of-its-kind” digital health and benefits ecosystem that streamlines healthcare by enabling users to check their coverage, access their benefits, connect with healthcare providers, and get reimbursed for their claims all through a single interface.
To help illustrate the value of a streamlined process, GreenShield conducted a study that found Canadians can spend as much as 2.5 times more time booking appointments and using benefits than actually seeing a doctor, and they spend 60% more time post appointment with prescriptions, booking follow-up appointments and submitting insurance claims.
GreenShield+ brings together eight entities spanning 50 unique brands that GreenShield acquired to bolster its capabilities as a payer offering insurance and administering benefits, and offering health services across mental health, pharmacy and telemedicine.
In April, the company went through a rebranding aimed at clarifying how the pieces fit together and simplifying how it shows. “We shifted from a traditional disjointed ‘house of brands’ to a branded house, with GreenShield at the top and four sub-brands all bearing the GreenShield name,” said Mandy Mail, senior vice-president, marketing and communications with GreenShield.
How: Mail said that the downside of disruptive strategies is that they can be difficult to explain. “With the company redefining the health and benefits experience for Canadians, we needed to simplify the messaging and define a strategic plan platform that would break through,” she said.
To demonstrate GreenShield’s patient-first approach, the spot from BHLA cleverly flips the script on the usual doctor-patient relationship.
It opens on a doctor showing up for their appointment, only to be informed that “the patient will be right with you.” The waiting room holds a group of doctors listening to bland music, reading well-thumbed magazines, exasperatedly glancing at the clock, and playing with the toys as they wait for their appointment with a patient to be announced.
“Reverse Waiting Room,” said Mail, is intended to be analogous to the experience offered by GreenShield+, “timely access to quality care with seamless benefits integration, enabling you to spend more time on health and well-being versus navigating a complex system.”
“We profiled our target audience, identified the consumer tension, and isolated the core opportunity: People are burnt out trying to navigate current systems,” she said. “They need a tenacious guide on their quest to betterment. As the solution, our product truth is that we offer holistic care built around your needs. This enables you to take charge of your health and well-being to unlock your true potential.
Meet the “Green Team”: According to Mail, GreenShield had “big ambitions” to integrate more than 50 brands into a “compelling, authentic, and ownable” brand platform in only one year, and wanted an agency with “a challenger mindset and a strong moral compass.”
Rather than a formal RFP, GreenShield began taking meetings with prospective agencies that aligned with its brand values. BHLA was officially onboarded in November, forming what it dubbed the “Green Team” along with Epitaph, Public Inc., Heads + Tales and Sklar Wilton.
And we quote: “We know Canadians want to take control of their health but face challenges navigating the disparate parts of the health and benefits system. Canadians are looking for access, convenience, better integration, and improved health outcomes.” — Zahid Salman, president and CEO, GreenShield
