Centivo Gets a Hair-Raising Makeover in Playful Campaign

Centivo unveils their latest campaign directed by Open Swim’s Bradley Ross via creative agency territorial. In addition, Ross tapped Open Swim’s casting division, Lotis Bloom, to handle both casting and location scouting for the stunt and related spot.

Set in a local hair salon, the spot follows a handful of regulars coming in for their usual haircut only to find Dr. Raj Shah, a sr. medical director from Centivo, waiting for them as their new hair stylist. Confused and hesitant, the clients push back, leading Dr. Raj Shah to reveal he’s not actually there to cut hair but to prove a point: we often place deep trust in our hairstylists, and we should be building that same kind of long-term, trusted relationship with our primary care doctors.

“Open Swim immediately saw the strengths and challenges of this project, hitting the ground running right away with insights that really helped to sharpen the creative concept and nail the strategy,” said Robert Balog, partner, founder, and creative lead for territorial. “Their partnership added depth and executional excellence we couldn’t have gotten from anyone else.”

Centivo’s chief marketing officer, Frank Pedersen, explained the high stakes for this campaign, “As a startup and challenger brand in the healthcare space we don’t just need to break through against the few massive companies who dominate the space, we need to wake people up. Centivo has dared to offer real solutions for fixing healthcare when no one else will, with an approach that can seem simple from the outside but which has radical implications for employers and members alike. territorial and Open Swim understood that this campaign needed to be innovative and engaging if we’re going to inspire hardworking Americans to expect more from their health plan.”

The spot is part of a broader campaign for Centivo, an innovative health plan for self-funded employers designed around the belief that everyone deserves high-quality care at a price they can afford. The campaign centers on Centivo’s Primary Care Physician (PCP)-based model, which fosters ongoing relationships between patients and a dedicated care team, leading to better health outcomes, improved experiences, and lower costs. The production was a collaborative effort from the Open Swim team, with line producing handled in-house by Nate Bloom in his debut and director Marc André Debruyne joining Ross on set for support.

“territorial has a streamlined philosophy similar to ours,” shared Amyliz Pera. “This meant everyone, from strategists to production, was involved from the start to finish which made for a really thoughtful and integrated process. And with our internal arm Lotis Bloom handling both casting and location scouting, we found the perfect partner in Nice Hair, a real neighborhood salon whose clients helped bring the heart of the campaign to life in an authentic and inclusive way.”