Health Insurance Is a Family Affair in Covered California Health Insurance Campaign
Duncan Channon has launched its new campaign for Covered California, the first and largest state-run health insurance marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act. Launching today November 1st, Covered California’s campaign represents a comprehensive, multicultural push to motivate uninsured Californians to get covered -- and take advantage of American Rescue Plan federal subsidies that dramatically lower the cost of coverage at a time when health insurance is critical.
The new work builds on the success of the ‘This Way to Health Insurance’ campaign by Duncan Channon, which originally launched in November 2020 and delivered a direct message about the accessibility and quality of health insurance available on Covered California’s marketplace. This year, new TV/Video spots featuring real families build on this message with a more emotional approach that taps the love and protective instinct we feel as parents as motivation for getting health insurance. And, a new anthem spot, ‘Californians’ aims to dispel common perceptions that block people from starting the process to find coverage, while positioning Covered California as a values-based organisation that believes ‘health insurance should cover more and cost less.’
“When we launched ‘This Way to Health Insurance’ in November 2020, many months into the pandemic, people needed a very direct message about how Covered California helps make getting insured easier and more affordable. This year, we’re building on things with new creative that taps into our emotional motivations for getting insured. The ‘Heart’ TV spot captures the unmistakable vulnerability parents feel as we try to keep our kids safe and help them thrive,” said Michael Lemme, chief creative officer, Duncan Channon. “The combination of new creative with top-performing spots that remind people about the financial and practical support available to them work together to change the way Californians think and feel about getting covered.”
The new TV spots will air alongside three spots from the original campaign and a dedicated spot that highlights the availability of $3B in federal funding that has significantly lowered the price of coverage for many Californians - often by hundreds of dollars per month. The suite of TV/Video ads, plus new radio, OOH, print and digital, work together to help change Californians’ perception of the quality and accessibility of health insurance, and show them Covered California is here to help them get covered. To reflect the diversity of the state, the campaign includes culturally relevant in-language creative in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Korean, created in collaboration with multicultural agency partners Barú, APartnership and Quantasy -- who also developed media strategies to reach specific cultural audiences.
The 2022 open enrolment campaign launches at a time when Covered California has record-high enrolment of 1.6M Californians. Covered California also recorded a significant increase in sign-ups since promoting the financial benefits of the American Rescue Plan via a dedicated ad campaign by Duncan Channon that launched in April. In the first four months of the campaign (April 12th – Aug 10th), Covered California saw enrolments increase by 29 percent over the previous year in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made in helping to get a record number of Californians insured, but we won’t rest until we change the hearts and minds of those who still believe quality health insurance is out of reach,” said Colleen Stevens, marketing director, Covered California. “We’ve spoken first hand with so many people who couldn’t have imagined getting the coverage they have now for such a low price. We want Californians to know that we’re more than a marketplace for health insurance. We’re allies in helping them find health insurance that covers more, and cost less.”
