Be careful!
Don't try that!
Slow down!
Are you sure you can do that?
These are just some of the warnings that society tells seniors on a daily basis.
At Humana, we are advocates for seniors, encouraging and giving them the tools to 'Start With Healthy' because great things are ahead when their health is ready for them. Along with our creative agencies FCB Chicago and BBDO, we partnered with the National Senior Games Association and enlisted the help of the iconic female runner, Kathrine Switzer, to drive brand awareness and showcase Humana as a partner in health. Our Senior Games social campaign demonstrated how Humana champions the right to age well while bringing the games beyond the events in Birmingham, Alabama.
We developed creative wrappers to celebrate athletes' 'When I Started' stories and challenged them to redefine 'Senior Moments' to shift the narrative on aging and leave outdated stereotypes in the dust. The inspirational content from both series served up accessible holistic health tips all leaning into the overarching 'Start With Healthy' platform.
PRE-GAMES
Our Senior Games-focused-creative connected the athlete stories to Humana's role in helping seniors 'Start with Healthy'. In the months leading up to the Games, we developed geo-targeted Facebook posts featuring members from key markets that celebrated them as 'Hometown Heroes' to increase brand relevancy, showcase their impressive athletic statistics, and highlight their personal motivators. Through the series we were able to meet our 64+ audience in their social newsfeeds to encourage them to start on their own path to health.
DURING-GAMES
In the first two weeks of June, we focused our efforts on elevating the events at the games, driving awareness to the masses through social. We used Facebook Live to circumvent traditional broadcast partners; streaming the competition and comradery, delivering real-time content to over one million people.
Kathrine Switzer used her platform to inspire actions towards improving health, while challenging outdated stereotypes. We showcased Kathrine in a Facebook Live video during her guest appearance running the 10K road race event, giving our audience an intimate look into her experience as a senior athlete.
Similarly, our 'Senior Moments' series was a powerful way to reclaim the cliché phrase and turn it on its head. We paired this label with powerful imagery, and forever changed the way that our audience perceived seniors' physical capabilities.
Additional social activations through Instagram Stories and Snapchat geo-filters elevated the Senior Games experience and communicated to our audience that it is never too late to take a step toward a healthier lifestyle.
POST-GAMES
To keep the momentum going after the games we continued to share 'Senior Moments' and emphasized the importance of whole body health. A series of videos and GIFs allowed us to elevate epic video and imagery captured at the games, while our messaging highlighted the personal motivations that pushed our athletes to stay active and on a healthy path. By opening the door to a variety of motivators, we helped our audience redefine what a successful health journey could look like. For some, it was achieving a personal record at the games. For others, it was connecting with old friends or picking up a new hobby.
We shared inspirational 'When I Started' videos through social channels that featured how these athletes continue to defy the norm on their own terms, not letting age limit their aspirations. This in-depth form of storytelling enhanced our messaging and reinforced the notion that a healthy dose of optimism could make anything possible.
From May to present we have been able to drive awareness around Humana's positioning across Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram totaling 61,306,194 impressions. Accomplishing our goal to bring the games beyond Birmingham we garnered a total of 1,720,976 video views with our five Facebook Live broadcasts. Maintaining interest over time, our roughly 30 Facebook posts averaged a notable 17% engagement rate and we started Twitter conversations around how we advocate for seniors.
Though we are almost finished with the campaign, the Senior Games social creative has garnered a great deal of success, redefining what it means to age to with optimism. Most importantly, we've given seniors and boomers a newfound reason to 'Start With Healthy'!
