The impetus for Celebrate Caring was a simple question: What are our members’ stories? What evolved was the first integrated, multimedia campaign of its kind at Independence.
Inspired by two years of Faces of Fearless submissions (a national contest that generates stories about the power of being a Blue Cross Blue Shield member), we were able to identify a trend of members expressing gratitude for nurses at Independence who helped them through difficult health challenges. The content was so compelling, we decided to launch a unique campaign around the value of nurses.
We began with a few key objectives:
Since everyone has a story about a nurse — whether it’s receiving medical care that left a lasting impression or witnessing the selfless commitment of a loved one in the profession — we were confident Celebrate Caring would attract quality submissions. However, due to our regional marketing restrictions and niche specificity of the contest, the entry goal was set at just a couple hundred nominations. Reach in the Philadelphia-area DMA would be key to success.
Planning: We wanted to invite the community to help us identify nurses to recognize, so we devised a short essay-based contest with a relatively low barrier to entry. To incentivize submissions, we promised to surprise three winners with thank you celebrations during National Nurses Week, and to reward them with self-care packages including restaurant and spa gift cards, and tickets to Philadelphia sports games and concerts. Winners would also receive the ability to designate a $1,500 charitable donation.
A landing page at ibx.com/nurses was created with an entry portal and embedded blogs and videos that emphasized the importance of nurses.
Strategic media partnerships with 6abc, iHeartRadio, and The Philadelphia Inquirer were formed to increase the reach of the campaign.
Promoting the submission period: At Independence, we’re proud of the impact our nurses have on individuals facing health challenges. Over the four-week submission period, we promoted the contest on the Celebrate Caring landing page, IBX Insights Blog, and our social channels, using interviews and photographs of several of our IBX nurses. We chose nurses across in informatics, auditing, case and condition management, and claims to demonstrate diversity in nursing. In collaboration with our nurses we created six unique blogs, three video profiles, animated quote graphics for Instagram, and a number of other social posts touting the “Nominate a Nurse” call to action. These posts simultaneously demonstrated that there’s always a nurse on your side at Independence.
Once the contest was live, we reached out directly to local hospitals, universities, and nurse organizations to make them aware of the campaign. Our media partners at 6abc, iHeartRadio, and The Philadelphia Inquirer encouraged the public to submit their own Celebrate Caring stories via TV, radio, print, digital, and social media. Additionally, we were able to tap into three iHeartRadio personalities as social influencers.
National Nurses Week celebrations and winning nurse stories: Nominations were evaluated and given scores for on-brand message, emotional storytelling, examples and support, uniqueness, and supports other brand initiatives. We worked quickly to notify the workplaces of our three winners (an elementary school, an in-patient hospice center, and a hospital in Delaware) and plan Nurses Week events specific to each location. During these events we captured still photos, b-roll, and conducted on-camera interviews that would later be used for social media storytelling. 6abc’s Facebook Live story during the school assembly saw more than 17,000 views, and we earned media coverage of the Penn Hospice event. The Inquirer’s story beautifully captured each celebration and gained over 600,000 pageviews. Each workplace shared social posts honoring their winning nurse as well.
Finally, on June 18 we hosted our winners, finalists and their guests at Independence LIVE for an intimate reception. At this point, we were able to share the final Celebrate Caring recap video across our social channels and created Instagram Stories highlights from the campaign. 6abc was on hand during the event, again broadcasting coverage and interviews from Facebook Live.
Celebrate Caring generated an outpouring of love for nurses. The submission period generated 700 nominations for nurses at over 180 care settings across the Philadelphia region. The nominations were so moving, we adjusted our initial approach of honoring just three winners to include 7 additional finalists. This allowed us to expand Celebrate Caring from its original contest format to a more robust and inclusive user-generated content campaign. Using the nomination text as a guide, we conducted phone interviews with each of the 7 finalists, crafting their stories into blog profiles for each nurse. Several of the nurse finalists recognized at Independence LIVE expressed a willingness to be Celebrate Caring ambassadors should the campaign continue for a second year.
Together with our media partners, Independence engaged the public in a celebration of nurses; established meaningful, lasting relationships with the community; spread goodwill; and increased brand visibility and education around our health coach benefit. Our message of caring reached a substantial segment of the Philadelphia DMA with tangible results including:
