The Story
Every time an open enrollment period hits, when employees at large companies can change their insurance provider, Regence BlueCross BlueShield is at risk to losing enrollees to a competing plan — especially if the decision is based on price, not customer service. Our task was to demonstrate that Regence offered superior service, so employees would also factor that in to their health insurance provider decision.

 
The Solution
This is true for any industry: Consumers’ perceptions of a brand are based on what a company does, much more than what it  says. For a health plan, the time and place where most customers learn what their plan does is on the phone, trying to get a question answered or a dispute resolved. Unless you’re a Regence customer and unless you have a question or problem, there is no way to experience the brand in action. So our recommendation was to let consumers listen in to an unrehearsed interaction between a Regence service rep and a slightly exasperating customer. 

The Results
Two years into this radio-only campaign, total brand awareness for Regence hit 85%, while advertising awareness was just below 40%, nearly equalling the performance of the company's main competitor who was spending five times as much. More than half of the audience who recalled the campaign could specifically cite the customer service theme.