Bodies hidden under hospital sheets and toe tags have no place in a campaign for Atlantic Blue Cross Care’s Options product, which offers medical coverage for the uncovered.
The objective was to present a serious message without resorting to macabre scenes. ‘The approaches of some ads have a strong element of fear that can leave people feeling very uneasy,’ says MacEachern. ‘It doesn’t mean that such ads aren’t effective, they are, but they can also be polarizing.’
Last summer CCL gleaned insights from six focus groups across the Atlantic region. Their investigation showed that people don’t like to dwell on the negative. The ‘it can’t happen to me’ syndrome figured strongly when it came to discussing the hypothetical, which tended to remove any incentive for purchasing the Options product.
What did provide incentive for purchasing medical insurance was the desire to protect families against financial ruin, and the research also discovered that consumers preferred to get the facts without their heartstrings being pulled.
Hence, the message of the new campaign for Atlantic Blue Cross, which has offices in Moncton, N.B. and Dartmouth N.S., is that Options allows consumers to buy themselves some peace of mind. The tag is, ‘you’ll be able to get on with your life.’
The effort consists of a 60-second and a 30-second TV ad. Both target adults 25 to 54, who are either between jobs, self-employed, or work part time or on contract.
The 60-second spot depicts blurred movement in a doctor’s waiting room with only a ticking clock clearly present. Eventually a nurse appears out of the blur: ‘How would you pay for it if you got sick?’ she asks. The annual cost of specific diseases scrolls across the screen, alerting viewers, for instance, that cancer can set a family back $40,000. <.p>
The ad campaign launched in the Atlantic region April 12. Client: Atlantic Blue Cross Care
Agency: CCL
Associate CD/Art Director: Brenda Sanderson
Creative Coach/Copywriter: Graham Watt
Director of Strategic Marketing: Don Craig
Production House: Cenex
Director: Gordon Miller
Editor: Jeff Fish, Filet Productions
Strategic Planner: Larry MacEachern
Account Supervisor: Lisa Paschal
Manager, Communications: Kelly Hickman
