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AIS's Health Business Daily
Featured Story September 8, 2008 Blues Plans Ramp Up Efforts to Reach a Growing Hispanic Population Reprinted from The AIS Report on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, a hard-hitting independent monthly newsletter on business strategies, products and markets, mergers and alliances, and financing of BC/BS plans. By Jill Brown, Managing Editor, (jbrown@aispub.com) With the Hispanic community accounting for a growing proportion of the U.S. population, Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the country are retooling marketing and advertising campaigns with an eye toward greater cultural sensitivity. Figures recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau show that the Hispanic community represents the largest minority group in the U.S., with 45.5 million people or 15.1% of the total U.S. population. Blacks rank as the second-largest minority group, at 40.7 million. In May, Phoenix-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona launched its first full-scale marketing campaign targeting Hispanics. The effort includes television, radio and print advertising and a series of six video "Web-isodes" intended to appeal to younger audiences. Available on YouTube.com and other video-sharing Web sites, the Webisodes feature a cast of young and energetic characters, each representing a key segment of the target market, according to Arizona Blues spokesperson Carlos DellaMaddalena. The videos, available in both English and Spanish, are intended to get the state's Hispanic population more informed about their health care choices, he says. The campaign is targeted to areas that have a higher concentration of Hispanic residents, DellaMaddalena explains. "We are targeting acculturated Hispanics who are bilingual or speak English primarily," he says. "All media is bilingual in order to cater to the preference of the viewer. Media placement in one language or the other is based on geotargeting areas where the language preference is Spanish versus English." DellaMaddalena declines to reveal the cost of the program and says it's too early to quantify its impact. "The campaign was just launched May 1," he tells The AIS Report. Regence Focuses on Education Last year, Portland, Ore.-based Regence Group unveiled a marketing campaign for the Hispanic community. Regence provides benefits for nearly 3 million members through Regence BlueShield of Idaho, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah and Regence BlueShield (in Washington). In many cases, the influx of immigrants has resulted in a clash of cultures when it comes to the concept of health insurance. "Health care in our countries of origin is done differently," explains Francisco Garbayo, Regence's manager of emerging markets, who is himself Hispanic. "We didn't think about health insurance because we didn't need it." The first task was educating the community about how the American health care system works. Regence also launched a Hispanic wellness campaign in print and on television. In December 2007, Regence implemented a Hispanic concierge program for the markets in which it operates, with bilingual and bicultural staffers who offer customer service and act as guides to help Hispanics navigate the health insurance system — even if they aren't Regence customers. "One phone call gets everything resolved," Garbayo tells The AIS Report. The concierge service for the Regence plans is handled by employees in Garbayo's office. Their "expertise is communication and culturalism, not to have the right answer, but knowing where to get the right answer," he says. "They're trained to deal with somebody who is afraid, unsure of their language skills, to help them navigate this very complex health care system we have in the U.S." Regence created a series of videos to explain American health care in dramatized vignettes. "It's kind of like a soap opera with very high drama," Garbayo says. "Once Latinos understand why it's important to have health insurance, they sign up." Garbayo says that the plan has increased Hispanic membership by 3.5% "above and beyond what we would have increased anyway." In addition, the plan's "net promoter score" — an independent survey of how often members would recommend the plan to friends — went from a -4 before the campaign to a +19 within the Hispanic community. "That's huge," he says. Garbayo declines to disclose costs for the campaign. Other Blues plans are less far along in their plans. Health Care Service Corp. subsidiary Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas is in the process of developing a marketing campaign for the Hispanic population, but plan spokesperson Margaret Jarvis declines to describe details of the initiative. "There is a plan under development," she tells The AIS Report. "It's still not far enough along in its development to provide final goals and strategies at this point. Things can change. Anything I say at this point would be different two quarters from now." In California, which according to census data has more Hispanics than any other state (13.2 million), Blue Shield of California has not yet developed campaigns or special programs to attract that segment of the market, according to spokesperson Elise Anderson. "I don't think we have what would be considered targeted marketing just for the Latino or Spanish-speaking community," she tells The AIS Report. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida has two retail stores that are designed to reflect a Hispanic design and aesthetic, and are staffed with bilingual speakers, says Valerie Rubin, the plan's spokesperson. "There is extensive signage, and we let people know that both English- and Spanish-speaking people are welcome," she tells The AIS Report. The Florida Blues plan also has its advertising material regeared by a Spanish-language agency in south Florida. "There will be a campaign developed in English by our agency of record, Draftfcb out of Chicago, and there will be an equivalent campaign developed for the Spanish-speaking culture," Rubin says. "It isn't just translated. It's an entirely separate integral campaign." |
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