Breaking into a new market can be a big challenge for any company, even one of the largest and most recognized health care providers in the country. So when Kaiser Permanente brought its flexible, affordable plans to businesses in Pueblo, Colorado, they needed marketing and advertising solutions that would announce its arrival and generate leads at the same time.

Working with Hacker Group, Kaiser Permanente developed a campaign that would reach out to Pueblo’s local businesses — who would purchase a group health care plan — while building awareness within the community. That meant the creative work needed to do double duty, employing design and messaging that would resonate with both audiences. The "Living Healthy. It’s your business." concept did that, effectively communicating the business-to-business pitch and the Kaiser Permanente healthy lifestyle message in outdoor, print, radio, online and direct mail. Direct mail to businesses featured a white-paper offer — and versions with broker-centric messaging were created to establish relationships with local brokers.

In an effort to maximize results, the campaign employed two distinct creative and media phases, allowing Kaiser Permanente to optimize based on performance. For example, one online display execution generated strong click-through rates; however, conversion numbers were lower than expected. In the second phase of the campaign, Kaiser Permanente had the opportunity to develop new creative informed by in-market testing. The new creative resulted in lower click-through rates but reached the desired audience and converted more leads.

Kaiser Permanente proved once more that in-market testing is essential. Ensuring that plans allow for implementing changes, based on actual test results, is even more important.