Anthem is sponsoring digital playlists and running routes to shift its image from a claims processor to a fitness partner.
The insurer is running campaigns on Spotify , a free digital music service, and MapMyFitness, an app that stores exercise routes and workouts, to target fit and competitive digital natives, whether they are current customers or not.
Anthem’s director of strategic advertising Kelly Colbert said the company has been managing a brand campaign for the last two years to promote wellness and exercise. Colbert said the company is doing a lot of work in the mobile space, particularly with rewards.
“We want to understand where the consumer is spending time, what they want from wellness and how to make it really, really easy for consumers to do that.”
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Social sharing are built in to both Spotify and MapMyFitness. With the online service and mobile app, Spotify listeners can connect with Facebook friends, see what they are listening to in real time and click through to hear the same song. The service also allows listeners to share and create playlists on the website and the mobile app.
“The Spotify campagin in particular is targeting folks who are pretty incented and want more tools to get healthier,” she said. “We wanted to put tools in their hands but as digital influencers, it will help the community in which they operate as well.”
The free version of Spotify has audio ads and banners. Clicking on the Anthem ad allows a listener to suggest a song for the playlist and subscribe to the Anthem-branded list to see what other people have submitted. A user also can download playlists to her phone to use during workouts.
Research has suggested that listening to fast-paced music during a workout can result in a higher heart rate. This could open up a whole new ROI calculation for marketing campaigns that include a playlist with songs like “Fat” by Weird Al Yankovic and “Runaway Baby” by Bruno Mars.
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Anthem is also running a campaign on MapMyFitness and sponsoring certain running routes.
“If a person is running a route in our service area, he or she can become king or queen of that route if they match or beat their personal best time,” Colbert said.
The app and website allow users to map and recommend exercise routes, track their progress and share times with friends.
Both campaigns are open to everyone, not just Anthem members, which fits with the company’s goal of a healthier population in general, Colbert said.
“We are very happy when Anthem members find them, but it’s very much targeted to overall community health,” she said.
Colbert said that she and her team are all digital natives.
“We don’t look at digital as an experimental thing that we are incubating on the side. We know that our members and prospects are fully conversant in the digital sphere,” she said. “Digital is woven into all that we do, across all demographics.”
As of Sept. 26, the playlist had more than 1,700 tracks and 470 subscribers, so at least some consumers are connecting with the insurance company in a new way.
