Winner: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Campaign: Covering Kids
Budget: The Covering Kids initiative has a $26 million budget for three years. The 30-second PSA (produced by GMMB) was a fraction of that massive budget, which includes a
variety of advertising, PR and other promotional activities.
Tough choices are what being a parent is all about. But the choices are even harder for low-income parents, who sometimes choose between putting food on the table or doling out
money for a doctor's visit.
During the 2001 back-to-school season, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched a campaign in states across the country to educate low-income parents about the opportunities
for low-cost or free health insurance.
That summer, the Foundation had commissioned Wirthlin Worldwide, a research firm, to conduct a study among low-income parents. "These were working people who earn modest
incomes from $18,000 to $40,000 a year," says Stuart Schear, senior communications officer with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "It's a group among which market research does
not tend to be carried out very intensively."
Wirthlin conducted 114 in-depth interviews and surveys of 478 families with children enrolled in the programs and 352 families with children likely to be eligible. The study
showed parents didn't enroll because almost half believed that because they worked, they did not qualify. Two out of three said they would enroll their kids if they learned more.
The Foundation set about developing a powerful program to reach parents in the states where the infrastructure was ready to support increased enrollment in the programs. "The
last thing we wanted to do was to advertise in a state that wasn't ready, raise expectations for a family, and then have them dashed," Schear says.
An important part of the back-to-school program was a PSA designed to reflect the difficult decisions low-income parents make, aptly dubbed "Hard Choices." In the PSA, a mother
is preparing dinner while her daughter chats on the phone. An announcer lists the choices parents with modest incomes have to make: "Pay the phone bill or pay the doctor. Fill the
fridge or fill a prescription." The PSA goes on to let parents know that every state offers low-cost and free health coverage for kids and that it's available to working families.
A toll-free number is promoted.
As a result of the overall back-to-school campaign and the "Hard Choices" PSA, calls in target markets increased 147 percent, and applications for the insurance in target
markets increased 140 percent. "We tapped into the desire of these parents to be the best and most caring parents possible," Schear says. (Contact: [email protected])