More than a dozen Blues are trying to attract the next generation of members and help keep current customers as they age. To do that, they're invoking old school insurance ideas for the modern world.
"When was the last time you felt free, free of worry, free of fear, free of uncertainty?" asks a young girl with a hint of the southern Midwest in a commercial for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City. Now is the time, she says, to "Live Fearless."
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City is one of 16 Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensed insurers participating in the "Live Fearless" advertising campaign and incorporating the brand into a range of their consumer outreach and marketing portfolios. Some, like BCBSKC, even have "Live Fearless" destination websites: livefearlesskc.com.
The Chicago ad firm McGarryBowen developed the concept -- featuring adults, children, families and seniors hiking, swimming, running and playing -- and local firms are adapting it for TV, newspaper, online and social media.
Despite some criticism here and there from grammar police about the need for an adverb, as in "Live Fearlessly," the ads have been hitting major state and metropolitan markets across the country, in places where Blues with solid market leads are trying to retain membership and in places where others are trying to grow.
On the West Coast, the Regence family of Blue plans have adapted the content and unveiled their "Faces of Fearless" YouTube series featuring stories locals overcoming adversity, such a once homeless Portland teen who found an internship at a screen printing and youth support nonprofit that Blue Cross of Oregon has supported in the past.
On the East Coast, Independence Blue Cross has been using the content since 2013, pairing the goggle-clad boy and others in moments of active joy with IBC's message of security and health. The region's largest insurer has bought billboard and media ads around greater Philadelphia, and is also sponsoring a health and science program on WHYY, the local NPR station.
That goggled-eyed youth is "ready to take on the world, and nobody can stop him," as IBC's vice president of advertising John McClung wrote on the company's blog.
"That's what Live Fearless is all about. It's a call to throw out the 'what ifs' and worries and embrace life with the same unshakeable optimism you had as a child," McClung explained.
The idea of "Live Fearless" -- or living fearlessly -- pairs well with the idea of health insurance, which "has an emotional resonance that few other products can match," according to McClung.
"When you think about health insurance, you aren't thinking about buying a product, you're worried about having stability and security for yourself and your family. Live Fearless is an answer to these very real concerns. There's peace of mind in knowing you're covered by a health insurance plan you can rely on…and that you don't have to tiptoe through life wrapped in bubble wrap. We felt like the Live Fearless campaign captured that feeling in a very real way that would speak to people."
Blue Cross insurers like IBC are trying to use the campaign to engage their members and potential members on social media, curating people's Instagram photos of the ads and encouraging people to share stories of their goals for living in health. Last Spring, IBC sponsored "IBX 90 Seconds," a make-your-own YouTube video competition "to raise awareness of the importance of health insurance, particularly among young millennials."
Whether that kind of digitally-focused and multi-platform interaction and outreach will pay off in terms of swaying insurance shoppers or cultivating brand loyalty remains to be seen. Of all the themes in the Live Fearless ad campaigns, one of hardest to channel is the idea that young people should buy health insurance.
The video of the IBC's grand prize winner -- "Despite being chased by dozens of hungry zombies, Brian didn't forget the importance of health insurance" -- has been viewed about 1,160 times.
Nonetheless, Blues around the country are taking the "Live Fearless" content, adding some local culture and their own history in the state and laying out a welcome mat in the new health insurance market.
That's Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, hinting at one of the state's natural treasures, the Ozark Mountains, and taking the chance to promote an active lifestyle and the insurer's deep provider network, beyond the state. In the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has its own feature images to reach locals.
