10. Andrew Mackenzie, chief marketing officer, employer and individual, UnitedHealthcare
Patients and providers generally don’t find a lot to laugh about in their dealings with gargantuan insurers. And yet even the stoniest-faced cynics acknowledge UnitedHealthcare scored a rare industry win with Way In, a campaign launched last year that attempts to demystify and humanize a system with which many consumers struggle to engage.
See also: UnitedHealthcare makes its Oscars debut
The spots play a range of unusual health-related scenarios for giggles — among them, an adult sustaining a piñata injury at a children’s party and a couple breaking their furniture, and themselves, acting out a moment from Dirty Dancing. After each scene, a medical code flashes on screen — the actual code which is used to classify the injury in question.
Largely credited to Andrew Mackenzie’s influence, Way In marks a departure for United and the insurance arm of the healthcare business alike, neither of which had devoted much energy in the past to charming and otherwise targeting consumers.
The ads tap consumer frustration with the intricacy and bureaucracy of the healthcare system. Given how few of its rivals have even acknowledged such challenges, UnitedHealth ends up coming across as that rarest of entities: A self-aware insurance company.
––––––––––––––––––––––
From the November 01, 2016 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
