This campaign seeks to increase annual health screenings among young insured adults. A survey found that having insurance does not necessarily lead people to have a regular doctor or get screenings. The campaign will target ages 25-39 in major cities through ads on commutes and in stores. Ads will emphasize that screenings are free and finding a doctor is easy using a new app. The app helps users find doctors and schedule appointments to get screenings, with the goal of catching health issues early when treatment is cheaper and safer. The campaign aims to change the behavior of using insurance for preventive care by making the process simple and emphasizing long-term health benefits.

1. FINAL PUBLIC CAMPAIGN
PLAN
Campaignto get young insured people to get annual
health screenings
Francis Secada
Francis.secada@baruchmail.cuny.edu
Abstract
This is a campaign plan to reach young individuals with insurance,to promote Annual Health
Screenings as a free servicethat they should utilize. Survey results and national health care
trends are analyzed to demonstrate the need for preventative healthcareservices,and the
analysisseeks to find ways of bridginghavinginsurancewith utilizingit. The conclusion isthat
needing a regular physician and havingeaseof access towards schedulingan appointment is vital
towards facilitatingthemost effective pathway towards complyingwith the desired behavior.

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Contents
Audience Analysis...............................................................................................................................2
Campaign Design................................................................................................................................7
The Rider, the Elephant, and the Path................................................................................................11
Directing the Rider........................................................................................................................11
Motivating the Elephant................................................................................................................11
The Path.......................................................................................................................................12
Non-course References.....................................................................................................................14

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Executive Summary
As national healthcare spending increases, the more the importance of preventative health services
and annual health screenings becomes pronounced. Preventative healthcare is an effective way of
working towards controlling healthcare costs, by helping physicians establish long-term
relationships with their patients, by establishing baselines for health status, and by providing
opportunities for medical and clinical interventions at early stages of disease progression.
Preventative health measures have demonstrable benefits, as detailed in the attached Social
Marketing Worksheet. This is why it is also important to ensure that younger, healthier people
engage in utilizing preventative health services now as opposed to when they become older and
sicker. This is a major reason why the free benefit of Annual Health Screenings are afforded to
insured Americans, and why preventative health is emphasized in the Affordable Care Act.
A survey conducted for this public campaign statistically demonstrates that, within the sample,
having insurance does not necessarily lead to people either 1) having a regular physician, or 2)
getting annual health screenings. While a significant number of responders were not aware that
this was their right as afforded through the ACA, a significant number of responders stated that
they would not get annual health screenings even with the knowledge that it was a benefit afforded
to them. This signifies that there is disconnect between people having the means for care, and not
engaging in the desired behavior, to promote greater probability for better long-term health
outcomes.
This campaign seeks to determine how to persuade the intended public audience to engage in the
desired behavior of getting their annual health screenings.

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Audience Analysis
The writer for this public campaign is a 30-year old Healthcare Policy student in a Masters of
Public Administration Program within New York City. The secondary and tertiary authors for this
campaign would be other stakeholders from the non-profit and government worlds with a strong
background in Public Health, working in partnership with a marketing/advertising company that
specializing in public health initiatives. The finalize form of this campaign would be determined
after a thorough review process that fine-tuned and redefined demographic details and messaging
components prior to launch.
The primary audience for this campaign would be younger American adults who already have
insurance. The age range would be 25-39, with individuals in that age range having insurance
either through their parents’ coverage, through their employer, or privately through state
exchanges. The imagined location would be within New York City, but the parameters of the
population framework, prerequisite for insurance, and access to medical providers would allow
the campaign to expand to other major metropolitan areas across the United States. Secondary
audience members will be medical providers, primarily community health centers that already
utilize Electronic Medical Record systems for administrative use, and who can serve large
quantities of patients (and who will likely be affiliated with major hospital and outpatient networks,
like St. Lukes or Columbia Presbyterian). Tertiary audience members will likely be private
insurers (and in some markets, Medicaid Managed-Care providers), who will bear the costs of
preventative health service provisions (because the Affordable Care Act allows for annual health
screenings and select preventative screening services on an annual basis, at no cost to
policyholders).

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Consideration towards promoting Annual Health Screenings as a cost-effective service for all
involved audience members should occur, in order to build in-roads with private insurers to bring
them on board with the campaign as a stakeholder. If private insurers would be willing to provide
tangible goods in exchange for the desired behavior (such as reduced premium rates for those who
complete their Annual Health Screening), then there would be a significant incentive towards
achieving compliance.
The primary issue with complying with Annual Health Screenings is the disconnect individuals
have with having insurance and improving health outcomes. Healthcare policy research yields
that having insurance is an important prerequisite for accessing care, although generosity of
benefits (i.e.: benefits design) is also very important. The Rand Corporation released a major study
in the 1980s that demonstrates how coinsurance can limit utilization of healthcare services, which
can be beneficial to healthy individuals (because they do not need care), but can be detrimental to
those with chronic conditions (because they can get sicker if they do not get proper medical care
and oversight).1 Additionally, individuals mostly lack expertise in medical and health care fields,
thus having imperfect knowledge of how to manage their health over longer time horizons. The
imperative, therefore, is to encourage individuals to have consistent contact with their physicians
during moments of health, in order to establish baselines in health status. Waiting for care until
moments of significant illness encourages the development and proliferation of chronic medical
conditions and dread diseases. This is partially what contributes to increased healthcare spending
in the United States from the 1960s to today2.
1 (Brook, et al.,December 1984)
2 (Radnofsky,2014)

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In order to promote proper medical oversight without promoting unnecessary health care spending,
the emphasis on care would need to shift from providing secondary and tertiary care (treatment of
specialized and chronic conditions) towards preventative care. After all, it is easier to treat for
discoveries of cancers or symptoms that may be precursors to chronic conditions at earlier stages
than later stages. Individuals screened for appropriate conditions have a better chance of receiving
care at earlier stages of detection, which is cheaper and safer.
Original survey data demonstrates that people who have insurance may not have a regular doctor.
People without regular doctors may be more likely to avoid getting annual health screenings, which
does nothing to address larger trends in healthcare spending or mortality rates with chronic
conditions. The purpose of this public campaign is to induce younger, statistically healthier
individuals towards getting screened annually, to ensure their health in the long-term while also
safeguarding against personal costs from failure to do so (e.g.: time off for being sick, cost of
medical care, increased risk for developing chronic illnesses).
The latitude of preferences across these demographics can vary, depending on cultural
characteristics of young individuals (i.e.: the cultural background of individuals may inform how
they interpret or understand their condition or how they approach communicating with
physicians3). They may be hostile, indifferent or even positive towards medical providers or
healthcare in general, but those attitudes may not hold much significance if a person becomes sick
and is unable to manage the condition themselves. The importance of this campaign is to present
the screenings as being a cheaper and more desirable alternative to pursuing care when sick, and
positioning that as secondary to the long-term positive effects.
3 (DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, 2001)

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Campaign Design
The attached mock-up of a potential advert serves to demonstrate how the public campaign would
try to reach its intended demographic. The model is depicting a young professional woman, sitting
on a park bench in a metropolitan setting while using her laptop. This image portrays this
individual as being energetic, ambitious and full of potential (read: young), but also as someone
who may be pressed for time. The outfit of the model is professional and not overtly gendering,
but is not asexual in style (note the skirt). By drawing attention to the downloadable smartphone
app, this advert is conveying to the audience that even a very busy person on the go can go about
finding a doctor for an annual health screening, and answer some questions regarding their family
history and health status.
The consumer in mind is noted to not be in a position of financial peril (the persona may be at risk
of peril if sufficiently sick, but this concern is not a persistent or real concern on his/her mind),
but is still cost-conscious. The cost that one would incur from not seeing a physician annually for
a health screening is minimal in the short-term, but the costs can potentially become substantial I
the long-term. By emphasizing that annual health screenings are a free benefit, it minimizes the
supposed costs of actually going to the doctor once a year, while also raising the potential point
that not utilizing the benefit is equitable to squandering it (i.e.: throwing out a “free” thing, or
suffering a cost from non-use).
Different models to reflect different segments of the population frame would be used, as well as
slight alterations towards messaging. The various themes that could be touched upon in the
advertising campaign could be of the following:

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1. Hate paying for things? Did you know that you could get an annual health screening each
year for free? Now you know. Download this app to answer some questions and find a
doctor in your area. Take your results to your doctor. Get a screening before you get sick.
If you wait, you will have to pay for it.
2. Don’t have time to see the doctor? Would you rather use your time off to treat your illness,
or take a single day off to see your doctor for a free annual screening? Do not waste your
time off. Download this app to answer some questions and find a doctor in your area. Take
your results to your doctor. Get a free screening. Better to spend a day being in charge of
your health than many days being sick.
3. So you have insurance, but you don’t have a doctor? And you don’t get annual health
screenings? That is not how you Adult. Download this app to answer some questions and
find a doctor in your area. Take your results to your doctor. You have insurance, and
health screenings are free, so why not use it? That is how you Adult.
4. Worried about getting sick? Worried about how expensive health care is? Fear not.
Download this app to answer some questions and find a doctor in your area. Take your
results to your doctor. Free health screenings keeps you and your doctor in the know.
Being in the know keeps you healthier. Healthier is definitely cheaper.
This kind of campaign is utilizing audience segmentation to curate the message towards
consumers that would be most receptive to the messages. It would not be appropriate to
communicate these adverts towards people over 40, who will statistically be more likely to develop
symptoms associated with chronic medical conditions (the purpose is to reach people BEFORE

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they reach this age group). It would also not be appropriate to target this messaging towards the
significantly wealthy, who are most likely to utilize health services and not care about utilizing a
perceived free benefit. The campaign is looking to utilize explicit conclusions regarding its
advertising (do this to achieve X) as a way of priming the audience through incentives, but the
long-term outcome from the campaign is that the audience reaches the implied conclusion about
long-term benefits of screenings on their own. The short-term incentive helps the consumer to
model the desired behavior, but the implications of such a behavior should persuade him/her that
the behavior is good and that it should be repeated at the direction of their physician.
Consumers who would be motivated by being healthier and being in control of their health
outcomes would respond to the direct content of the advert, where they can download the app or
reach the online web portal to begin the process of securing an appointment with a physician. This
central-route messaging would serve these individuals well, whereas people who are not motivated
by these concerns may be drawn to the attractiveness and youth of the model, and the availability
of ways to reach the resource (perhaps to see more images of attractive models, and because they
get to use a free resource). These attributes would benefit those consumers who are more receptive
to peripheral processing.
An important component of the campaign is to emphasize the tagline “Be Healthier… and Don’t
Pay For It!” This repetition of the tagline in various permutations of the advert will help to
maintain repetition and exposure of the message. The progressing familiarity with the campaign
contributes to the increasing potential for the message to be received by the intended audience,
even if the content is not received based on its substance (i.e.: made its way through to the person’s
consciousness through via peripheral processing). Additionally, by emphasizing specific locations
for the adverts (as opposed to general blanketing of the messages through all available

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communications channels), associations can be formed that may serve to help trigger awareness
of the campaign after receiving the message (for example, sitting in a subway car reminds a
commuter that they saw the advert during their previous morning commute).
The product for this campaign is really the free smartphone app or web portal, which provides the
tools needed by consumers to begin the process of 1) documenting their health status and family
history, 2) finding a doctor in their area, and 3) scheduling an appointment for an Annual Health
Screening. The application can be accessed anywhere with an internet access, and physician
locations are relevant to the end-user. It would not be feasible to provide physician listings in
Chicago for a person residing in Los Angeles, after all. The Health Screenings are emphasized as
being free, because it is a benefit afforded through the Affordable Care Act. Promotion of the
campaign should take place through adverts strategically placed for young professionals, so along
commuter lines and in pharmacy/drug stores may be most advised. An online presence is also
important, as the primary mode of accessing this benefit is via the internet. By cultivating a social
media presence, the network involved in the public campaign can promote a platform for
participating consumers to share and persuade their peers. Utilizing social influence as a
promotion tool is significant to measuring the success of the campaign.

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The Rider, the Elephant, and the Path
Directing the Rider
The success of the campaign really hinges on the compliance with the critical move (go see your
doctor once a year!). Seeing the doctor for an annual health screening is a specific behavior that
leads to better health outcomes in the long-term, and it being a one-time event (repeated annually)
demonstrates how a blue-dot behavior can have huge positive effects. The destination that
consumers can be directed to is finding themselves as they are, slightly older, perhaps significantly
farther in their career than when they were first contacted through the campaign, but seeing that
their health has been maintained at much better rates than compared to those who did not get
screenings. Perhaps some consumers with a history of dread diseases in their family can find
themselves feeling more secured, in knowing that health screenings have helped to either rule out
or perhaps detect such conditions very early in their development stages. If significant numbers
of people benefit greatly from the screenings (such as catching Breast Cancer very early, or
addressing symptoms associated with being pre-Diabetic through small behavioral changes), they
can be the bright spots that the campaign can point to as evidence that the path is a good one.
Motivating the Elephant
The campaign is attempting to motivate consumers emotionally, by reducing the needed change
into a single change in behavior, while also emphasizing that the targeted demographic are
ambitious and successful people. The messaging is to emphasize that the targeted demographics
are capable, that they are able to manage significant things like their career, time, resources,
modern technology and their social spheres of influence. The deficiency is in how they utilize
their insurance, and how they lack a regular doctor to help them manage their health. This can be
changed, and the change is small. One only has to download the app (or reach the web portal),

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answer questions, then select a doctor in their area and schedule the appointment (the app would
then create an event in Google Calendar or iOS).
The Path
The true difficulty of this campaign is trying to change a behavior that lacks a clear barrier.
Individuals with insurance should be able to see their physician one time a year for a health
screening, and not be billed for it. This is an essential right, and part of all private insurance
benefits packages. However, people with insurance lack a regular physician, and yet this may not
be due to geographic restrictions (although this can be the case in certain major areas). The
campaign is looking to facilitate the most efficient pathway towards achieving the desired
behavior.
The public campaign would ideally be able to utilize a cloud-based scheduling interface with
community health centers, to integrate with their EMR systems on the backend, in order to promote
ease of scheduling for consumers in need of Annual Health Screenings. The scheduling and
questionnaire data that would be available to medical providers would help to inform physicians
on what to look for when assessing and screening their new patients. This removal of guesswork
would theoretically help to promote efficiencies and trust between the consumer and the medical
providers.
While the application and medical provider mechanisms may be new to consumers, the use of
smartphone applications and web 2.0 interfaces are very much the norm for millennials in 2015.
The practice of downloading an application is almost second nature, especially when considering
the digital design of the major smartphone operating systems. This should facilitate the habit of
using touch-input to answer questions related to health and family history, while also navigating
an application towards finding a medical provider and scheduling an appointment. While making

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this an annual habit may be an issue due to the timing of the intervals (once a year), syncing contact
information between medical providers and consumers should help the former to track the latter
for future appointments and screenings. In the very least, a year-round campaign would help to
keep the knowledge of the campaign fresh in the minds of the targeted demographics.
Lastly, the campaign would be able to “rally the herd” by maintaining a social media platform,
both for the campaign network to promote and share content, and for end-users to share their status
and progress with promoting the desired behavior to their social spaces. Allowing people who
appropriately model the desired behavior to share their results and content with their friends helps
to empower those users to serve as unofficial ambassadors for the campaign. People can identify
with their friends and peers, and if they are proactive in ensuring their health, then it is easier for
them to identify with the behavior for themselves (even if they do not explicitly understand the
merit of such behaviors). If the success of the campaign permits the collaborating with insurance
companies, a further incentive can be introduced in the form of lowered monthly premiums. This
benefit would resonate with some individuals, but then reshaping the arrangement so that others
see it as a cost (i.e.: see your physician today, or else risk losing your discount!). This may induce
individuals to change, because the path facilitates the need for it.

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Non-course References
Brook,R. H., Ware, J.E., Rogers,W. H., Keeler,E.B.,Davies,A.R.,Sherbourne,C.D.,.. . Newhouse,J.P.
(December1984). The Effectof Coinsuranceon the Health of Adults: Resultsfromthe RAND
Health InsuranceExperiment. SantaMonica:The RandCorporation.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.(2001). CULTURE COUNTS:THE INFLUENCE OF
CULTURE AND SOCIETYON MENTAL HEALTH. InD. O. SERVICES, MENTALHEALTH: CULTURE,
RACE,AND ETHNICITY(pp.23-49). WashingtonDC:U.S. PublicHealthService.
Radnofsky,L.(2014, February24). How Health-Care SpendingGotSoHigh. Wallstreet Journal,p.1.