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Cover Story : Getting the Message

Texting program answers BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City's call for younger leads

June 2010 By Heather Fletcher
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From Text to E-mail to Phone: The Process

The long-term text messaging initiative BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City launched urges prospects to text “blue” to short code 222752. In the reply, mobile users are directed to blue.affordabluekc.com where the landing page allows them to enter data and receive an insurance quote. Sam Meers—president of Kansas City, Mo.-based Meers Advertising, who helped create this program—says Web analytics show 60 percent of those who text Blue KC have smartphones that enable them to go to the mobile site and place data in the fields, which then allows them to receive an insurance quote right on the phone.

Because quote seekers type in their e-mail addresses, they then receive a message in their inboxes letting them know they can visit www.bluekc.com and enroll in the insurance plan for which they received an estimate.

But soon, there’s a reminder that there’s still a chance to speak with a human. For instance, a 37-year-old female from Philadelphia who received a Blue4U welcome e-mail at 2:46 p.m. on a recent Tuesday then got a 2:50 p.m. message from Kim Thomas, with consumer sales and marketing at Blue KC. In the message from Kim.Thomas@BlueKC.com, the prospect learns she can reply via that e-mail address or dial Thomas directly at the phone number the sales professional provides.


At 48, Ron Rowe likes to think of himself as young. And while age may be a state of mind, Rowe finally had to admit he didn't "get" the young people with their music and their gadgets.

That epiphany came two years ago for BlueCross BlueShield of Kansas City's director of small group and consumer sales. He was chatting on a Monday afternoon with Sam Meers—president of Kansas City, Mo.-based Meers Advertising—about testing 800 numbers that would be the direct response channel for some 7-year-old commercials. Could it all be ready for the JumboTrons for a Friday night concert at Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone?

"You know, Ron, 20-year-olds aren't going to call an 800 number in the middle of a concert," Meers recalls telling Rowe. "And, candidly, they're probably not going to call an 800 number anytime, because they don't call 800 numbers."

So what should they do? asks Rowe.

"Let's see if we can get them to text," Meers remembers saying to Rowe.

"How does that work?" Rowe says he replied.

Then Rowe realized more than the obvious. The venue that plays host to bands like All Time Low and Boys Like Girls would probably be too loud an environment to lend itself to business-related telephone conversations. Plus, he realized, the amphitheater probably wouldn't be filled with his demographic.

But it is filled with the demographic Rowe wants to reach—Kansas City's portion of the millions of uninsured 19- to 39-year-olds. And that Monday afternoon during the summer of 2008, Rowe made the call that Blue KC would create a text messaging program aimed at bringing young people into the ranks of the insured.

From Blues to Rock
Prior to the chat with Meers, Rowe says Blue KC's main lead generation efforts to that point—direct mail campaigns—hadn't been resonating much with the younger set.

So rather than continuing to sing the blues, he thought it would be a safe bet to funnel money that would normally be used for a direct mail campaign toward a three-month text messaging tryout.

"It was phenomenal," Rowe says. "That test generated ... a little over 3,000 people that went out and got a quote during that time period.

"And then we extended that for a year," he continues, speaking about the text messaging initiative. "And at the end of the first year, we had almost 30,000 folks that had texted us and got a quote on their cell phone[s]. ... Close to 16 percent of those people that got a quote actually purchased. It was very, very good for us. It was so good that, for about the last six months, our only lead generation campaigns (for the under 65 individual consumer segment) have all been around this texting campaign."

 

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