When the government must communicate how a program works, a complicated, regulated challenge will follow. That can be high-stakes work when citizens who desperately need the program could miss the important benefits being offered.
We recently faced that challenge when it came to explaining the enhancements of health care insurance under Pennie, the state-based health insurance marketplace for Pennsylvania.
The American Rescue Plan, also known as the COVID-19 relief package, contained the largest coverage expansion since the Affordable Care Act was instituted in 2010. It was important that the information be communicated quickly and clearly so people would know exactly how to get the savings they were entitled to ASAP.
But the end goal could mean different things for different audiences — some might see drastic reductions in premiums and other expenses with little effort; others might need to provide more information to be eligible for assistance for the first time.
That’s hard to explain in less than a minute. The challenges of communicating those intricacies to varying audiences led to a new way of thinking about the audiences and messages: a breadcrumb strategy to provide just the right amount of information to the right people at the right time.
Simple and motivating television and radio ads drove consumers to Pennie.com with a simple message: Right now, get more for less.
Pennie - :30 Radio
Pennie - :30 Radio
Once online, users found our explainer videos for each audience outlining how the ARP greatly improves insurance options for someone in their circumstances. Housed on Pennie’s homepage, the videos communicated the specifics of what the ARP could mean for them. From there, users could move to a savings calculator that quickly delivered a picture of what coverage and premiums likely were available to them.
Simultaneously, an awareness campaign on public transit was touting the message that Pennie makes it easy to get covered.
The creative strategy allowed a complex, nuanced government program to engage its users in a friendly, simple way and deliver on a real promise. It doesn’t take reams of bureaucratic instructions. It takes a creative strategy that boils down big government decisions to what matters to people’s everyday lives.
