Best practices for Medicare and Medicare Advantage marketing and ads continue to evolve as greater numbers of seniors integrate digital activity, such as online news and Facebook, into their daily routines. While the goal of any campaign is to stop-the-scroll and convert, there are marked differences for achieving this across generational cohorts. Current research on Medicare markets tend to be very broad, lumping all senior age brackets into one cohort—meaning someone who's 60 is not differentiated from someone who's 70, 80, or 90+.  This practice would be akin to studying the digital activity patterns of a 15 year old and a 45 year old in the same cohort. Medicare Ad expert, Holly Wolniakowski, recognizes the research gap and uses independently curated data to develop, test, and retest ads. "It's a dynamic and iterative process," reports Wolniakowski.

In the past, Medicare markets have been most responsive to text-based ads paired with stock image graphics. However, internal tests at Advantasure have identified an increase in ad performance when a greater emphasis is placed on graphic selection. Currently, stock images that look highly posed do not perform as well as authentic, natural images, and the depiction of active seniors outperforms the ads of seniors in sedentary poses. Additionally, Baby Boomers through age 75 have developed a growing preference for video content, typically viewed on silent with close captioning.

It's important to remember that insights gleaned from ad performance tests are ever-evolving, so what seems to be true today could change tomorrow. The best strategy includes an AI model where target segments are constantly evolving with updates from multiple input streams such as demographic information, claims data, and digital interaction data, followed by analysis from a behavioral scientist to ensure the message is relevant, timely, and maximizes engagement.

Host: Welcome. Today, we have Holly Wolniakowski here to talk about Medicare Ad Graphics—The Overlooked Element in health plan marketing campaigns. Holly holds a Master’s degree in advertising and a Bachelor's in journalism from Michigan State University. She has over 20 years of experience in content development and analysis, PR, and media relations. Welcome, Holly.

Holly: Hi, I’m happy to be here.  

Host: Holly, Digital advertising is essential for any business today, and it’s becoming more and more important for health plans in the Medicare market. You know, the internet and social media is no longer just for younger populations. The baby boomers are extremely adept online and frequent sites like Facebook and online news. It’s part of their daily routine. Let’s talk about it, though: are the older generations using the internet and social the same way as younger generations, or are there marked differences?  

Holly: Yeah, that’s a great point. In short, the answer is no. Different groups have adapted to tech differently; they interact with it in unique ways. In marketing, when you’re trying to reach younger markets, the focus is less on the words and more on the imagery with something flashy, clever, and fun—you know, you have to stop-the-scroll—and their scrolling so fast, it’s got catch their attention visually. Historically, in the Medicare market, the focus has been more on the words and the written message. The imagery is usually an afterthought, typically a stock photo that may or may not match up well with the intent of the campaign. The assumption has been that people in the 65+ age group scroll differently than younger generations.  

Host: So, I would imagine this is pretty niche. Is there any research on this concept?

Holly: It’s so niche. Of course, there’s research on marketing for Medicare markets. But, it tends to lump everyone who’s 60 and older into one group—that means studies aren’t differentiating between someone who’s 60 and someone who’s 80, 90, or 100. That’s a 40 year age span—lumped into one cohort. If you study someone who’s 15 scrolling on social media, their going to engage in a completely different way than someone who’s 45. So, why are we trying to lump all seniors together? That’s thing number one.

And then the studies are very broad, like, studying how this huge cohort engages with social media as a whole. Also, there isn’t a ton of research on how people purchasing Medicare Advantage plans are interacting and engaging with the visuals. So, we run a lot of internal tests. We found that baby boomers, up through age 75, tend to prefer videos, but not flashy videos. They want informative videos at a slower pace. They’re also more likely to watch a video on silent, with close captioning. So, that’s a big consideration. When we started to approach the image selection with more intention, rather than just as an afterthought, we saw some leaps in performance.  

Host: When you look at different health plans' ads in the Medicare Advantage market, what are some areas of opportunity for their acquisition ads?  

Holly: You know, when you’re excited about what you’re offering, it’s easy to get carried away and want to put everything out there and educate the consumer in one fell swoop. But we have to remember, that’s not the goal. The goal is to get someone to stop scrolling long enough to be interested so that they want to take the action, which is clicking to learn more. So you bring them somewhere else on a journey. You’re not going to acquire a new member with one impression. It’s going to take several layers of interactions to develop that relationship and rapport. The other thing that we learned through trial and error is the images that perform best are images of active seniors. When you go to put these ads together and you do a search for quote-unquote, active seniors, the query always comes up with seniors doing yoga or walking really fast. Those are ok. But, don’t resonate with the population as well. When you show them doing more, and the image feels authentic, not so much like a stock photo, that’s what we’ve seen the highest success with. Let me give you an example. We ran this G2I campaign targeting people with no previous affiliation with a specific plan. It was a fairly wide audience of 64 and older. In some cases, we don’t crunch down on the segments as tightly. Anyway, we used this really great image of a couple dancing. Even though it was a still image, there was an implied movement in it. The woman was wearing a skirt, and the skirt was kind of flailed out…and they were both smiling. It felt really warm and genuine—and that, in turn, reflected authenticity in the brand. There were things going on in the background, a little blurred. That was one of our best-performing ads. So, then, we used the same prospecting audience, content, and wording, but we changed the graphic to something a little more status quo for the industry. We saw a 25% decrease in engagement.  

Host: That’s really interesting. Can you describe a more status quo-type photo? You know, what does that look like?  

Holly: Yeah, the industry has a lot of peaceful, calming, contemplative stock photos of seniors. Like sitting on benches in a park, cooking with their partner, I think I mentioned earlier, walking outdoors.

Host: So, why do you think these photos aren’t resonating with the audience anymore?

Holly: Well, our target audience, especially for G2I, you know, they’re still relatively young. They still have 1/3 of their life left to live if you look at it from that perspective. They probably don’t have kids in their homes anymore. This is an exciting new chapter for them where they can go out and re-explore life and the world and new things to do. So, the idea of sitting around doesn’t offer the same appeal as it might have with previous generations. There has been a shift in the way retirement age is viewed. Medical advances have allowed people to live longer and fuller lives. Maybe 60 is the new 40. Lol

Host: (Laughs)… yes, that makes sense.  

So, when did you start to shift towards a greater focus on image selection and its impact on ad performance and creating endearment for the health plan brand?  

Holly: I would say it’s been a slow transition towards the trend and has built a lot of momentum over the past two to three years, where we’ve put a lot more focus on imagery than ever before. Before we had about 5 images that we’d rotate, and it would be like, yeah, this image kind of fits the content, and then just slap it on there. But as we go deeper, we understand how the image impacts the perception of the message and the brand and can either encourage an interaction or discourage one. And you’ve got access to stock image subscription services with endless image options, which can be both a good and a bad thing. It can be overwhelming, a rabbit hole, with so many options, like thousands of pages of results. But, it’s important to be intentional and really spend the time to consider the emotions and psychological impact that the photo has on the potential member. It’s important to have that clarity when you’re configuring an ad campaign. You know, how do we want the target audience to feel? Is the image highlighting pain points and topics that the audience cares about? Is it invoking a desire to learn more? Does the brand look authentic and trustworthy? Does it portray understanding and compassion for its members? Not all campaigns are going to be lighthearted and fun. Some are more serious, and there has to be a demonstrated sensitivity to certain subjects. For example, we have ads for special enrollment where you want to be softer; maybe someone lost a job. We had this one ad image; the man was looking at his computer screen with a somber look on his face. We could imagine maybe he was looking at his finances or was looking for a job. The other ad was a man running; the sun was shining on his face, it was shot from down, and he was looking up. The man didn’t look upset, but his face was intense. That’s the ad that performed better by a few points. Even when we swapped the content and messaging on it, the image with the man running still outperformed. The first photo was somber, and the other was hopeful and optimistic, and that was the better message that resonated higher… for maybe a situation that was unexpected or not optimal.  

Host: So, I’m sure your team has personas developed for each of your segments. Can you talk about a few more examples of how you tailor your ad messages and images to some different personas?  

Holly: Of course. We actually just went through this practice for the segments that have concerns about cost. Right now, there’s a lot of media attention on the current state of inflation.  So we thought, okay, how do we portray this? Where is inflation hitting folks the most? The grocery store. So, we came up with the concept of, “You’re feeling the pinch here…at the grocery, so let us save you money here with your health plan.” It’s a formal process of discovering what the segment’s pain points are and what are they motivated by so we can develop messages and choose images that resonate. And then, of course, we have to test our assumptions through data, analytics, and AI to gain deeper understanding and continually iterate. And it’s not just for the content but we’re relying on the data to point us towards the most effective channels, where the engagement is coming from, how and why were we able to stop-the-scroll. Currently, the active Medicare purchasing audience is on Facebook. Email is still a viable channel, too, but the open rates aren’t as high as in the retail industry. Direct mail still reigns as the most effective way to reach Medicare Advantage audiences. But interestingly, it’s the data we glean from the digital channels that is leveraged on the direct mail campaigns and attributes to its success.  

Host: When it comes to maintaining the lists and segments. You know, life isn’t static. Circumstances are constantly changing, which affects pain points, motivations, and desires of members and potential members. How does your team address the maintenance of the different segments? As cliche as it is, so it’s always reaching the right person at the right time?

Holly: Yeah, the segments are dynamic, and that’s driven by the AI analytics engine. The data is constantly being updated from the plan’s existing member demographic information, claims data, all sorts of input streams, and even the way the ads are interacted with; those points are fed directly into the AI engine, so the whole idea of segmentation is ever-evolving. Definitely not static, not one and done. Then our team does something a little unique: we have behavioral scientists evaluate the data, so it’s an integrative approach to encourage engagement.  

Host: That’s really cool. So the AI is connecting the dots, identifying and predicting the trends amongst the probably millions of data points, and then the behavioral scientist comes behind and gives a human motivational perspective?  

Holly: Exactly. Kind of a harmony between man and machine. Lol

Host: (Laughs) That’s really cool. Well, Holly Wolniakowski, it’s been fantastic talking with you.  

Holly: I’ve enjoyed it too.

Host: Thanks to our listeners. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast and share the episode with your colleagues on LinkedIn.