A solid foundation for a new brand house

By conducting interviews, deep diving into research and tapping into our tool, Resonate, our strategy team provided the foundation we needed to inspire our creative work and evolve the CMC brand. This foundation outlined CMC’s top three priority audiences, their positive perceptions and existing perceptions to change and universal reasons to believe. That information was used to create an updated brand house and three strategic territories that were used as directional guides to help the creative team find the best angle when developing verbal and visual updates.

A dual-language tagline for Colorado’s first dual-mission college

One of the major components of the CMC brand evolution was coming up with a new tagline that resonated with audiences in both English and Spanish and stood out from the many higher–education institutions in Colorado. Through much deliberation, research and collaboration, we landed on the powerful “Elevate your future” or “Eleva tu futuro,” inspired by the fact that CMC is a dual–mission school, which alone shows they are innovative and looking to help push their students and the overall future of higher education forward. According to our client, this tagline “resonated above and beyond all other possibilities we tested by a large margin—especially with our Spanish–speaking respondents.”  

A visual connection for CMC’s career communities

The final piece CMC requested for their brand evolution was to create a visual system for their new brand architecture, design building blocks and a modular copy and design system that would add to their existing assets and support a range of channels and communication objectives.  

Using a secondary color palette, we created color designations for each program that differentiate and organize the various Academic and Career Communities. These designations also help create: 

• Easier organization of what they call their Community-specific materials in the recruiting office. 

• Clearer on-campus navigation and color-coded wayfinding. 

• Opportunities for students to develop a bond with their own Community color and for Colorado Mountain College to leverage that pride in on-campus and online events. 

We also provided CMC with full brand guidelines including these new visual components which outlined their new photography direction and graphic elements created to help the brand stand out.

A deeper look at The Whole You campaign

We knew that a tailored hybrid journey and integrated media strategy could pave the way forward. The campaign set out to encompass the ethos of the name, the whole you, by reinforcing the idea that excellent Medicare marketing is about meeting seniors where they are, while respecting how they make healthcare decisions. And by embracing how seniors aged 65+ begin their healthcare journeys through familiar offline channels, we connected traditional and digital touchpoints into a fresh, novel approach. We got creative with how QR-enhanced direct mail pieces drove recipients to HealthThatCares.com, while digital out-of-home placements in grocery stores and high-traffic areas reinforced key messages organically. 

Keeping seniors captivated on a whole new level

Seniors are increasingly tech savvy while they’re still responsive to other tactics, so it was important to tailor a hybrid approach. We focused the UX on strengthening engagement through relevant, appealing content that educated the audience while guiding them to our co-branded value proposition. And we developed educational video content that thoughtfully respected seniors’ decision-making pace and leveraging broadcast opportunities through TV interviews and radio segments. Every tactic was choreographed to dance in harmony, guiding seniors seamlessly from awareness to conversion. We elevated meaningful, quality connections between seniors and healthcare providers who truly see them as people and not just patients. Even the 1,735 QR code scans demonstrated successful offline-to-online conversion, driving a 2.6x increase in website engagement, which proved the value of thoughtful offline-to-online integration. Along the way we achieved an oh-so-sweet 88.3% video-completion rate on YouTube ads and generating 8+ million total impressions across channels.

The Heinrich effect

Our guiding light was the simple and profound truth that understanding people builds lasting trust and sets a higher bar for authentic, relationship-driven healthcare marketing. The enthusiastic feedback from both consumers and provider partners praised the collaborative approach and strategic partnership. A thoughtful, integrated campaign can resonate with today’s digitally-savvy seniors when it’s done intelligently and with compassion for who people are and why they matter.

A new welcome mat

Healthcare providers and patients face the same challenge: a broken healthcare system. For providers, that means working harder for less money and worse outcomes. For patients, it’s worse experiences and outcomes for higher costs. ilumed heals healthcare from the inside out by creating more sustainable revenue streams, improving healthcare delivery, addressing health equity and reducing costs.  

We saw that a new website would give us the chance to tell a new, simplified story, laying out a warm welcome mat for providers and patients by showing ilumed’s unique approach to healthcare delivery.  

We developed a clear, accessible voice, speaking to providers’ and patients’ biggest pain points and how ilumed solves them. We brought ilumed’s commitment to empathy and data to life with succinct, yet compelling, copy that feels personal. 

 We designed the site to showcase ilumed’s expertise and commitment to patients. Animations and interactive elements deliver the story on ACO REACH and ilumed in bite-sized moments. Illustrations and iconography give the site a hand-drawn feel, subtly showing ilumed’s commitment to care in action. 

Shifting provider’s minds and practices

Getting providers to pay attention is no easy feat—they’re so busy working in their practices they have almost no time to work on their practices. So we decided to harness the information that’s only in the ilumed team’s head when it comes to improving provider operations, finances and care delivery. As a result, ilumed has become a go-to destination for high-value, original content providers want and need to sustain their practices and improve patient outcomes. 

We make it happen by interviewing ilumed’s internal subject-matter experts and drafting thought-leadership articles on their behalf. We take on the heavy lifting developing and executing the content marketing strategy so the ilumed team can focus on what they do best—supporting providers and patients. Meanwhile, ilumed’s leaders gain credibility and recognition in the sector as trusted experts in the ACO REACH model. 

Powering ilumed’s position

Heinrich enhanced ilumed’s brand positioning with thoughtful, human-centered design, messaging and thought-leadership content. We used strategic audience insights, along with SEO, not just to move the needle on ilumed’s profitability but to supercharge it.  

Inspired insights led to a simple yet sophisticated strategy

Humana and the agents that sell Humana plans want the same thing: to increase leads and sales. Humana depends on agents for the majority of its sales, and agents depend on Humana to give them the resources and tools they need to maximize their year-round sales efforts.  

When we dug into the research, we noticed something profound. Agents believe Medicare carriers should provide them with more leads and sales opportunities. Research also showed that one-on-one relationships between agents and members drove the highest qualified leads and sales with the strongest member retention. We knew we needed to change agents’ hearts and minds to empower them to see that they have something special—which is also their secret sauce—deep, personal connections in their local community. We created the Ascend Virtual Conference to encourage agents to see relationships as the key to their sales success.  

Curation, creation and competition in one conference

We took a three-pronged approach to developing Ascend: 1. curate motivational speakers and information from top-selling agents and leaders in the field; 2. create presentations rooted in practical, actionable advice agents can immediately put to work; and 3. incentivize live-day attendance with an agent challenge.  

We found Amelia Rose Earhart, an accomplished speaker, pilot, artist and nonprofit leader with an impressive personal story to bring an outside perspective and motivate agents to understand the transformative power of relationships.  

We interviewed many top-performing Humana agents and leaders to get their field-tested strategies for increasing leads and maximizing sales through community connections. We focused our presentations on sharing peer-to-peer advice agents would resonate with and know how to use the minute they left the conference.  

Because we know salespeople love a good incentive, we added on an agent challenge to encourage agents to interact live in the virtual event with a two-day competition. Winners received Humana-branded marketing assets to use at grassroots events. 

Training that scales—and transforms

The Ascend Virtual Conference created a template for nation-wide education with local-market empowerment. Agents got to learn from and interact with their peers while getting a healthy dose of inspiration. We helped Humana move the needle on agent advocacy, affinity and preference and be recognized as a best-in-class carrier who gives agents the tools and resources they need to succeed. 

A deeper look at Elevon’s branding

With steep competition, we set out to showcase Elevon as a place to enjoy spontaneity at your doorstep while fueling wonder for what’s around the corner—a concept we hadn’t seen from other luxury apartments. Experience in real estate has taught us that location context is everything on these branding projects and the surrounding community of the Central Park neighborhood was an irreplicable beacon, guiding us along the way. Union Station and DIA are easy to get to thanks to the light rail stop and there’s an abundance of bars, cafés, breweries, shops, and hiking and biking trails. These opportunities and conveniences meant the world to our audience, and living a life in motion was paramount to their happiness and sense of self. So, we captured that essence, with style.  

Strategy that puts life in motion

A sound strategic brand foundation is always a must, but especially so for real estate. Longevity is everything. Heinrich was searching for a balance between honoring the neighborhood’s legacy with its blossoming future. We started by analyzing the market, poking holes in what’s obvious and peering into what other real estate brands had been too timid to explore. We got to know the market and target audience like a neighbor, and a distinctive opportunity revealed itself: Heinrich needed to push this notion of living a life in motion even deeper. For our audience, a life in motion is lived in both a physical sense like access to activities (big in Colorado), and then, in an emotional sense when it comes to feeling a sense of fulfillment and optimism. We positioned Elevon as an incubator of a life in motion, whatever that sense of motion might look like for each resident. The name, voice, and story that followed reflected the sentiment that these homes can be both destination and departure points of for residents’ lives. 

A name worth writing in stone

Originally a term for aircraft surfaces that combine the functions of two instruments for pitch and roll control, Elevon fosters a sense of cohesion to help residents keep their footing with work and all that Denver life has to offer. But how did we get to a name that encompasses all that?  

Naming real estate takes a very nuanced, special creative skill set. And when a name must be written in stone, literally in the case of real estate, it must be as timeless and strong as the brand and building which bear that name. And we understood how much Trammell Crow Company was entrusting with us on this project. Heinrich researched and brainstormed thoughtfully to tactfully come up with a name.  For real estate, a name must encompass culture, context, history, and sense of place. We might not have anthropologists on staff, but we have plenty of creatives that can research just as well to create a name that lasts. 

A visual and verbal identity as inviting as a neighbor

We captured a very special sentiment with this brand: Elevating the fulfillment that comes with sophisticated adventure—Elevon is where you launch into a way of life you cherish and the future you desire. So, how does that come alive through tone, imagery, and style? 

Inspired by the take-off of an aircraft, the hero logo uses a font that has an upward motion typeface. With earthy, elegant brand colors and an intelligent but friendly tone of voice, residents know that they have a place to love, kick up their heels and reset for their next adventure. Going deeper, Elevon’s brand colors were selected to create a weighted balance between classic and new—honoring the duality between legacy and future for the neighborhood and residents. Additionally, we leaned into the history of the neighborhood and aircraft inspiration throughout our language choices: typography and visuals, using control panel elements like classic symbols of mapmaking contrast, and language that continually pushes the forward moving, life-in-motion strategic narrative. 

A deeper look at the Ready for Everything campaign

To inspire prospective agents to make the jump and join Humana, we had to get to know them even better than we already did. And in doing so, we discovered what motivates agents, and even what scares them a bit too. We also learned that many prospective agents felt that tinge of doubt and fear when it comes to contracting with a new carrier. Humana has a remarkable track record, but for some of these prospective agents, it’s still a big scary change. Our lightbulbs went off once we learned that fear was a key emotional barrier to behavioral change. From there, we focused on sculpting an inspiration-centered campaign that identifies and addresses those fears with the trust and transparency that are the pillars of the Humana brand. And thus, the “Ready for Anything” campaign was born.

Flexing those fully integrated agency muscles

It’s one thing to just connect the dots between paid media, content and email marketing, and it’s another thing to create impactful results with all that dot connecting. Because we’re an agency that offers fully integrated services, we can more readily go after impact (not just those dots, because dots aren’t profitable). What does all this mean in real terms, you ask? Well, we leveraged email lists for 1:1 matching to serve ads programmatically to top prospects. And we built lookalike audiences and implemented retargeting efforts. Our email campaign included heavy audience segmentation to deliver tailored messages to each audience and guide prospects from consideration to certification and then on to onboarding.

Retention and onboarding with a purpose

Getting leads in the door is great but when they are convinced to stay for a while, it’s even better. Retention was our goal, and educational content was how we got there. Why? Because newly onboarded agents needed a sturdy foundation to thrive in the wilds of the health insurance sales world. What’s more, the educational content was thoughtfully curated and meaningfully manicured to meet agents where they’re at, all while directing them to where they want to go in their careers.

The Heinrich effect

Using conversion-focused web experiences, educational content, video, email marketing, and targeted paid media campaigns, we wove the various pieces of this campaign together to create a beautiful tapestry. But more importantly, this work did more than just create something pleasing to look at, it gave Humana opportunities to grow in novel ways knowing that their agents have the support they need.