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Marketing and Sponsorship

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s game-day formula

The company makes full use of video boards and ribbon boards.
Photo by: COURTESY OF BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD
Outside of the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Stadium, the Blue Cross Blue Shield mobile unit hosted hundreds of fans two hours before kickoff who were willing to trade their personal information for a few giveaways and photos that would soon find their way onto social media.

Inside the stadium, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina messaging ran across the stadium’s LED ribbon board, a sponsored feature called “Game Plan” played on the video board, and its radio advertising appeared on the Tar Heel Sports Network.

That was the scene at the Tar Heels’ home finale a few weeks ago. While North Carolina dropped a 28-21 decision to rival N.C. State that day, BCBSNC counted the number of times it won through fan engagement, data collection and social media impressions.

That’s the formula for victory on game day just about every weekend through the fall at North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest, the four ACC schools on Tobacco Road that BCBSNC sponsors. North Carolina and N.C. State are represented by Learfield, while Duke and Wake Forest are IMG College schools.

BCBSNC is one of the most prolific spenders on sports in the state, with sponsorships that support NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson, the NBA Hornets, NFL Panthers and NHL Hurricanes. But it’s in the college space that BCBSNC has distinguished its marketing by connecting the dots across the venue and media, said Chuck Schroeder, general manager of Tar Heel Sports Properties.

“It’s their level of engagement and the commitment they have,” Schroeder said. “If I’m in a meeting with a prospective partner and they have questions about how to activate, sometimes I will use Blue Cross Blue Shield as an example of how they engage the fan.”

The health care company uses giveaways and photo opportunities at
North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest football games to gather information on consumers and tout the company’s insurance plans.
Photo by: COURTESY OF BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD (2)
BCBSNC’s three-headed sports marketing team led by Reagan Greene Pruitt has been perfecting how a college sponsorship should look and feel for the last eight years.

Back then, static signage was typically the first move for a new sponsor. Schools since have added LED ribbon boards and video boards to their football stadiums and basketball arenas, giving sponsors such as BCBSNC the opportunity for more specific messaging, like BCBSNC’s “Live Fearless” campaign. Those kinds of highly integrated sponsorships

can run well into the six figures annually per school.

While big brands like Nissan, Lowe’s and Allstate effectively place national buys for signage and advertising across 70 to 100 schools, most marketers agree that college sponsorships remain an inherently local buy, best suited for the company that’s looking to tap into the passion of the local fan base. That’s certainly the case with BCBSNC, whose mission is to cover the state primarily through those four schools as a means of promoting its health care plans.

“It’s not just about signage. It’s about that quality engagement,” Pruitt said. “We’ve done a lot of testing and learning to find what works and to build on that.”

A look at the anatomy of BCBSNC’s deals shows just how its college marketing has evolved during those eight years.

The health care company does an annual brand study, which it started five years ago to learn more about the perceptions around the brand. The results showed that BCBSNC had a very high awareness rate inside the state, which told Pruitt that the company needed to move past the kind of advertising that simply showed the brand.

“What we needed was more quality engagement with the fans to drive our message,” she said. “We’ve gone from a very general message to telling fans more specifically that we have a broad range of plans when it comes to choosing your health care provider.”

BCBSNC also began hosting a summit three years ago that brings together all of the properties it sponsors. The sports marketing team of Pruitt, Burt Jenkins and Eric Quimby articulate BCBSNC’s goals and objectives, giving the schools, teams and leagues greater insight into the brand.

“We’re holding them accountable,” Quimby said. “They have a great opportunity through the summit to hear our brand strategy, our business strategy, and the business outcomes we’re trying to drive. When you show up to renew, we know what is working and what isn’t.”

BCBSNC also maintains a scorecard for each of its sponsorships, rating each property on a range of categories, including reach, audience, asset mix, ability to activate, and clutter.

If a sponsorship or a property isn’t performing, BCBSNC eliminates it. That was the case two years ago when it parted ways with East Carolina.

“As budgets shrink and there is more data to mine, you see that all sponsorships are not created equal,” Pruitt said. “As we evolve, we need our sponsorships to evolve with us. Some do that very effectively, but some have not and they’re no longer in the portfolio.”

While the health care provider has systematically constructed ways to measure its sponsorships, the most powerful element remains that direct contact with the fan, inside the venue or out. That’s why the brand continues to evolve its mobile marketing plan with Geometry Global, its activation agency, and MoZeus Worldwide, a social and digital agency.

For a health care provider like BCBSNC that’s trying to convince consumers to pick its plan, the collection of data — email addresses, cellphone numbers, etc. — that comes from that fan engagement is the payoff, and why BCBSNC will keep showing up on game day.

“They don’t do something just to do it,” said Tim Utrup, general manager of Wolfpack Sports Properties. “They have a reason and a purpose, and then they tie it all together on game day. They do a great job of connecting the dots.”

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