SOCIAL MEDIA 360

Case Study

VSP Vision Care is the largest vision benefits company in the United States, covering one in six Americans. Working exclusively with its network of 26,000

private practice doctors, VSP provides affordable, high-quality eyecare plans that promote visual wellness and improve its members’ quality of life.

The majority of members enroll for VSP benefits during the Fall Open Enrollment period, which occurs between August and November every year. For Fall 2009, VSP decided to adopt a new approach for its enrollment marketing efforts.

The company appointed LEWIS to devise and implement a comprehensive social media campaign specifically targeted at potential members. The goal was to engage with consumers directly in order to promote the benefits of proactive vision care in general and VSP’s plans, in particular. Overall, the aim was to increase enrollments over the previous year.

See Much MoreA campaign to drive awareness and enrollment for VSP Vision Care

Background and goals

Key Facts:Client: VSP Vision CareDate: August to November 2009

Campaign: See Much More: 2009 Fall Open Enrollment Social Media www.vsp.com

“The See Much More campaign proved that social media can have a real impact on our business. LEWIS guided us expertly through the process and helped us implement an innovative campaign that reaped tangible benefits.”Ken Stellmacher, Director of Client and Member Marketing

The campaign used statistics in a video to educate consumers

Case Study

SOCIAL MEDIA 360

VSP’s research showed that the average subscriber was between 37 and 50 years old, and predominantly female,

married with kids, and with an interest in saving money and following a good health routine.

To reach and engage with these consumers, LEWIS decided on a strategy to demonstrate that vision care is important, easy and valuable.

Central to the strategy was the focus on engaging with consumers where they already are (on the blogs, web sites and social networks they frequent) and on the topics they are already interested in (such as health, sports, family life, or work performance).

The key message of See Much More was that looking after your eyes in the right way enables you to get more out of life. You and your family can enjoy a positive experience every time you visit the eye doctor and can also perform better at work and school, enjoy hobbies and look your best – all while saving money.

1. Creating compelling content At the heart of the campaign was a Flash-based microsite (www.seemuchmore.com): a consumer-oriented educational resource that made the topic of vision care fun, friendly and easy to digest.

The site featured a ‘Create your Own Eyechart’ Facebook application. Using Facebook Connect, the application allowed consumers to turn any Facebook message into an eyechart and send it to a friend.

Objectives Tactics

A ‘Make Your Own Eyechart’ Facebook appengaged consumers

The microsite formed the nucleus of the social media campaign

Case Study

A central ‘See Much More’ video highlighted a series of facts about vision, making it a powerful and highly sharable means of communicating the need for vision care.

All VSP’s social channels were also accessible from SeeMuchMore.com. The site was designed specifically to enable visitors to hop from one social channel to another, without leaving the main landing page. In addition, VSP used targeted online advertising to help drive traffic to SeeMuchMore.com.

2. Engaging with consumersA comprehensive monitoring and response program was devised by LEWIS, employing a custom dashboard, populated with real-time feeds based on keywords which allowed VSP to identify any conversation relating to eyecare. LEWIS worked with VSP to select and respond to those conversations it could engage in and add value to.

VSP identified that a significant number of its members were already on Facebook, so LEWIS helped it set up a Facebook fan page and populated it with content such as the eyechart application, videos and feeds from the VSP blog and Twitter profile in order to encourage engagement with fans. A contest to win a wardrobe of Nike sunglasses was also held and promoted through Facebook advertisements.

3. Working with key influencersLEWIS identified key blogs relevant to VSP’s target audience. The emphasis was firmly on consumer lifestyle sites and LEWIS secured a number of promotions and contests which ran on key blogs such as Parenthood.com, Blisstree.com and FiveMinutesForMom.com.

VSP’s Facebook fan page attracted over 5,000 fans within three months

LEWIS also helped VSP create a new corporate blog, designed to engage all VSP’s audiences, from doctors to employers to members. The blog became a rich content source for the campaign.

Monitoring also revealed that numerous conversations about eyecare took place on Twitter, so a Twitter profile was created and became a primary mechanism for responding to inquiries and eyecare-related comments. A regular series of eyecare tips was also Tweeted, helping to build awareness for the topic.

VSP used Twitter to address member questions and educate consumers

VSP launched several promotions with influential blogs

SOCIAL MEDIA 360

Case Study

The See Much More campaign represented VSP’s first social media initiative. Integrating its social media

programs with all marketing and PR activities created a completely synchronized effort. It based its decisions on research and closely monitored the outcome, but also fully embraced the need to engage with consumers when they want, where they want, rather than forcing a single message over a single channel.

The microsite itself was a key indicator of success. More than 65,000 unique visitors went to the site in the three-month enrollment period. The videos and applications were well-received too, with more than 14,000 people printing their own VSP eyecharts, while online ads featuring the video generated the highest number of clicks.

VSP grew its Facebook fan numbers to over 5,000 in less than three months - well above the average number of fans for an insurance company. The blogger promotion campaign yielded almost 3,000 entries in the form of comments. The monitoring and response effort generated over 250 retweets and responses – all positive.

In addition, LEWIS worked with a well-known make-up video blogger to create a video on make-up for women who wear glasses. This five-minute video generated over 150,000 views and 800 comments on YouTube.

Applying its own measurement methodology, LEWIS measured the campaign based

on total recorded views, interactions and contributions. With almost 600,000 recorded views and well over 30,000 contributions from social media efforts alone, the campaign was deemed a significant step forward for VSP’s consumer engagement goals. More importantly, VSP’s 2009 enrollment analysis shows that the social media campaign was indeed successful at driving an increase in total enrollments.

About LEWIS PRLEWIS PR is a global public relations firm. LEWIS combines the personal service and attention to detail of a boutique PR agency with the unmatched experience level of a global PR firm to deliver the best possible resultsfor its clients. In addition to traditional media relations, LEWIS specializes in social media PR, SEO, digital marketing and creative services.

www.lewispr.com

Copyright © LEWIS Communications Ltd. 2010 all rights reserved.

Results

VSP is committed to using social media to educate, and provide value to, members and prospective members. The 2009 Fall enrollment campaign enabled the company to build several new channels for consumer engagement, which can be built upon in future years. The company has proven that listening to what consumers want and providing compelling, valuable content that people want to use and share, is the key to a successful social media program.

A ‘make-up and glasses’ tutorial proved highly successful