The dimensional piece from health insurer Anthem arrived in a large opaque box, but ultimately, the food-themed campaign was all about transparency. The November 2010 mailer was designed to raise awareness of Anthem’s expanding transparency tools: Four online, interactive tools to help members better understand their healthcare options by presenting procedure price comparisons and patient reviews of doctors.

The business unit responsible for the mailer, Anthem National Accounts, may be best known for targeting companies with more than 5,000 employees. However, this campaign wasn’t directed at those prospects — but at 718 health benefit consultants and brokers who help those workers choose health insurance plans. “It is crucial that Anthem solidifies and nourishes these relationships,” says Melissa Martinez, an account supervisor at Anderson Direct Marketing, which created the campaign.

Anthem wanted the piece to motivate recipients to visit a personalized URL (PURL) to learn more about the transparency tools, request to be contacted by the company, and sign up for a complimentary one-year membership to ZAGAT.com, the restaurant review site of the Zagat Survey Company. (Anthem has a partnership with Zagat Survey, which maintains Anthem’s doctor review tool called the Zagat Health Survey.) The mailer’s premium is a Zagat guide called “America’s Top Restaurants 2010.”

The components of the package also fit into the “Feast of Features” theme. Included is a “menu” with bite-size nuggets about the four tools. More information is provided in a brochure and a personalized letter; sprinkled throughout both are food references and mentions of the PURL.

And binding all the pieces together is a white tablecloth.

“With this type of client, you want to be able to send the type of package that gets their attention,” Martinez says.

Anthem officials say that the campaign drove response. Nearly a third of recipients were motivated to visit the microsite. Of those, 74.3% converted into a lead, producing an overall 23.4% lead rate.

Those taking the offer received an e-mail with an access code to Zagat’s site and were contacted by an Anthem regional vice president. The insurer also sent an e-mail two weeks after the package arrived to those who didn’t visit the microsite, or visited but didn’t register for the offer or request information.

Nichole Goodhart, national marketing director of Anthem National Accounts, attributes the effort’s success to a number of factors, including a hard-to-miss dimensional package and personalization. “The success of the campaign surpassed our expectations,” Goodhart says.

The Essentials:

Company: Anthem National Accounts, a business unit of WellPoint (Indianapolis, Ind.)

Agency: Anderson Direct Marketing (andersondm.com) (Poway, Calif.)

Target Audience: 718 health benefit consultants and brokers

Goal: Raise awareness of the company’s expanding transparency tools and generate leads.

DM Vehicle: A box (5 X 5 X 25 inches) containing a letter, a brochure, a “menu” featuring transparency tools, and a Zagat restaurant guide; the components were wrapped in a fancy tablecloth.

Response: 31.5% of recipients visited the PURL. Of those, 74.34% converted into a lead, producing an overall 23.4% lead rate.