Building Trust and Awareness for Medicaid Options within Multicultural Communities

Challenge

Coegi’s client, a government health plan provider, needed to raise awareness of their Medicaid options among Hispanic and African American communities. These communities often face historical distrust of the medical care system, further compounded by rising healthcare costs.

Highlights

5%
higher recall among Hispanic/Latino demographics

9%
higher recall among Black/African American demographics

27%
increase in the perception that our brand supports member health goals, care about the community, and offer relevant services

10%
lift in aided brand awareness compared to 2% healthcare benchmark

Solution

We developed an omni-channel pilot campaign to break through the noise and resonate with these core audiences. The strategy focused on three key goals:

• Increase Awareness: Reach qualified Latino and African American audiences.
• Build Trust: Position the client as a trustworthy partner who understands their needs.
• Drive Engagement: Encourage interaction with the brand through the website.

Reaching Key Segments: Identify core audiences by utilizing precision targeting parameters such as first-party data, zip codes, eligibility criteria, racial and ethnic demographics.

• Moms (Parents): Targeted adults with children, emphasizing importance of childhood and postpartum health.
• Functionally Disabled Members: Targeted audiences concerned with health issues like mental health and disabilities.
• New to Medicaid: Targeted audiences interested in health management and wellness, active on digital platforms.

Media Strategy: Maximize impact with Medicaid-eligible audiences by placing personalized messages across an omnichannel digital media plan.

• Diversity in Digital Media: Moving beyond competitor channels, we explored diverse digital platforms and implemented programmatic buying to find audiences efficiently.
• Right Audience, Right Message: Layered niche cultural targeting with culturally appropriate messaging for deeper resonance.
• Upfront Digital Footprint: Prioritized a strong digital presence (70% audience reach) for speed to market, hyper-targeting, and competitive differentiation.
• Expanding into Traditional Media: Layered in localized print publications, billboards & Radio for increased community relevance.
• Test and Learn: Established a foundation for future campaigns by measuring engagement and optimizing messaging for better personalization.

Results

The campaign delivered significant positive lifts across various metrics:

• Unaided & Aided Awareness: Increased brand recognition.
• Brand Perception: Improved perceptions of the brand as supportive, community-focused, informative, and meeting health needs.
• Decision Maker Impact: Positively influenced decision-making within both Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American audiences.

Channel Performance: The campaign delivered a significant lift in aided awareness across all forms of media, with a notable lift in awareness among consumers exposed to the banner and 30-second video ad. Brand recall was higher when 4+ channels were utilized, signaling the power of an omnichannel approach.

• Social and Print: Top performers, particularly in combination.
• CTV & Display Banners: Effective in raising awareness and brand opinion.
• Streaming Audio: Moderately positive impact.
• Online Video & OOH: Provided strong campaign reinforcement, but had less direct campaign impact.

Key Takeaways

• Go Where the Performance Is: Target audiences where engagement is strong and build scale through an omni-channel approach.
• Brevity & Emotional Connection: Clear, concise messaging with emotional appeal leads to stronger creative performance.
• Smaller Audience, Bigger Impact: Smaller audience segments can deliver strong engagement and results when targeted effectively.

This case study demonstrates that building trust within multicultural audiences requires a tailored approach that considers cultural values and prioritizes the right channels and messaging for maximum impact.