Health Insurance: Focus July 2020
Source: BigDatr, iSelect, Compare. Select. Save
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BigDatr, Medibank, Medibank Covid-19 Health Assist, FTA TV Sponsorship, Seven Digital, National (June17-26)
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BigDatr, BUPA, Get Essential Lite Visitors Cover. From $96.97 Per Month.*, National, Digital (June 25
Two PHI Big Spenders Go Head to Head
Medibank Vs BUPA
The two largest private health insurance providers have spent close to $29m* combined since the start of the year on advertising. BUPA have been varying their messaging in market, leading with their Because Life Happens campaign but also running various Retail messages (from 6 Weeks Free to More Ways To Save With Bupa Plus. Medibank similarly varied, ranging from a Budget-direct inspired look and feel in Outstanding Value Health Insurance to their Medibank At Home campaign - injecting close to $6m across TV, Radio and Out of Home.
As tax time is upon us it is interesting to see how the two big spenders tackle the current climate amidst the challenges COVID-19 still presents. Medibank's Covid-19 Health Assist scales with a mass-market TV presence, including prime time sponsorships running through June. The messaging focuses on supporting Australians whilst at home. BUPA have taken a different approach largely through digital leaderboards showing support to overseas visitors. BUPA reaffirm the requirement for round-the-clock presence with language diversity also a selling point in their smaller-scale Retail campaign - high frequency of messaging gained through a cost effective digital buy.
*A portion of this Media Value figure is currently still in forecast mode so exact investment may be higher when backdated
Source: BigDatr, iSelect, Compare. Select. Save, Free-to-air TV - Metro, NSW, QLD, SA, VIC (May 25 - May 31)
iSelect Diversifies Product Advertising
Squeezing into the Top 5 spenders in the Health Insurance category is iSelect - an aggregator brand that has focused their product advertising on PHI since January 2019. In the last quarter they have launched utilities-specific TVCs, pivoting their advertising to address more consumers being at home and energy and internet costs creeping up. From late 2018 into 2019 iSelect opted for large amounts of sponsorship activity, spending large figures to invest at peak times in the run up to tax time ($5m+ in March 2019 and $4m+ in June 2019). This year their total June/July figure will likely net out at higher towards the $6m mark with this bold, branding campaign. For a predominantly digital advertiser this is a huge investment in the TV space for iSelect: across 2019 FTA TV advertising took 34% on average of their annual investment Vs the first half of this year where FTA TV is taking over 40% share.
Other Takeouts for Health Insurance
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Brand advertising is consistently taking the lion's share of media investment since February 2020 at ~80% versus Retail's share averaging at 18%
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Looking back at 2019 the Brand Vs Retail split was more dramatic in the first half of the year as Brand took over 83% month-on-month. The highest share for Retail advertising was seen in October 2019 with 35%, heavily contributed to by BUPA's 6 Weeks Free and NIB's How It Should Be
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In the COVID recovery and in the midst of tax time it will be interesting to see if there is a rush on Retail advertising:
ahm is making an aggressive play in the Retail space with their Get One Month Free. Plus Any 2 & 6 Month Waits Waived On Extras campaign.
HCF partner with RAC in Horizons magazine focusing on WA only as part of the broader campaign, offering a $400 monetary incentive to join or switch fund. RAC is a brand that usually focuses on promoting their Vehicle and General Insurance products, so their move into the Health space through this partnership indicates a blurring of verticals in market right now.
HBF's Stay Well campaign follows Get Well from Jan 2020, again using a blend of media channels to optimise. Stay Well uses multiple digital display creatives with the signature dual-characters: humanising elements that HBF want to promote such as cancelling the annual price rise, expensive packages being a bug bear and offering attractive low cost hospital cover.