Case Study for Agency
03-1014853-747

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was born in Pennsylvania
and then used as a best practices model for implementation across the
nation. We were honored to be engaged to provide a full range of social
marketing services for Pennsylvania’s program. Because of our
background in outreach to low income families, we were able to
immediately put CHIP’s outreach program in place. We conducted a series
of one-on-one interviews and focus groups to determine themes and
messages, and developed a strategic and creative outreach plan to
effectively reach our audience of parents of uninsured children.

The symbol of the CHIP hat and the sell line “I’m covered” quickly
became the brand identity for the program. Radio and television spots
encouraged families to call a toll-free help line where carefully
trained counselors were ready to help parents access free or low cost
health care coverage for their children. In addition to frequent press
events to keep visibility high – from a launch with Governor Tom Ridge
to a mini-Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus on the grounds
of the State Capitol – we helped to develop a streamlined application
for coverage, kicked-off a state-wide school outreach program,
“wrapped” a CHIP bus, and activated a grassroots army of health care
professionals, advocates and community centers to support local
solutions to enrollment barriers.

The most important outcome has been the increase in enrollment in CHIP.
Before the outreach program began in October 1998, there were 66,305
children enrolled in CHIP. As of November 2001, there were 116,703.