Optima Health, a health plan organization owned by Sentara Healthcare, named The Hacker Group, Bellevue, WA, to handle a lead generation effort for the southeast Virginia market.
The campaign will use mail to target some of the 40,000 small companies in that area. The mandate is to generate cost-effective leads for conversion by Optima brokers into new business opportunities in the company's group medical space.
“The unique challenge for them is that their previous direct marketing efforts were delivering an unacceptable return on investment,” said Greg Raffensperger, account manager at Hacker.
Though Hacker would not disclose numbers, it said Optima's mail responses were falling even as cost per leads was rising in the competitive health plan business.
Optima would not disclose the account's incumbent agency or the number of shops participating in the review.
Hacker's duties include creative development, account management, list handling, media services and response analysis. It also will work to integrate Optima's back-end lead management systems with the front end.
Hacker will use the PowerTest testing methodology. It lets the shop test many variables that can be difficult to analyze in smaller-volume, business-to-business campaigns.
Optima, Norfolk, claims to be southeast Virginia's largest managed-care firm. It has a network of more than 1,600 physicians.
Hacker's experience in health-related DM helped win Optima's business. Its clients include Hilton Hotels, AT&T Wireless, Medica, World Vision, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Arizona and Kawasaki motorcycles. It has 100 employees and is owned by Interpublic Group of Companies Inc., New York.
The campaign breaks later this summer, aimed mainly at businesses with fewer than 100 employees. It will stress price as a distinguishing factor.
