Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA, the country's largest non-profit health maintenance organization has selected Rapp Collins Worldwide, New York, as its national direct marketing agency.
The agency will handle creative development, production and media planning/buying across the country for the organization's direct response operating units, which are marketing divisions that distribute materials on its different products. Marketing for the direct response operating units will include television, radio and print advertising. Parts of Kaiser will work with Rapp Collins on direct mail and other direct response services.
Previously, the company had purchased direct marketing services on a local market basis, said Vaughn Acton, Kaiser's vice president of brand management.
“We wanted to make the brand better integrated and more consistent across all areas and we wanted to realize marketing efficiencies,” Acton said, explaining why the company decided to consolidate direct marketing services. Rapp Collins was chosen because of its strategic and creative capabilities and the depths and breadth of its offerings, she said.
The company's 1997 direct response advertising expenditures were $24 million. Kaiser is a group practice prepayment program that serves 9.1 million members in 19 states and Washington, DC.
Grey Advertising, New York, remains the company's agency of record for brand advertising.
