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G. Delta Dental of Washington’s Smile Power Tour: Delta Dental of Washington’s Smile Power Tour is a statewide public relations campaign including community outreach, media relations, social media, media partnerships and video production—designed to celebrate the power of healthy smiles by recognizing those (“Smile Makers”) who bring smiles to their communities. See campaign plan below.
OVERVIEW
Delta Dental of Washington (DDWA) began in 1954 as a pilot program to provide longshoremen’s children with dental care. The program grew to include adults and, in 1965, it joined like-minded groups to form the Delta Dental Plans Association – the largest dental benefits provider in the country. Throughout its history DDWA has been a pioneer in dental benefits, and through its foundation (Arcora Foundation) has donated millions of dollars for educating students entering the dental profession, supporting dental clinics, and providing care to more than 40,000 children and pregnant women in underserved communities across the state.
Challenge: Despite its success, surprisingly DDWA wasn’t recognized as supporting communities across the state. With the support of a new national “Smile Power” advertising campaign (produced by Publicis), DDWA with the support of AMP Agency set out to engage with current and prospective clients with a statewide Smile Power Tour to promote good dental health practices and celebrate the power of healthy smiles in authentic, compelling, hyper-local manner.
RESEARCH
Delta Dental, with its brand research firm Kelton, conducted nationwide primary research to measure brand awareness/ perception via online surveys in Aug. 2016 & 2017. The state’s interview sample was 301 (50/50 gender split among current dental subscribers, past 3-year subscribers, and next 12-month intenders from a national sample of 15,311) to determine a 2016 benchmark and 2017 progress for awareness of DDWA’s support of local communities. DDWA/AMP Agency also conducted pre- and post-event organizational research to benchmark and measure growth in reach and engagement via its website and social media platforms. Finally, during the planning phase, AMP Agency conducted primary and secondary research to identify individuals who brought smiles to others – including local periodical reviews, online research, and in-person interviews with community leaders via pre-event site visits. This research was used to identify local media partners and well-networked community members who could help encourage Smile Maker nominations
PLANNING
Goals:
- Engage communities in an authentic, compelling and hyper-local manner
- Celebrate the power of healthy smiles
- Promote good dental health practices
Objectives:
- To improve the DDWA brand attribute of supporting local communities via annual brand awareness survey among current and prospective patients across Washington state by the end of 2017.
- To achieve at least 300 direct in-person engagements with individuals in each city of the Smile Power Tour.
- To garner an average of two news stories per city in each of the Smile Power Tour stops.
- To increase website traffic to the DDWA website via the Smile Power landing page.
- To increase social media reach and engagement via Smile Power Tour-related posts on DDWA social channels.
Audiences:
- Primary: Adults (ages 25-64) – Parents with children living at home & Seniors
- Youth
- Current & prospective DDWA client companies, producers and group administrators
Strategies & Tactics:
- Bring DDWA’s “Smile Power” National Advertising Campaign to Life – Create a highly visible, feel-good experiential program (Smile Power Tour) to communities statewide – generating authentic grassroots community engagement, dental health education and awareness about the importance of a healthy smile.
Tactics: Smile Power Vehicle Wrap
- Invite Widespread Community Participation – Invite the public to help celebrate the people and organizations in their communities who bring smiles to others (“Smile Makers”) by submitting nominations via the DDWA website, which in turn will drive web traffic and help inform the stops on the Smile Power Tour.
Tactics: Dedicated Smile Power Tour Website Landing Page
- Partner with Media Outlets to Promote the Tour & Smile Maker Nominations – Collaborate with DDWA’s media planers to fully leverage the Smile Power advertising buy with added-value opportunities; and purchase full-page ads in community newspapers to further promote nominations and to celebrate the “Smile Makers” in each community at tour conclusion.
Tactics: TV PSA (including on-air talent selection & scripting); Newspaper ad copywriting and photography
- Celebrate Smile Makers – Identify “Smile Makers” via public nominations, as well as from online and in-person pre-event site visit research, the individuals and organizations which bring smiles to others in their communities through acts of kindness.
Tactics: Nomination submission review, research and selection; Smile Maker presentation run-of-show & scripting
- Identify a Branded Mascot to Recognize Smile Makers and Deliver Dental Health Education – Hire an actress who is equally appealing to adults and children to play the role of the DDWA Tooth Fairy – serving as a telegenic face and voice of DDWA in celebrating Smile Makers and delivering dental health information.
Tactics: Tooth Fairy criteria development; Audition process & questions; Tooth Fairy Costume design & production
- Conduct Community-wide Events – Cast a wide net of awareness and engagement in Smile Power Tour communities by hosting and/or participating in community-wide events allowing the DDWA Tooth Fairy and Smile Power team to interact directly with the community, discussing the importance of healthy smiles and sharing dental health information.
Tactics: Sponsor contract agreements; promotional flyers/posters; event signage
- Conduct Community Presentations—Outreach to children and seniors by visiting schools, after-school programs, libraries and senior centers with age-appropriate information about dental health via storytime sessions, group presentations, SWAG, etc.
Tactics: Tooth Fairy PowerPoint presentation development; Branded pull-up banner design & production; Keepsake bookplates & bookmarks, Smile Power SWAG design & production (t-shirts, hats, water bottles, lunch bags, cookies, fairy wings); Signage & Presentation Check design & production; Dental Health Kit design & production
- Amplify DDWA Brand & Generate Branded Content – Fully leverage the Smile Power Tour to generate branded content with the aid of professional photography and videography captured during the activations – as well as proactive media relations — to help tell the Smile Power Tour story within the communities and beyond via DDWA channels, community partner channels and earned media opportunities.
Tactics: News release writing; media list development; photographer & videographer contracts; video storyboarding, scripting and editing; social media post development
Budget: $300,000
EXECUTION
During each of the five three-day community visits in 2017, the costumed Tooth Fairy and DDWA-branded Smile Power Team surprised Smile Makers (typically in public settings with local media along in tow) with help from the Smile Makers’ friends, family, co-workers and their nominators. They ranged from school teachers, grocery store clerks, fire fighters, social service agency volunteers and community do-gooders making an impact and bringing smiles to their communities. Each surprise celebration included a special thanks from the Tooth Fairy (who shared her insights on the impact and transformative power of smiles), along with flowers, balloon bouquets, congratulatory signs and a special gift (weekend getaways, Seahawks suite tickets, multi-day excursions, etc.) selected for each Smile Maker to bring a smile to their face. For instances in which the Smile Maker volunteered for a local nonprofit organization, DDWA would also make a donation in the Smile Maker’s name.
At each stop the Tooth Fairy visited elementary school classrooms, libraries, after-school programs, youth clubs, and senior centers to share age-appropriate information promoting Dental Health Education. Presentations included an attention-grabbing PowerPoint filled with fun dental health factoids, the reading of the book “Bearenstain Bears Visit the Dentist,” (including copies for each child along with a branded book plate & bookmark), and distribution of free dental kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, etc.).
During each tour stop, the Smile Power Team also planned Community Engagement activities to create a fun, celebratory mood and cast a wide net in the community. These activations varied from town-to-town, including hosting of community concerts or free admission days to the zoo or aquarium; free coffee giveaways at local coffee shops, Tooth Fairy throwing the opening pitch at a minor league baseball game, etc. – all incorporating the message of why DDWA was in town and the importance of a healthy smile.
Brand amplification and content generation were also critical components of the tour to fully leverage the experiences the team was creating statewide – and sharing with a wider audience. In addition to the media partnerships and heavy earned-media outreach, the tour included original video production (for use via DDWA’s digital media channels) and lots of social media posts highlighting the tour and celebrating the Smile Makers. In addition, following each tour stop, DDWA placed a full-page color ad in the local daily newspaper featuring a photo gallery of the local Smile Makers and publicly thanking them for bringing smiles to their communities.
EVALUATION
The DDWA Smile Power Tour results exceeded all measurable objectives (doubling direct community engagements to more than 600 per stop; 26 earned media placements with 2.5 million impressions nearly tripling the number of news hits targeted; 6% growth in DDWA’s favorable perception of supporting local communities (12% above the national average and the only brand attribute in WA state to see a significant increase in the 2017 survey) based on its annual brand awareness survey; and skyrocket growth (47%) in DDWA’s community web page traffic more than quadrupling the objective – as well as nearly 43,000 Smile Power Tour video views via social media, a reach of nearly 160,000 and engagement of 15,429 among DDWA’s social channels, and an additional 50 third-party social media posts with a reach of nearly 550,000.
Named by Delta Dental’s national organization as the year’s favorite public relations campaign nationally. The success of the Smile Power Tour was also cited as a major factor in the naming of DDWA as the 2017 recipient of Seattle Business magazine’s Gold Community Impact Award for its significant community contributions.
