Client Situation
How do you provide insurance to 19-29 year olds, a group representing one-third of the total uninsured population, yet notoriously difficult to reach through traditional insurance channels? This was the challenge facing a large U.S. Health Insurer when it approached Monitor1 for help inventing a new business concept targeting the young and uninsured segment.
What We Did
The Monitor team's first step was to better understand the unmet needs of uninsured populations. To do this, the team conducted in-depth ethnographic research, including camera surveys and in-home studies. This research uncovered misperceptions about affordability, poor comprehension of insurance channels and specific, highly prevalent procrastination and budgeting behaviors. These factors were all barriers to getting insured.
Armed with this information, Monitor worked with the client to design and illustrate a new concept for selling insurance, using well designed and simple insurance offerings, communicated in the context and language of the segment's own lifestyle and peer culture. These offerings were combined with alternative marketing channels for the insurance industry and new financing options to create a bold new concept for reaching the uninsured.
Results
The success of this new business has been astonishing. Within the first two years the Health Insurer enrolled over 120,000 customers, creating a $150 million business across six states. And it drew national attention when it was featured on the Daily Show.
According to the SVP of Individual and Group Insurance, "the new concept has been a tremendous success, both in reaching the uninsured but also in terms of enhancing our company's reputation in the industry and the financial analyst community."