- Christopher Heine

Ovations, a division of United Healthcare, Minneapolis, wanted to learn what channels the Hispanic market is best triggered by and offered three days of seminars (July 28-30) in Los Angeles to educate Hispanic seniors about the issues of Medicare and Medicaid.

While Ovations generally aims to serve consumers 50 years old and older, the seminars targeted those over 65, as well as their familial influencers. Carolina Serrano-Gutierrez, manager of multicultural marketing at Ovations, said the one-and-a-half-hour Spanish-language seminars were designed to be “fun and engaging.” For instance, she said, the events involved a "Zumba" dance class specifically tailored for the senior segment.

“Hispanics sometimes feel threatened because of the language barrier and whatnot, and they tend to feel that it’s easier for them to be tricked into something they should not want to do,” Serrano-Gutierrez said. “By doing something in their culture, their language and with elements from their hometowns, we are actually showing that we are interested in educating them on what Medicare and Medicaid are about.”

The media campaign to support the pilot began on July 14, via Rojo Marketing. Cristina Morales, managing director for the Charlotte, N.C.-based agency, said radio spots, direct mail, outbound telemarketing and print ads, as well as street teams, have been put into play.

Serrano-Gutierrez said the results from the pilot would be used to better plan seminars before rolling them out in San Diego and San Francisco this month. San Jose and either Los Cruces or Albuquerque, N.M. (decision on city pending), will be the markets targeted in September. Though Ovations has done offline seminars in the past, Serrano-Gutierrez said this is the company’s first remote city-by-city effort.

“We really think that with this strategy, we are serving the Hispanic market in an [effective] way,” Serrano-Gutierrez said. “I think it’s going to give us an advantage and allow us to position our brand in a much higher place.”

During the first quarter, Ovations orchestrated focus groups on seniors in Los Angeles, Houston and New York City. Serrano-Gutierrez said the research was integral to the decision to do the seminars.

“We learned that Hispanics prefer one-on-one personal direction,” she said. “Knowing and understanding that, and knowing how difficult it can be to understand how this healthcare industry works, we thought about doing an educational seminar with the sole objective of helping Hispanics understand questions like, ‘What is Medicare?’ and ‘Who qualifies?’"

For the week leading up to the first Los Angeles event on July 28, Morales said that street teams of 10 people worked on a daily basis in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods of Norwalk and Brea, handing out flyers. The teams looked for consumers in the target segment but also approached people who may have family members or friends who fit the senior profile.

“We want to really connect from a micro-targeting perspective to the community,” Morales said. “And we want to make sure we are driving traffic to the seminars and educating the community.”