Fortune 500 Sees 73% Increase in Benefits Enrollment; Accredits brand28 Video
Client: Alliant Employee Benefits
Deliverable: Promotional Video/Benefits Program.
Project Date: Fall 2018
Fortune 500 Sees 73% Increase in Benefits Enrollment; Accredits brand28 Video
In 2018, brand28 partnered with Alliant Employee Benefits to produce a benefits video for a Fortune 500 Company. The video had a direct and significant impact, successfully engaging 83% of viewers and nearly doubling enrollment numbers.
B-roll is an essential part of the video creation process. But what gets us really jazzed is when the employees are excited to be a part of it!
The Main Characters
Group 1 Automotive is an International Fortune 500 automotive retailer with dealerships and collision centers across the United States, UK, and Brazil. Despite their size, the company focuses a great deal of attention on the health and happiness of every employee, and endeavors to create a culture of wellness. However, with such a dispersed workforce, it’s not always easy to deliver a clear, cohesive message that shows how much they care or help employees understand the fantastic benefits available to them.
Alliant Employee Benefits is Group 1 Automotive’s benefits broker. They also happen to be one of the most progressive and reputable benefits consultants in the market. In addition to providing exceptional plan options for their customers, Alliant takes customer support a step further and helps organizations promote the value of their benefits plans to employees.
The Plot
Group 1 Automotive’s Houston area locations have exclusive access to an amazing benefits program through Kelsey-Seybold. This plan is specifically designed to provide excellent healthcare and benefits at an exceptionally affordable cost. However, enrollment rates weren’t as strong as Group 1 Automotive had hoped.
With a passive open enrollment season fast approaching, they needed to help employees better understand the value of this plan. Alliant was determined to help.
Behind the scenes! At brand28, we love capturing the culture of an organization. Shown is our video ninja getting down and dirty with the Group 1 Automotive mechanic crew.
The Plot Thickens…
The nature of Group 1 Automotive’s work environment is unique in that, many employees aren’t tied to a desk or computer; they’re on the dealership floor assisting customers or in the collision center working on cars. Catching their attention and keeping it was like trying to connect with a moving target.
Adding to the challenge, healthcare and benefits talk isn’t exactly a riveting topic. Employees find it confusing, overwhelming, and boring, hence the lack of participation in the Kelsey-Seybold plan. Since the upcoming passive enrollment period didn’t require employees to make any changes to their benefits, inspiring them to be proactive about their benefits decisions wasn’t going to be easy.
The Mission:
Engage hundreds of employees in a conversation about their benefits.
Promote/clearly explain the value of the Kelsey-Seybold plan
Make the message accessible/reach as many employees as possible
Enter — The Video Producers
Group 1 Automotive and Alliant knew that video would be the best way to communicate a complex message to the masses.
“We were going to need a strong video partner, someone with vision,” she explained. “We also wanted to find a creative team who understood how to talk like a real person about healthcare. We didn’t want this to sound like a brochure.”
The Alliant communications team had several video production companies in mind, but one stood out above the rest — brand28.
“Their familiarity with the Kelsey-Seybold plan was a huge factor,” said Amy, Communications Consultant for Alliant. “Also, one of our other offices worked with brand28 in the past and said the rapport was fantastic. So, we had a lot of confidence in our decision to hire them.”
All of our videos at brand28 start off with a storyboard. This acts as our blueprint going into the project.
Lights, Camera, Action!
brand28 is an internal video communications specialist with a marketing mind. As such, they spent much of the Discovery phase learning about their target audience — Group 1 Automotive employees. What was the company culture like? How would the Kelsey-Seybold plan enhance their quality of life? Answers to questions like these would reveal the deeper meaning behind the message. This is how brand28 creates a powerful video experience.
As brand28 learned more about the wants and needs of the employees, Group 1 Automotive had a brilliant idea — who better to catch employees’ attention and explain the value of the benefits plan than the employees who already use it?
Employees having fun on filming day!
Using employees to tell the story would deliver a more genuine and trustworthy message. brand28 also suspected that more employees would watch the video to catch a glimpse of themselves, their colleagues, and the various Houston area offices. With the vision for a documentary-style video in place, brand28 and Alliant teamed up to devise a game plan.
“brand28 did a remarkable job supporting our client with us,” said Woods. “There was constant engagement and, right away, it felt like they were truly a part of the Alliant team.”
The key to this project’s success was two-fold:
brand28 needed to turn a complex production process, into a simple but detailed timeline of events, and clearly communicate the plan to all involved parties.
They needed to help employees prepare for and feel comfortable with speaking on camera.
“brand28 was incredibly organized. We put this project on a tight timeline, and they didn’t just deliver, they kept us on track!” Exclaimed Woods.
Talking to a camera isn’t as easy as you might think. Years of experience taught brand28 that every 30-60 seconds of on-camera time would take roughly 4 hours to shoot.
“On the day of the shoot, it was interesting to sit back and watch brand28 manage the work site. The entire process was highly respectful and professional.”
In addition to employee interviews, brand28 captured the employees interacting in their work environments. Professional scriptwriting tied the story together, and upbeat music added energy to the viewing experience.
“When the video was complete, brand28 delivered a package that included everything we could possibly need to roll out a strategic distribution plan,” said Woods. “There were links, embeddable codes, thumbnail images…it was like opening a gift!”
Behind the scenes! Our video ninja filming B-roll of the offices.
Push Play!
Now, it was up to Alliant and Group 1 Automotive to spread the word. First, leadership teams sent the video to all mid-level managers and briefed them on the mission. They also instructed managers to talk about and share the video with employees at every available opportunity.
Aware that consistent and repetitive exposure is crucial to internal communications, the leadership teams distributed the video via email on 10 different occasions.
The video was also displayed on the company website, employee enrollment portal and in a flip-book benefits brochure.
The Stats
301 employees viewed the video on the first day.
715 employees viewed the video in total
65 employees viewed the video multiple times.
83% of employees watched all or most of the video.
The video directly resulted in 466 employees enrolling in the Kelsey-Seybold benefits program — a 73% increase in plan enrollment compared to the previous year.
“Because this was a passive enrollment period, it’s likely that we wouldn’t have seen any change in numbers,” explained Woods. “There is absolutely no way we could have nearly doubled enrollment without the amazing video that brand28 produced for us.”
As proof of their satisfaction, the Alliant team is already mid-production on another brand28-produced video — this time to promote Group 1 Automotive’s wellness program to their entire U.S. workforce.
Stay tuned for the results!