An Internal Campaign Employees 'Believe' In

While Kaiser Permanente's popular "Thrive" campaign hit the consumer market, an internal effort launched within the California-based integrated health provider. The "Practice What you Believe" campaign supports the messages of "Thrive" and Kaiser's "total health" brand positioning, but focuses on employees rather than patients. Kaiser received a silver award in the internal communications category at the 2009 HealthLeaders Media Marketing Awards for the effort.

"Practice What You Believe maintains some of the personal mantras and individual convictions that it's consumer campaign, Thrive, speaks to—but is entirely successful as a stand-alone recruitment advertising campaign," marketers wrote in the entry form. "Underpinning this message is Kaiser Permanente's ability to understand why their health care professionals chose their careers.

The campaign consists of six posters that lined Kaiser hospital halls and were distributed to recruiters and managers to support retention. Kaiser worked with San Francisco ad agency TMP Worldwide on the creative, which feature images of real employees.

"I very much enjoyed this creative execution," wrote one judge. "I felt the execution was clean and fresh and enjoyed the focus on actual employees."

By featuring employees, Kaiser marketers said the campaign reinforced the goal of retention. "Showing actual employees serves as a valuable employee retention tool, as recognizing oneself, or those you work with, in advertising garners a sense of pride," they wrote.