Situation/Brief: Smart companies know their most valuable asset is their employees. Keeping their employees healthy and safe is not only the right thing to do but also improves the company's bottom line. A healthy workforce leads to more productive and happy employees which drives better business results. Strong businesses mean better economic growth and healthier communities. How do we take this defining moment during the pandemic to shine a light on the importance of whole person health - caring for our body and mind?

Objectives:

- Partner with a strong research firm to study perceptions of both employees and employers on the value of a healthy workforce.

- Create a fact-based, proprietary study with data from focus groups, industry SMEs, literature reviews, and a quantitative survey to help make the business case for employee health and well-being.

We used a two prong approach to earn attention from the target audience. One was to use rigorous research and data to drive the narrative. Senior leaders are time poor and we knew we needed to work with a well-respected brand like The Economist to help tell the story leveraging their think-tank capabilities and clinical experts. They conducted extensive primary and secondary research so we could give our target audience the information they needed to advocate on behalf of employees in their own organizations. We gave them a wealth of data and insights that proved the ROI.

The other strategy was to have our own senior leaders and well-respected experts evangelize this business opportunity. Sharing The Economist study data points with our CEO Communications team, we gave our CEO proprietary insights he could use in his media interviews and on regional and national stages elevating the conversation.

Insights/Key Messages:

We knew the best way to capture the attention of the target audience was to offer surprising insights they couldn't glean on their own by honing in on the biggest gaps between employees vs. employers. For instance, one key insight was the role fatigue, stress and burnout had on employee health. Employees cited this as the top barrier to business growth during the pandemic. However, when we compared viewpoints between executives and employees, we saw discrepancies with workers rating it much more important than leaders. We also learned that while most businesses believe health is important, few executives said employee health was a top KPI (rated #6) for business growth so there is much opportunity to raise awareness.

Target audience: C-Suite and business leaders

Asset creation: Content included videos, articles, graphic articles and events distributed through owned, earned and paid media.

Q1 Kick-Off Event: Cigna's CEO, David Cordani and The Economist's Executive Editor, Helen Joyce, co-hosted a closed door C-Suite Roundtable event convening a distinguished group of 15 CEOs and CHROs from Accenture, General Mills, Verizon, Prudential and others companies to discuss the findings. While the feedback from participants was confidential, it was invaluable in informing our campaign strategy moving forward.

Q2-Q3: Cigna Healthy Workforce/Economist Reports: The final research report served as the anchor for over 48 pieces of content consisting of videos, infographics, case studies, Cigna newsroom articles, in-person and virtual events, advertorials and white papers.

Q4: David Cordani and other Cigna leaders frequently referenced the study findings in media interviews and speaking opportunities. Priority CEO targets achieved include a feature interview on CNN's Quest Means Business, a keynote speaking role at the influential HLTH conference with Fortune's Susie Gharib, and a LI event with Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture.

The Healthy Workforce was amplified across multiple audience groups which included clients, brokers, prospects, policy makers, employees, and general media.

Healthy Workforce/Economist Hub: The total media impressions across Economist.com display advertising, in-content video and social was almost 5.7 million impressions. Time on site metrics exceeded benchmarks by 156% with over 30K page views and 16,700 unique visitors.

Client Perceptions: Collectively, more than 200,000 people participated in campaign events across in-person and digital channels. Post-event surveys showed event participants found value in the content with 87% believing Cigna could be a partner for driving a healthy workforce. One verbatim client comment showed how the research was going to help them create the business case for employee health in their own company ... “I found The Economist’s perspective especially helpful in a world where finances are often focused on short-term budget impact. Having trends that repeat year over year give us more to bring to the table for discussion and planning.”

From an earned media perspective, the CNN Quest Means Business interview with David Cordani generated over 152M earned impressions. The fireside chat with Accenture CEO Julie Sweet was promoted on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook and generated almost 20K views.

Finally, all of the content assets were shared in our New Growth Plan brand campaign to drive engagement with our clients, prospects and brokers. The Healthy Workforce content were the top lead generation assets driving almost 2K leads in 2021.