Kaiser Permanente's New Thrive Ads Encourage Members to "Find Their Thing"

OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- September marks the eighth season of Kaiser Permanente's Thrive campaign, encouraging members to take up healthy activities they enjoy. In this year's campaign, Kaiser Permanente remains focused on the health of its members and the communities it serves, while making a new commitment to motivate these groups to activate their health. The campaign focuses on three key issues; "Find Your Motivation," "Find Your Thing," and "Find Your Partner."

"Kaiser Permanente wants every individual to find their own solution in a sometimes overwhelming world of health and fitness information," said Christine Paige, PhD, senior vice president of marketing and internet services for Kaiser Permanente. "With the introduction of these ads, Kaiser Permanente aspires to provide the inspiration, motivation and tools needed for individuals, families and communities to take their health to the next level."

In this growing role as a health advocate, Kaiser Permanente is reinventing what it takes to live well, be well and thrive. Improving one's health is highly personalized and specific, and Kaiser Permanente aims to provide the resources necessary to help people get started and stay with their health regime. People have a higher success rate in keeping their resolve when they incorporate the following three components into their wellness activities: finding their motivation, finding a partner and finding the thing they love to do.

These messages will be at the forefront of this year's advertising campaign debuting this month.

"Find Your Thing" is a television ad that expresses the different interests and passions that exist toward healthy activities. The woman in the ad is shown running, returning workout equipment and biking, none of which she enjoys. At the end of the 30-second spot, she is shown walking, with a smile on her face. The ad examines several types of activities and concludes that whatever your favorite healthy activity is, if you like doing it, chances are you will stick with it and take charge of improving your health.

Walking is a key theme in the "Find Your Thing" advertisement. Kaiser Permanente also promotes walking through its EveryBody Walk! campaign, a public awareness project aimed at starting a national conversation about the health benefits of walking. It's designed to help Americans integrate walking into their daily routine by walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week. For more information visit: www.everybodywalk.org.

"Physical activity is a cornerstone of good health and walking is an excellent form of exercise. It can help prevent and treat conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and heart disease," said Bob Sallis, MD, a family physician in Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Permanente Medical Group. "I prescribe walking to my patients as a form of medicine because it's an easy, cost-effective way to exercise and the health benefits are invaluable."

A series of ads focused on "Find Your Motivation," "Find Your Thing" and "Find Your Partner" will be released in various media formats, including television, print, outdoor, digital and radio over the coming months. In keeping with the Thrive campaign's focus on activating health, creative executions of this year's work will debut in intervals, to keep the message behind the ads fresh in the mind of members.

• Billboards and public transportation posters will include "Find Your Partner" ads showcasing multiple activities one can do with friends, families and significant others.
• Web banners and radio ads will include "Find Your Reason" ads revealing motivations that drive people to live active lifestyles, such as losing weight, running a race and getting married.

The television spot will run on shows such as "Dancing with the Stars," "Glee," "American Idol," and "Grey's Anatomy." Magazine ads will run in Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking Light, Sunset, Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic. Web ads will appear on sites such as Pandora.com, MapMyFitness.com, Health.com, Yahoo.com, Babyzone.com and Disney.com.

Over the past three years, the Thrive campaign has been the recipient of several accolades, including:

• Thirteen Silver Addy awards in 2009 for the television spots – "Share the Breath," "Community Bike," "When I Grow Up" and "Heartbeat." Out of home advertising executions were also recognized.
• A 2010 Bronze CLIO award for the "Emerald Cities" television ad.
• A Gold Los Angeles Addy award in 2010 for the television spot "Where Do Babies Come From?"
• Two 2011 Merit Award, part of Gold Quill Awards, sponsored by International Association of Business Communicators, for the "Where Do Babies Come From?" television advertisement as well as the "Plus One" television spot.

Thrive advertising will run in California; Hawaii; Portland, Ore.; Denver; Atlanta; the District of Columbia; and parts of Maryland and Virginia. Kaiser Permanente also is reintroducing ads in parts of Ohio with an extension of the Thrive campaign, named, "The Everyday Campaign."

The multi-year Thrive campaign was created in partnership with Warren, Mich., based advertising agency Campbell-Ewald, which has worked with Kaiser Permanente since the rollout of the first Thrive ads in 2004.

The ads, plus Kaiser Permanente content—including health tips, nutrition information, an expanded recipe database, Thrive music selections and an exercise widget—can be accessed at www.kp.org/thrive. The ads can also be viewed at www.youtube.com/kaiserpermanenteorg.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.8 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.

For more information, contact:
Laura Dunn, 510-267-2818, [email protected]

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente