Michigan Is Amazing Blog
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Michael Flora Associates
MS&L was given the opportunity to position Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) as a homegrown institution with deep roots in the state of Michigan.
BCBSM research showed that the company was perceived as a large national for-profit health insurer, when in fact it is a nonprofit company that operates only in Michigan. Its current marketing and advertising campaign focuses on its deep Michigan roots and its nonprofit status.
BCBSM’s advertising agency, Michael Flora Associates, conceived a blog that would show Michigan as an amazing place, with an emphasis on the great people, places and things in the state. BCBSM’s only overt messaging is a logo and an ad on the site. They turned to MS&L to build www.michiganisamazing.com, which includes state-of-the-art interactive features such as a built-in rating system, and to create daily content for it. MS&L also reaches out to Flickr photographers and features a Michigan Photo of the Day, which has brought a substantial number of visitors to the site.
The blog was envisioned as having a three-month run. In its first two weeks, the site had 5,170 hits, 3,944 unique visitors, and our strategic Google Adwords for the site were viewed 658,797 times. BCBSM liked it so well that its contract has been extended through December 2007, and the agency hired us to develop another BCBSM blog, www.walkytalk.com, which launched in October 2007 in support of its “Walking Works” campaign.