Company: Delta Dental of Kansas, Wichita, KS
Company Description: Delta Dental of Kansas is the largest, most experienced dental benefits company in Kansas. We are passionate about providing benefits that meet the needs of our customers and educating Kansans about the importance of good oral health.
Nomination Category: Thought Leadership Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Thought Leadership Campaign of the Year - Business Services
 Nomination Title: Thought Leadership in Dental Wellness
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated PR campaign or program, or written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
Monday, November 15, 2021
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 246 words used.
The purpose of the Visit a Dentist campaign is truly in its name. We wanted to encourage all Kansans to visit a dentist and prioritize their oral health, especially coming after a year where many dental offices had to temporarily close due to the pandemic and individuals may be behind on their regularly scheduled visits. The Visit a Dentist campaign is seeking to improve the oral health of all Kansans, which in turn, promotes healthier lives for everyone who lives in our state.
Preventive dental care reduces risk for tooth decay, gum disease, receding gums, tooth sensitivity, losing teeth and more. Maintaining preventive dental care visits helps individuals achieve better long-term oral health and may save individuals from more extensive dental work in the future. Our benchmarking shows that in most cases, individuals who get preventive care have better oral health and have lower costs than those who don’t. Studies show that having poor oral health may contribute towards progressing serious health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
The Visit a Dentist campaign also brings awareness to some of the issues that may exist when pursuing regular dental care, like education, transportation, ability to find a dentist, and cost, and aims to help people overcome those obstacles by giving them valuable information and resources found at visitadentist.org.
Our goal was to get our messaging to as many Kansans as possible, which a is a big goal with 2.913 million people in the state.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the subject and content development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Delta Dental of Kansas worked with a local marketing firm, Lifeboat Creative, to develop this campaign.
We knew we wanted to target all Kansans, but the next step was planning out how we were going to accomplish that. To use our budget most effectively and reach the most amount of people, we decided on an all-digital ad-campaign.
We had a lofty goal of getting our message out to as many Kansans as possible. Since our campaign is largely an awareness PSA-style campaign, we knew our biggest KPI was going to be impressions. To target a variety of demographics, advertisements ran on a range of media including: streaming services, Google Display, Facebook, Audio Go, YouTube, Tiktok and Snapchat.
We divided our target audiences into three buckets – general awareness (Kansans between the ages of 18-65+), parents of young children (Kansans between the ages of 25-54 with children ages 0-5), and lower income individuals (Kansans with the lowest 50% of household income levels). Each audience had tailored ads and targeted messaging in both English and Spanish1. For example, to parents of young children, messaging encouraged parents to “Start them young” and get them into the dentist office by the age of one.
Education was a key component for the campaign. The VisitaDentist.org2 website was created to assist individuals in overcoming barriers to dental care whether that be education on preventive care, transportation, ability to find a dentist, or cost. The Visitadentist.org website serves as a landing page for all assets.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of January 2021. Even if your initiative started before January 2021, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of July 2020 only (up to 250 words):
Total 186 words used.
The total ad impressions for the first full year of the campaign were over 42 million3. This is a significant figure given that the total population of Kansas is 2.913 million. In 2022 the visitadentist.org website has had 111,646 unique users visit the site.
In 2022 the Visit a Dentist campaign ads ran on the following platforms. The impressions breakdown per platform is:
- OTT/CTV video (streaming services) – 1,954,711 Impressions
- Google display ads – 24,171,059 Impressions
- Facebook ads – 7,147,159 Impressions
- Audio Go ads – 1,602,390 Impressions
- YouTube ads – 5,730,630 Impressions
- TikTok ads – 1,293,109 Impressions
- Snap chat ads – 136,984 Impressions
Advertising platforms were continuously analyzed for what was working and what wasn’t. Dollars were reallocated to where they could be most impactful and reach the most amount of people. While our goal of reaching all Kansans is not something we can feasibly track, we are hopeful that these small reminders to prioritize oral health will be the push Kansans need to get back in the dental chair.
- Optional: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
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