• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, August 7, 2006

The last thing you'd expect to see when buying a pair of running shoes is a tag ad affixed to its laces. Is Nike advertising on Reebok shoes? Does the tag double as a coupon for matching accessories (socks or workout wear)?

No, Kaiser Permanente, the nation's behemoth HMO, staged the promotion to drive traffic to a branded microsite devoted to healthy living.

"The promotion was derived from the desire to reach consumers in relevant, unexpected ways," said Kendra Mazey, senior vice president-group media director at Campbell-Ewald, the agency behind the campaign's media buy and creative focus. "We are communicating through this promotion that Kaiser Permanente stands for 'Total Health,'" Mazey continued.

The campaign targets runners, or those already taking necessary steps to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The microsite plays off KP's "Total Health" brand positioning and offers visitors recipes, a health encyclopedia and access to a calculator that measures your body mass index.

Hard metrics were intentionally left out of the program, since it's solely a branding campaign, so specific campaign results would be difficult to determine.

The tags ran on Asics and Saucony running shoes in West Coast stores beginning in April and trickled into mid-Atlantic states in May. Roughly 285 retail and local stores carried the tags (some stores still do), including Big 5 Sporting Goods and Dick's.

Along with the URL, the tags feature a set of goals in check-box format such as "gain: tone, endurance and self-respect"; "lose: weight, stress and your inhibitions"; "burn: breakfast, lunch and dinner"; and "chill: blueberries, strawberries and out."

The microsite is considered "closed," meaning only existing KP members have full access to it. However, this East Coaster was able to see most of what the microsite had to offer. I was still able to read the recipes, calculate my body mass index (no comment) and view the health encyclopedia. Two added site links allow prospective members to research information on KP.

According to Angela Zepeda, senior vice president-management supervisor at Campbell-Ewald, California contains the most KP members, 7 million out of 8.5 million.

Despite the already large membership base (and concern for a massive redundancy--many residents are already members), Zepada said "the main reason for the shoe tags was to get exposure for KP with non-members in a unique way, and help change the perception of Kaiser Permanente."