Covered California is engaged in a major expansion of its Asian-language media efforts, with new TV spots airing in multiple languages, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog.
About a dozen variations on the same TV ad are on display, showing an Asian family getting medical help for their young daughter. The spoken content and writing are changed for targeted audiences, but not the visuals.
The health care insurance exchange predicts Asians will make up about 14 percent of Californians eligible for federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
About half of those of Asian descent in California speak limited or no English, census reports suggest.
Radio ads also include the Khmer and Lao languages. Current online ads in Chinese will be joined by display advertising in Filipino, Hmong, Lao and Khmer.
“Reaching out to communities with culturally sensitive information delivered in their languages will be vital to our mission of expanding health care coverage in this state,” Covered California chieftain Peter Lee said in announcing the new media spots.
The first TV ads promoting the new California health insurance exchange begin airing on Labor Day, marking the beginning of the $75 million marketing campaign. Among them was a Spanish-language spot shows Californians welcoming Covered California into their homes and businesses. Latinos, many of whom lack health insurance in the state, are a priority for Affordable Health Care marketing.
Covered California quickly found itself fending off criticisms that the health marketplace was targeting Latinos at the expense of other minorities, such as blacks and Asians.
Key markets for Asian-language advertising are Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Fresno and San Diego, Covered California said in a release about the Asian Obamacare ads Oct. 21.
Chinese online ads have been in the market since September. Print ads in Asian languages began earlier in October, in traditional and simplified Chinese, Korean and in Vietnamese.
The federal government is footing the bill for the Obamacare ad blitz.
Here is one of the 11 Asian-language TV ads for Covered California:
Speak Your Mind