When Members Feel Seen: How Hyper-Personalization Turned a Medicare Disruption Into a Retention Win
When a health plan terminates a Medicare Advantage product, it puts thousands of members in a difficult position. They didn’t choose to shop for a new plan—the decision was made for them. And in that moment of uncertainty, the way a health plan communicates can make all the difference between a member who stays and one who walks away.
This past AEP, Media Logic partnered with Big Data Studios to help Geisinger Health Plan navigate exactly this challenge.
- The goal: Re-enroll members from a terminated plan into other Geisinger Gold Medicare Advantage options.
- The approach: A hyper-personalized campaign that touched every element of the member journey.
Media Logic developed the campaign strategy and creative vision — including the messaging approach, video script and storyboard, and personalized direct mail and email campaigns — with a clear strategic goal: meet each member where they were and guide them to a decision that made sense for their needs. Big Data Studios helped bring that vision to life through personalized video production, dynamic microsite technology and the infrastructure to deliver it at scale. Together, every element was designed to make members feel recognized as individuals, not just numbers in a database
I recently sat down with Paul Leuer, CEO of Big Data Studios, to reflect on what made this campaign work and why personalization at this level matters more than ever in healthcare marketing.
Josh Martin: For years, we’d been developing strategies built around the idea that members deserve a more individualized experience — but the technology to execute that vision at scale wasn’t always there. Partnering with Big Data Studios was about closing that gap. We wanted to find a technology partner who could actually deliver what we’d been designing toward.
Paul, the strategy for this campaign was built around the idea that every touchpoint needed to feel personal—not just the video, but the microsite, the emails, the direct mail. The reality is, when you’re asking someone to take action on something as personal as their healthcare coverage, generic messaging doesn’t cut it. These members were already in a vulnerable position. They didn’t ask for this change. So, the question became: How do we meet them where they are and make them feel like Geisinger genuinely understands their situation?
Personalization across the entire experience, not just one element, signals to members that the health plan actually knows who they are. When someone receives a mail piece with plan recommendations specific to their situation and a personalized QR code that takes them to a page built specifically for them, featuring a video about their specifics and tools tailored to their needs, that’s a fundamentally different experience than getting a generic letter with a phone number to call.
The personalized video component was one of the more innovative elements of the campaign. Talk to me about what makes that medium so effective.
Paul Leuer: With personalized video and our dynamic microsite, we remove that friction by speaking directly to the individual member using their plan details, their options, and their next best actions so they don’t have to figure it out on their own.
It mirrors a one-to-one conversation at scale which is incredibly hard to achieve in healthcare communication. Instead of asking a member to read through pages of generic and confusing content, we guide them through a narrative that is built specifically for them. In this campaign we saw thousands of members watch the personalized video with an average of 91% completion and 5 minutes average exploring their own microsite which is something you never see with traditional healthcare communications.
…We saw thousands of members watch the personalized video with an average of 91% completion and 5 minutes average exploring their own microsite which is something you never see with traditional healthcare communications.
Josh Martin: From our side, the strategic goal was clear—reassure members that Geisinger had their back and guide them toward a plan that made sense for their needs. But I think what surprised me was how deeply members engaged across the entire experience. The video was the hook, but the microsite gave members their own personalized tools to explore their options, compare plans and get answers to their questions. What was your philosophy in designing that experience?
Paul Leuer: Our philosophy is simple: don’t just inform—guide.
We design every experience to function like a digital concierge. The goal isn’t just to present information, but to walk members step-by-step in a way that feels intuitive and supportive. What’s critical is that every element is connected. The email, the direct mail QR code, the video and the microsite are all part of one continuous experience. That continuity is what transforms a fragmented communication strategy into something that feels cohesive and human.
Josh Martin: The data showed that members who engaged with those tools renewed at higher rates. And there was a clear progression—the more someone interacted with the page, the more likely they were to stay with Geisinger. Members who clicked three or more times on the experience renewed at a rate more than 11 percentage points higher than those who didn’t engage at all.
…The more someone interacted with the page, the more likely they were to stay with Geisinger. Members who clicked three or more times renewed at a rate more than 11 percentage points higher.
Paul Leuer: The data validated what we see all the time with our healthcare clients. Engagement isn’t just a vanity metric; it’s a leading indicator to drive behavior. And our personalized video solution provides our clients an unfair advantage over their other healthcare competitors. Members who didn’t engage renewed at around 76.9%, but as engagement increased, so did retention. Members who explored the personalized member experience renewed at 88.4%, nearly an 11.5% increase.
Together, we created an environment where members can build confidence over time. Each interaction reinforces understanding and education, reduces uncertainty and ultimately makes it easier for them to make the decision to renew and stay.
Josh Martin: One thing that stood out to me was the channel performance. We drove traffic to the experience through both email and direct mail, and both channels moved the needle. But the direct mail piece—with a personalized QR code—performed especially well in terms of renewal lift for members who engaged.
Paul Leuer: Email drove scale and efficiency, reaching members quickly and generating strong engagement rates. But direct mail, particularly with the personalized QR code, created a more intentional interaction. When someone takes the step to scan a code from a physical piece, there’s a level of commitment there. We saw that reflected in performance, members who engaged via direct mail had a 7.6% higher renewal rate, which was 2.1% higher compared to email.
The takeaway is that this isn’t about choosing one channel over another. It’s about orchestrating channels in a way that meets members where they are and gives them multiple paths into the same personalized experience.
Josh Martin: A few things. First, personalization at scale is possible. The technology exists to create individualized, 1-to-1 personalized experiences for tens of thousands or millions of members. It’s not a pilot program. It’s a real strategy that is being deployed today.
Second, the ROI is there. Members who engaged with this experience renewed at significantly higher rates. That’s measurable value. When you’re facing a plan termination or a retention challenge, personalized engagement is a driver of positive outcomes. And third, it requires partnership.
…Personalization at scale is possible. It’s not a pilot program. It’s a real strategy being deployed today.
Paul Leuer: This campaign is a great example of what’s possible when strategy, creativity and technology are fully aligned. From a scalability standpoint, together we delivered a highly individualized experience across all members who needed a new plan. That’s not a pilot—that’s a repeatable model. In regard to ROI, the results are clear. Every touchpoint contributed to better outcomes.
None of this works without true partnership. Media Logic brought a deep understanding of the member journey and how to communicate with empathy and clarity. We brought the infrastructure to personalize that experience at scale and make it actionable. When those two things come together, strategy and technology, you move beyond marketing. You start delivering experiences that genuinely help people navigate important decisions in their lives.
Josh Martin: This gets to a broader point about what personalization really means in healthcare marketing. It’s not just about making someone feel special—though that matters. It’s about reducing the cognitive load of a complicated decision. Medicare is confusing. Plan changes are stressful. If you can simplify that experience and make someone feel like they have a clear path forward, you’ve done something meaningful.
Paul Leuer: Healthcare decisions, especially Medicare, are inherently complicated and often stressful. When a plan is terminated, that stress increases significantly. If we simply present more information, we’re adding to the problem. But if we translate that information into something clear, relevant, and tailored, we reduce the cognitive burden on the member.
When members feel like the experience is built for them, they’re more confident in their decisions and are more likely to take action. That’s where you start to see meaningful outcomes, not just engagement metrics but real behavior change.
In fact, that is why I started Big Data Studios. When my parents turned 65 years old, my father signed up my mother and himself for Medicare Advantage. The whole experience was confusing and overwhelming for him. In fact, he didn’t know that he needed to sign up for Part D in order to have coverage for his and my mother’s drug prescriptions. He told my mother that because of his confusion, he didn’t sign up for Part D like he should have which was his mistake. Therefore, he declared that she couldn’t take her heart medication for the next couple of months until open enrollment began. As good siblings, of course we stepped in to cover 100% of the medication costs for my parents, but because of this experience, I thought there has to be a better way to help guide people like my parents through the difficult process of getting the right healthcare coverage whether that is Medicare, Individual or Family, or Medicaid.
Josh Martin: Agreed. What this campaign proved to us is that the bar has moved. Health plans that communicate with members the way they deserve to be communicated with — as individuals navigating real, stressful decisions — will see the results. The ones that don’t will feel it in their retention numbers. Our job as strategists is to close that gap, and campaigns like this one show it’s not just possible, it’s replicable.
Media Logic is a full-service marketing agency with deep expertise in healthcare marketing, including Medicare AEP, member engagement, and retention strategies. To discuss how personalized marketing can support your member retention goals, contact Josh Martin at jmartin@medialogic.com.
Big Data Studios specializes in personalized digital experiences for healthcare and financial services, helping organizations transform complex member and customer journeys through technology, data, and storytelling. Learn more at bigdatastudios.com.
