Wichita Eagle, 1C
By Carrie Rengers
Preferred Health Systems has selected branding agency Greteman Group as its agency of record. That ends the insurance company’s 13-year relationship with Associated.
“We feel that Greteman Group is in a fantastic position… to help us get where we want to go,” says John David Burkholder, Preferred Health’s manager of content and strategic positioning.
“We’re just kind of all about wellness,” says Sonia Greteman, agency president and creative director. “We think we’re in sync with Preferred Health on that.”
Greteman says the agency has a comprehensive wellness program for its employees and has on-site yoga, lunchtime fitness sessions, smoking-cessation plans and healthy food at all agency events.
Burkholder says Preferred Health likes the agency’s enthusiasm and focus on wellness.
“It was a decision at our executive level to do a request for proposal,” he says. “It really came down to Greteman Group and Associated as our final two.”
Wichita agencies Jajo, Sullivan Higdon & Sink and Armstrong Shank were also considered.
“We had a great, long run, and we wish everyone well,” says Associated chief executive Mike Snyder.
“Nothing lasts forever but God, a mother’s love and the United States Marine Corps,” says Snyder, a Marine. “You know, you move on.”
Snyder won’t discuss what size client Preferred Health was or what its loss means for the agency.
“You know, we’ve got a strategic plan that we’re working,” he says. “We continue to pursue it vigorously. This is the industry we’re in.”
Burkholder and Greteman say it’s too early to announce plans for a new Preferred Health campaign, but Burkholder hopes to see something in the second half of the year.
Greteman, whose clients include FlightSafety International, Royal Caribbean and the Kansas Health Foundation, says Preferred Health is “going to be a substantial client.”
Burkholder won’t quantify that, but he says, “It’s a nice-sized account.”
© Wichita Eagle, 2009
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