A Strategy Rooted in Emotion: SilverSneakers

A health and fitness program designed to help seniors achieve their goals, SilverSneakers had a big opportunity to attract investors to believe in their vision as much as they did. Their team knew nailing their message was crucial to positioning their brand as more than a digital wellness service–they needed to root their brand's story in emotional connection. And that was just what we helped them do. Check out how we took their team through our strategic process to communicate their core message on an emotional level.

Creative Brief

The bread and butter of great strategic work is the ability to dig out a strong, universally human insight that inspires winning solutions. Luckily, that's what our team does best. Here's what they came up with:

Wellness is a journey. And having a partner to support you makes it more achievable. SilverSneakers is more than a digital service—it's a virtual companion that is by your side throughout the wellness journey.

The objective we were then working with? To show investors why creating a virtual companion for seniors that empowers them to live happier, healthier, more connected lives is an idea whose time has come.

Strategic Frame

With a strong insight guiding our path, the team entered the next phase of strategic planning, which is building an emotion-provoking story using our 6-step strategic framing tool. The tool drives the strategic process forward by identifying 6 key story elements: the change happing in our world, the stakes of failing, the enemy we're up against, the "promised land" to reach, the magic we use to get there, and the proof our solution will work. Here's how we applied the framework to the SilverSneakers brand:

Final Creative

SilverSneakers has a long history of empowering seniors to improve their health and well-being by making it easy and fun to keep physically, mentally, and socially active. Both virtual and in-person exercise and enrichment classes bring seniors together, and many even build communities outside of the program, with book clubs, card nights, or volunteering efforts. And these interpersonal connections are not simply a perk. Compelling research has shown that strong friendships can actually help people live longer. 

That’s why the connections, health, and happiness built in partnership with SilverSneakers are so valuable–with a virtual companion by their side, seniors are empowered by a sense of joy and hope for the future. Here's how the strategic frame translated into a brand video to help SilverSneakers convey their message to the masses: