When HBF first launched this campaign in 2009, one of the Meerkats overheard someone say: ‘I was rushing around having an HBF moment the other day—not remembering what’s truly important.’ This excited us. Not only had the campaign been noticed, but it affected people—so much so, it had them using our brand to describe important moments in their day-to-day lives.

It seemed like an opportunity existed to make sure the phrase HBF moments was being harnessed to its full potential. Together with the HBF marketing department we agreed the first step should be to broaden the definition of what an HBF moment is with three new stories. Then we asked viewers, if they had experienced a similar moment, to tell their stories at hbfmoments.com.au (a website created with digital partner Tundra). We were again overwhelmed by some of the public responses that came in (check out the stories revolving around a young boy named Kai if you ever need a reminder about what’s important).

When we first worked with HBF to launch the Your health is all that matters campaign in 2009, we dug deep. Not just within ourselves to come up with these emotional and personal stories but within the entire HBF organisation and member base. It was approximately a nine-month birthing process involving qualitative focus groups with HBF staff, members and non-members. It became clear that private health insurance—something that you use when you or your family could be facing one of the most important moments in your life—had been reduced to so many cents per day for this or that. This didn’t sit well with the HBF brand managers and it certainly didn’t provide their coworkers with the most motivation possible considering the important role they play in their members’ lives. We also found out that HBF had actually helped to save the lives and limbs of many of their members (and that ended up being placed on a giant poster in the lobby of their main office when the campaign was launched and it’s still there today). This line of thinking continued with posters throughout the building and the branches, a staff book titled Your health is all that matters that was handed out to every staff member, countless internal workshops hosted by the Meerkats planning department and a massive staff launch.