Challenge
Integrate newly acquired employee population (who had been enrolling for benefits on paper forms) into organization’s sophisticated benefits education and enrollment platforms.
Solution
Smith’s client Aarons acquired BrandsMart USA in 2022 with 1,267 employees across 10 retail locations.
BrandsMart USA had no benefits communication philosophy, strategy, deliverables, or central hub for benefits communication. We created a one-page online portal that employees could refer to throughout the transition.
Aarons asked us to explain BrandsMart’s current benefits as well as how they would change as employees moved to the Aaron‘s platform. However, BrandsMart benefits would not be identical to Aaron’s benefits, and because Aaron’s wanted to maintain a BrandsMart identity, we created a new approach to communicating BrandsMart benefits and open enrollment.
The inspiration for the campaign was taken from mural art at BrandsMart USA headquarters, which featured superheroes. Smith wrote a comic book-inspired story about two BrandsMart superheroes, the Dynamic Duo, who fight Dr. Distraction.
Campaign deliverables includes an announcement postcard, poster, poster memo, enrollment benefits guide, incentive postcard, enrollment presentation, new hire presentation and new hire benefits guide. Materials were produced in both English and Spanish. Print materials were distributed at the store level and posted on the employee website.
