What you need to know:

• nib is pitching its media account, estimated to be worth $15 million.
• Essence - soon to be EssenceMediacom - is the incumbent, hoping to retain the account.
• The private health insurer recently launched a new brand platform via then-BWM Isobar, now Dentsu Creative.

Australian healthcare fund nib is reviewing its $15 million-plus media account, which is currently held by Essence – soon to be known as EssenceMediacom.

The private health insurer is one of the bigger players in the Australian market, ranking fourth by market share – 9.2 per cent, according to one estimate – with 1.7 million members.

In 2018, the company consolidated its media planning and buying into then Ikon, cutting out Atomic212° which had handled performance media. Ikon was then merged into AKQA Media, which was then merged into Essence. Globally, Essence will merge with Mediacom in a new unit known as EssenceMediacom, which will become a legal entity in January 2023.

“From time to time, nib reviews its supplier needs and requirements, as we change and grow as a brand and business,” Chris Donald, nib’s Head of Marketing, said.

“We don’t comment on our relationships or our processes with suppliers or partners, when we go out to the marketplace.”

It’s understood the account has come up after the standard four-year time frame, with other holdcos in the mix.

The insurer launched new work under the platform “Health First” with then Dentsu’s BWM Isobar, now Dentsu Creative, earlier this year after the agency won the creative account from Publicis’ Saatchi & Saatchi following a pitch. Saatchi & Saatchi had held the account since 2013.

The insurer also refreshed its brand with Landor & Fitch Australia, launched at the beginning of this year, developing a new colour palette and illustrations.  

"nib is on a bit of a journey to make a shift as a passive payer of health insurance to a more proactive health partner," Mitchell Leman, Media Marketing Manager at nib Group, told Mi3 in a podcast earlier this year. The brand was held up as an example of how an omnichannel campaign with multiple creative messages can achieve business outcomes.

"It's really about being able to be a more positive force in people's lives. So rather than a traditional health insurer, where we basically start our interaction with somebody at the point that they're already sick, how can we better partner with people to prevent those things from happening to them?... So for us, the brief really centred around finding meaningful ways with our media mix to connect with people in their everyday life."

EssenceMediacom’s parent company, GroupM, declined to comment on the review.