Bronze: Best Retail Campaign 2016

What sort of health fair should you expect from America’s biggest retailer? Only America’s Biggest Health Fair, of course. On Oct. 10, 2015, at 4,420 stores nationwide, Walmart held a four-hour event complete with product samples, health screenings, immunizations, and plenty of health and insurance information. Designed to reinforce Walmart’s position as a destination for health and wellness products and services, the event was scheduled for just prior to health insurers’ open-enrollment period, when healthcare was top of mind among consumers.

As well as signage and PR to promote the event ahead of time, agency Pierce and Walmart partnered with 14 NFL players. As well as appearing in select stores on the day of the health fair, the players took to social media with the #Just10 campaign, in which they encouraged followers to think of 10 activities that could be completed in less than 10 minutes to promote a healthier lifestyle.

Some of those activities, of course, included the vision, blood-pressure, and glucose screenings available at the stores during the event and onsite immunizations for the flu, pneumonia, shingles, and whooping cough. In addition, companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Bayer offered product demonstrations, licensed insurance agents from DirectHealth.com provided health insurance consultations, and greeters gave consumers coupons and samples.

The event generated 680 media stories, and 280,000 health screenings were administered. Roughly 1.5 million consumers engaged with the product demos, and 1.9 million samples were distributed.

What’s more, the health fair might have saved a few lives. One customer’s blood-pressure screening results were so high, the store helped get her hospitalized immediately; the woman’s doctors later said if she hadn’t received medical attention when she did, she likely would have had a heart attack in a few hours. Staff at another store called 911 for a customer whose blood pressure was also alarmingly high.