Independence Blue Cross — “Hometown Promise”

Quinn and Cavan Sullivan are Philly soccer royalty. Their parents played at Penn — their mother a team captain, their father an All-Ivy League selection. Their grandfather played at Temple and coached at Villanova. Their cousin was on the U.S. Men’s National Team. And now they play for the Philadelphia Union in the MLS, with 14-year-old Cavan making international headlines in 2024 by becoming the youngest professional athlete in history and agreeing to join Manchester City when he turns 18.

Independence Blue Cross asked us to tell the story of how, as the region’s primary health insurance provider for 85 years, they’ve been with the Sullivans throughout their entire journeys. Because of my extensive background with sports writing, I was brought in to craft the scripts and participate in every facet of the commercial’s production including the shoot and editing.

And Hometown Promise was born.

The campaign launched in 2024 and continued through ’25, and is also noteworthy for being IBX’s first foray into celebrity endorsements. Spoiler alert: it won’t be the last.

(Art by Josh Lane)

TV script development

While the Sullivan brothers are the focus, IBX wanted to highlight how its members also played a role in their journeys. The resulting script is where the theme of Hometown Promise came from.

When local kids go pro in Philly, it’s a reflection of us all.
The youth coaches who taught them…
The trainers who made them stronger…
The family who always showed up…
And the hometown health insurer who covered them.
Independence Blue Cross had Quinn and Cavan Sullivan’s backs since day one.
Just like we have yours…And you have theirs.
Because we take care of our own here.

Storyboards

The original storyboards were created with a more emotionally resonant tone in mind. However, during editing an alternate version emerged with the exciting, upbeat music that’s used in the final cut — so the final spot wound up looking a bit different from what was envisioned prior to the shoot.

We also did not have the benefit of knowing what archival footage we would get from the family in advance, which was an interesting challenge to work around while constructing storyboards.

OOH

Billboards and more appeared throughout Philadelphia and IBX’s five-county footprint.

Result

After the spot’s success in 2024, IBX re-signed the Sullivans for the ’25-’26 season. It also helped the agency not only retain the account, which was in review at the time of concept development. And I went on to serve as lead writer across the account during the remainder of my time with Carmichael Lynch, working on digital ads, social media and pre-production for a documentary series.