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 a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team. And now they’re on the Philadelphia Union, with 14-year-old Cavan recently making international headlines by becoming the youngest professional athlete in history and agreeing to play for 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. Due to my background in sports writing, I was brought in to craft the scripts and participate in every aspect of the commercial’s production.

And Hometown Promise was born.

The campaign is slated to continue in 2025 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.

A second script was written in which the Sullivans tell their own story within a hybrid-documentary format. The spot was recorded during the shoot and is currently set to be produced at a later date.

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 actual 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.

What’s ahead

Not only is Hometown Promise expected to continue as a campaign, but it helped the agency retain IBX’s business — with me serving as the new lead writer on the account.