Super Hero Rescues Workers From Benefits Confusion: Idea File

A Captain Contributor FSA video (Image: DataPath)

U.S. employee benefits rules have turned into such a maze that the complexity is hurting use of flexible spending arrangements (FSAs), health savings accounts (HSAs) and other personal benefits account programs.

Employees, meanwhile, are busy and tired. Employers, and employers' plan enrollers and administrators, may have a hard time getting employees even to open benefits enrollment emails, let alone pay attention at a meeting for more than 15 minutes.

(Related: Why Life Insurers Are Talking About Gamification)

DataPath — a third party administrator (TPA) and benefits administration software firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas — has come up with a new tool for getting employees to pay attention: Captain Contributor.

Captain Contributor is a caped crusader who happens to have encyclopedic knowledge of employee benefits rules and programs.

Bo Armstrong, DataPath's chief marketing officer, said in a recent interview that the firm was able to bring Captain Contributor to life because it turned out to already have a skilled video producer and copy writer on its own 150-person staff, and because employees and employees' relatives enjoy serving as the voice actors.

Armstrong notes that DataPath is more interested in Captain Contributor's explanatory powers than in matters such as whether he can fly, or whether he has super strength or super eyes.

"Captain Contributor has whatever powers we happen to need him to have at the moment," Armstrong said.

When DataPath creates a new Captain Contributor video, it also gives Captain Contributor new super benefits information tools: a one-page fact sheet and a comic book.

Captain Contributor also posts regularly on his own social media accounts, and he answers questions posed through the social media channels, Armstrong said.

To give Captain Contributor a consistent voice, DataPath has the one copy writer write all of the super hero's dialog.

Because of that consistency, "it kind of feels like people are interacting with the person they saw in the video," Armstrong said.

Like Iron Man, Captain Contributor is a fully transparent super hero. DataPath has revealed his existence to marketing organizations. The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals recently gave The Adventures of Captain Contributor campaign its MarCom Gold Award. The National Health Information Awards program gave the campaign the 2018 NHIA Digital Health Gold Award and a bronze award in the Consumer Decision-Making Information category.