Blue Shield of California Foundation retained our team to raise their profile as healthcare thought leaders spearheading policy change throughout California and across the nation. To do this, we implemented a multi-pronged approach to the challenge. First, we worked with the CEO to develop a positioning platform, identify and secure speaking opportunities, and craft talking points for key audiences. We also developed commentaries on relevant topics that we placed in publications that reached national, policy, and business media as well as philanthropic audiences.
A change in leadership spurred a strategic repositioning of the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), which promotes independent, nonpartisan research and analysis on the drivers of U.S. health spending. HCCI enlisted our team to develop a proactive media relations strategy to position the organization as the source for data on the issue and to raise the profile of the leadership team as subject-matter experts among policy and general audiences. As part of our efforts, we worked with HCCI to release six issue briefs and reports on topics such as cost of diabetes drugs, shift to outpatient care settings, and high-deductible health plans. Our efforts resulted in more than 1,100 story placements and an estimated audience reach of 670 million.
Whether it is managing conflicts of interest, containing a media firestorm, navigating a merger, or transitioning a CEO, our team regularly works with medical societies, foundations, and health systems to effectively handle hot-button issues. Our strategy includes both internal and external audiences, and is grounded in message testing, spokesperson training, influencer engagement, and rapid-response media relations.
Our team joined forces with Digestive Disease Week (DDW), the world’s largest annual gathering of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy, and gastrointestinal surgery researchers, to raise the national visibility of cutting-edge science from four medical societies, including the American Gastroenterological Association. Working closely with the DDW team, we annually review hundreds of technical scientific abstracts and identify the most newsworthy research to promote in the national media. In this effort, we create a media campaign that employs multi-faceted strategies to ensure hundreds of quality stories in local, trade, and national news outlets.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a hidden threat to millions of aging Americans and has become the second-leading cause of cancer fatalities in the U.S. Because regular screening examinations are arguably the most powerful weapon for preventing and treating CRC, the American Gastroenterological Association engaged our team to develop a series of animated patient-education videos that combined education with entertainment aimed at people approaching age 50. In just one month, our digital efforts generated nearly 500,000 video views, including more than 16,000 video completions; more than 42 million impressions; and the addition of 20,000 new visitors to the campaign microsite.
The Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) engaged our team to help drive attention around their annual Family Advocacy Day (FAD) event in Washington, D.C., and to publicize the importance of funding for Medicaid and for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program, which supports medical education for doctors who treat the most vulnerable populations. To create news around FAD, we connected public policy platforms with vital social issues to show the impact these doctors have on patient care. We placed commentaries in top-tier policy and healthcare outlets, including Morning Consult and Modern Healthcare. Working with CHA’s team, we created two issue briefs and conducted targeted outreach to reporters covering healthcare, policy, and pediatrics. We secured a feature story in STAT News, a blog post in Scary Mommy, and coverage in Becker’s Hospital Review and Pediatrics Today SmartBrief.