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Media Event Planning
Situation: Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute (LBJI), an orthopedic clinic, had just completed a new, state-of-the-art medical facility that would serve as the primary clinic for their growing practice. They needed a way to raise awareness of their new location and growing list of services amongst both referring doctors and the community at large. This move also correlated with a name change, from Valparaiso Orthopedic to Lakeshore Bone & Joint Institute, and the publicity needed to be geared towards strengthening this new brand identity.
Response: We organized a Grand Opening Weekend featuring a “VIP Open House/Media Briefing” for referring doctors and the press on Friday evening, and a Community Open House for the general public the following day. The Community Open House was held concurrent to a series of free health seminars, given by the doctors of LBJI, also open to the public. Along with our valued partners at Fusion Design we utilized Public Relations, radio spots, newspaper ads and a very original VIP invitation to generate knowledge and excitement about this event.
Rationale: Instead of trying to cater to two very different publics at the same event, this two-day format allowed us to specifically target each group. Referring doctors received personalized attention and information about the facilities and it’s staff of doctors and nurses while community members were educated regarding how LBJI could benefit them.
Results: Over 400 doctors and their spouses attended the VIP event and
In just over a month we received $33,132 worth of local and national media coverage, with features running both in local newspapers and national medical magazines. The formal, Friday night VIP event provided a time for orthopedic surgeons and referring doctors to mingle and take informal tours of the new facility. The following day, over #_____ community members were taken on guided tours, given information about the clinic and were given the chance to win various door prizes.
Editorial Supplements Promote “Soft” Product Awareness
Situation: A well established RV, Marine and Automotive & Van conversion manufacturer, Starcraft, had the standard Public Relations system steady and in place, but were seeking other affordable means of brand building exposure for the RV, Van and Marine lifestyle.
Response: By forming a co-op with other non-competing outdoor/recreational product manufacturers such as fishing equipment and camping accessories manufacturers, we helped Starcraft to produce a nationally distributed supplement (we now suggest the use of cd-roms) containing hands-on editorial features that provided even greater customer exposure.
Rationale: This supplement provides freelance and outdoor writers, newspaper special section and magazine editors with a wide variety of editorial copy and photography to run for free in their publications. This type of passive promotion is viewed as more “objective” than traditional forms of advertising and promotion, purveying the manufacturer as an expert in the field and solidly reinforcing the brand name under the radar.
Results: In just one year, the Starcraft RV division lifestyle features ran in over 400 newspapers across the country, with a total circulation of over 6 million readers. Numerous regional recreational magazines also used these well-researched practical features with themes like, “Traveling with Your Dog”, “Food Preparation & Storage on the Road”, “Winter Driving Tips for RV Enthusiasts” and “Tips for Traveling with Kids”.
White Papers
Situation: Gaska Tape, an industrial foam and gasket manufacturer was receiving a tremendous number of leads regarding the rollout of a new high-tech foam tape product. Classic Media Release systems provided 2,800 B2B leads in one year alone, but although the sales team was using these leads to successfully close deals with new, many times they ended up selling engineers lower line products rather than the phenomenal, and more profitable, new high-tech foam. The sales team wanted a marketing approach that would pre-qualify better leads for both the profitable new product and new industry niches.
Response: Our solution was to develop a series of “white paper” technical brochures that showcased actual customer case studies and provided specific solutions. These brochures were then used in tandem with media relations. We distributed press releases to specific market niche editors, announcing that these case study white papers were now available to their readership of engineers, specifying designers and purchasing agents.
Rationale: This approach targets specific markets, en masse, through trade publications. It has proven extremely successful in pre-qualifying leads, for specific high-end products, that sales teams can then follow up on. Leads generated off of published press release articles announcing the availability of industry white papers result leads who are pre-qualified and already educated about the product when they receive the sales call.
Results: This approach resulted in engineers ordering free copies of the brochures to educate themselves about this complex, high-tech product. The phones began to ring with highly qualified leads, already knowledgeable about the company’s products. These brochures also doubled as sales leave-behinds, show handouts and fulfillment devices.
Educational Marketing
Situation: St. Joseph Regional Health Systems’ Women’s Task Force in South Bend, Indiana produced a regional broadcast campaign to fight colorectal cancer that enjoyed great local success. The health system then decided to find a way to share their program and help other communities fight this tragic disease. Our job was to design a campaign that would make these Public Service Announcement (PSA) spots easily available, as well as alerting individuals and organizations of this fact.
Response: We designed a website, “poopisthescoop.com”, that provides downloadable, broadcast quality PSA’s to news stations and cancer foundations and organizations. The spots were also viewable on the site for the media to preview and cover.
To draw press coverage and alert interested individuals of the availability of this free, cancer fighting campaign, we published an announcement on the news wire, getting the word out to over 5,000 media outlets worldwide.
Rationale: This type of publicity purveys clients as “experts in their field” and provides a system of broad exposure that can be expanded upon in future campaigns. This broad appeal is also effective in energizing volunteer organization, helping to ingratiate companies to their local communities. This combination of traditional and wire releases, in correlation with a 24/7 online fulfillment device, has proven an extremely effective educational marketing strategy. With the growth of broadband technologies, this method of PSA distribution via the Internet is also expanding.
Results: This program was featured on websites such as Yahoo, Biospace, and CBS as well as research databases such as Lexis-Nexis. To date, the campaign has over 200,000 targeted impressions from the Internet alone. Over 150 media outlets visited the site with many downloading the PSA’s for potential use. These downloads ranged from neighboring states such as Wisconsin to locations as far away as Egypt and France.
Building Long-Term Media Relationships
Situation: RV, Marine and Automotive & Van conversion manufacturer, Starcraft, was interested in building long-term relationships with members of the media who covered their particular market niches.
Response: We accomplished this by orchestrating on-site “Photo Opportunities” during the field-testing “Breakout Days” of Writers Association conferences. Typically, there is a great deal of equipment from sponsoring manufacturers being showcased at these events. Starcraft enhanced their presence by setting up a booth that allowed writers to direct their own photo shoots, using a professional photographer and models, and leave the conference with high-resolution images to match their current story ideas.
Rationale: Starcraft made the attending members of the press an offer they could not refuse. Gathering the information and accompanying photography needed to write a feature about a Starcraft product was too easy to pass up. It set Starcraft apart from the other sponsors at the show by providing a useful and appreciated service to attendees.
Results: Starcraft was able to build goodwill and long-term relationships with key members of the media. Unique opportunities for product testing and consignment in the field also resulted from cooperation with various writer’s organizations and conference sponsorships.
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