Why Should Patients Care?
 The
Challenge: Brown & Toland Medical Group, a partnership of physicians
from California Pacific Medical Center and UCSF Medical Center,
was planning a cocktail reception to mark the formal announcement
of the group's creation. The new medical group would be the largest
network of independent physicians in the Bay Area, but there was
little hard "news" as the plans previously had been announced.
The reception was scheduled for Thursday evening, an inconvenient
time for news media coverage.
The Solution: The solution was to
prepare a comprehensive press package, explaining the importance
of the new group and what it would mean to patients, to health plans
and to the businesses with major contracts for health insurance
for their employers. We offered advance interviews with Brown &
Toland officials, giving reporters a chance to have one-on-one interviews
at a convenient time and location. Reporters were invited to the
reception as a courtesy, but we expected that few would attend.
The project took place on a fast-track timetable.
The materials could not be completed until the weekend before the
event. we dropped the press package at the San Francisco Examiner
Saturday evening for a reporter to review on Sunday, prior to a
scheduled Monday morning interview. The reporter called on one of
our vice presidents at home early Sunday morning and asked if there
were a possibility of doing the interview that day. The reporter
said the press package indicated that Brown & Toland would be a
better story than her original Sunday assignment and stressed that
there would be an opportunity for better coverage in the Monday
newspaper. We located two executives of Brown & Toland, who agreed
to Sunday telephone interviews within the next two hours. This case
history shows not only the importance of a strong press package,
but the importance of off-hours availability by both public relations
representatives and client's executives.
Results: A lengthy, page-one story
appeared on Monday, and electronic media covered the story as a
follow-up to the print coverage. The stories explained in detail
the significance of the medical group. The advance publicity also
increased attendance at the reception, positioning it in the minds
of invitees as an important event.
<back to case
study index> <next case
study>
|
