Tag: best health care pr agencies

Case Study: How We Helped a Client Increase Brand Awareness by 400%

Posted on by Mark Macias

Many potential clients assume MACIAS PR only works with large health care brands. Yes, we have run media and branding campaigns for large tech and health care companies, but we’ve also launched publicity campaigns for boot-strapped startups.

Find Your Trainer is a mobile app that matches consumers with physical trainers. The boot-strapped startup was only 5-months old when MACIAS PR launched their publicity campaign.

Goal: To increase app downloads and bookings for their physical trainers during the holiday shopping season. We positioned Find Your Trainer as a unique start-up that was reinventing the fitness industry – just as Uber and Seamless had reinvented their industries. 

Challenges: Find Your Trainer had no media coverage or messaging in place when MACIAS PR took over their publicity campaign. Our team had to identify editorial angles to pitch to the media with little help from the founder. In addition, the mobile app was only in NYC, limiting our media exposure to primarily one media market. MACIAS PR had less than a month to identify the message and get the timely story out to consumers.

Strategy: Position the mobile app as a great gift idea for couples. Messaging: Here’s a gift to help your out-of-shape partner lose weight. We also highlighted how this mobile app enabled consumers to try out the best gyms without pricy membership plans. The founder also gave fitness advice to targeted health sites.

Results: This publicity campaign succeeded with local and national media, securing media coverage with targeted TV, newspapers, magazines and influential lifestyle websites. The founder of Find Your Trainer told a reporter  in January that he saw a 400-percent increase in sign-ups from December to January, largely based on our organic media coverage.

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Will AI Replace Publicists? A Closer Look at What the Data Says

Posted on by Mark Macias

Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote an article for Forbes that predicted the future of PR and AI.

We’re still in agreement today that AI will make life easier for publicists. Machine learning will continue to help content creators and publicists develop content faster. But at the root of my Forbes article was a bold prediction that AI won’t replace publicists over the next 10 years.

Here’s why I still stand by that prediction three years after making it.

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Client Case Study: Health Care Services

Posted on by Mark Macias

A health care services consulting firm approached MACIAS PR a few months after they launched their startup. The founder wanted help elevating her brand and introducing her services to social workers and new clients.

Our team developed and executed this publicity campaign from conception to execution. We identified story angles of interest; positioned the CEO as as a leading health care expert; coordinated interviews; prepped the founder for all media interviews; and identified reporter and media outlets of interest.

Goal: To increase brand awareness and generate revenue around the company’s health care services.

Challenges: The health care startup was only a few months old with a founder who was extremely busy building a company. The CEO had no experience dealing with the media, coming from the health care sector.

Strategy: Position the CEO with the media as the health care expert on everything related to Medicaid and Medicare.

Tactics:

  1. Identify solid news angles that resulted in coverage.
  2. Position CEO as strategic thought leader in health care.
  3. Identify key media contacts at relevant publications.
  4. Pitch stories that were timely, newsworthy, and of interest to the targeted audience.
  5. Follow up with reporters, answer their questions, and continue to push relevant new topics for coverage.
  6. Track coverage and measure results

Media Results

This PR campaign resulted in local and national media coverage, including stories with The New York Times, US News & World Report, Forbes, New York Post, CBS 2 and PIX 11 TV in New York. This coverage helped generate growth and services expansion within the first 6 months of working together. 

A few months into the campaign, MACIAS PR created a mobile app for the company – The Medicaid app. This new digital tool created a new pipeline for potential clients. MACIAS PR conceptualized the mobile app and created the content that helped families and patients navigate through the complicated government services.

The Medicaid App also enabled us to position the health care services as a tech player, which generated additional media exposure.

Key Takeaways:

  • Securing stories in the media is an effective way to increase brand awareness and generate positive buzz around a product or service.
  • To be successful, PR campaigns should be well-planned and executed, with a focus on targeting the right media outlets and pitching stories that are timely, newsworthy, and of interest to the target audience.
  • Following up with media contacts and tracking coverage is essential to ensure that a PR campaign is successful.

You can see more of the media coverage below. Click here if you’d like to get a PR estimate, or contact us to schedule a call.

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Hire a Generalist or Specialist PR Agency? Analysis on Approach

Posted on by Mark Macias

MACIAS PR has run media and branding campaigns for clients across industries: health care, technology, nonprofits, real estate, politics. In multiple ways, we have taken a generalist and specialist PR to each campaign – based on the need.

Despite the diversity of clients, one common thread remains consistent. We have delivered top tier media placements for our clients with the most influential news organizations.

It doesn’t matter if our clients are promoting the latest tech wearable, pushing a cause or selling health services to businesses. We have relationships with media outlets and reporters in all of these industries.

Generalist or Specialist PR Agency

Potential clients frequently assume that a specialist PR agency from their specific industry will deliver better results.

In my experiences inside the media and as the owner of this PR agency, I’d say the better framed question revolves around how much each PR agency knows about your industry.

I’ve written extensively for Forbes on what to look for when hiring a publicist. You can read that thought leadership here. And whether it is better to hire an East Coast, West Coast or local PR firm. (Read that insight here)

Regardless of your industry, I frequently tell my friends if I had to hire a PR agency for my firm, I’d always go with the generalist who understands my industry.

This generalist approach always gives MACIAS PR an advantage with reporters. Our team speaks with dozens or reporters and producers on any given day. This exposure gives us more opportunities to repackage and sell other clients’ stories on these calls.

But don’t take my word for it. Instead, evaluate our media deliverables.

You can read our client case studies from different industries on the following links: health care, technology, mobile apps, consumer wearables, real estate, nonprofits, physicians, consumer services, B2B health tech and politics.

If you’d like to see a case study for your industry, just message us and we can share more.

ABOUT MACIAS PR

Marketing peers named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year. The founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. City & State Magazine named him a PR Political Power Player in New York.

Client Case Study – Health Tech Wearable

Posted on by Mark Macias

In September 2018, the founder of a Korean-based health tech startup approached MACIAS PR for help promoting his smart belt wearable.

The founder had hired a different PR agency earlier in the year to promote their wearable at CES 2018 but didn’t get any traction. He was hoping our agency could promote the exact same wearable at CES 2019. He heard about our agency from another Korean entrepreneur who had worked with us.

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Case Study – Media Campaign for Nutrition App

Posted on by Mark Macias

When MACIAS PR started working with Lifesum in the summer of 2019, the nutrition app was nowhere on the national radar. Their US office in Los Angeles had only 3 people – and no one was in PR or marketing. 

This lean US operation enabled us to run as a PR firm, especially as their leadership team in Sweden gave us the green light to pursue creative ideas.

Our first media placement for the nutrition app was on Channel 11 in New York City. The TV segment compared the price and offerings of Lifesum versus their bigger, more expensive competitors. It was an objective look at what the various health apps offer and which provided the best value. Lifesum scored at the top of this analysis. Our TV segment also featured a Lifesum user who talked about how she lost weight and got healthier with the app.

Bringing more exposure to this story, MACIAS PR worked to get this story syndicated with the Tribune network. It’s an insider strategy we used based on our founder’s experience with the NBC, ABC and CBS affiliate feeds. The TV segment introduced Lifesum to a national audience.

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Case Study – Health Tech Startup Launch

Posted on by Mark Macias

MACIAS PR has run media campaigns for many large digital health companies – like Noom, WellRx and Lifesum – but we’ve also launched publicity campaigns for smaller health tech startups.

A few years ago, the Israeli startup, MDAcne, approached MACIAS PR for help with raising the profile of their mobile app in the US. The founders said they wanted to increase their downloads and establish new B2B partnerships with dermatologists.

It was a challenging campaign from the start because the digital health company didn’t have any employees in the US. Their two founders were father and son, busy running the business, so the entire media workload and strategy was on our shoulders. They also didn’t understand the complicated US consumer market and didn’t have a spokesperson. 

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Case Study – Media Campaigns for Congressional Candidates

Posted on by Mark Macias

Media campaigns for politicians can be some of the most difficult campaigns to run. Journalists can spot a politician’s agenda a mile away and don’t want to be a tool for their propaganda.

At the same time, newsrooms can’t give one candidate a larger voice over another for fear of alienating viewers. There are also FEC and FCC laws that must be followed by news organizations.

This is why it’s so important to focus on the news angle when trying to get media coverage for candidates. Marketing messages don’t work with reporters, so throw out those talking points. Thought leadership typically works best, while soft features are rarely successful in larger media markets.

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Media Case Study: Rarely Discussed Medical Condition

Posted on by Mark Macias

Have you heard of the inflammatory health condition, encephalitis? Less than 1 percent of the American population has heard of it, so imagine the challenge of promoting this condition to the media.

In November 2022, the CEO of the Encephalitis Society approached MACIAS PR, asking if we could help promote World Encephalitis Day in February. Adding to their challenging assignment, we were asked if we could also target Canada and Mexico with this publicity campaign.

Mission accomplished. 

Our team ended up securing 23 prominent media placements across North America, 14 media stories in Mexico and 102 digital media stories placed with online publications. You can click here to read that media report.

Encephalitis-Study-Media-CoverageDownload

So how did we do it? This case study takes a closer look at our approach. It’s a strategy we can also take with your healthcare campaign, regardless of how remote the condition is.

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CASE STUDY – Media Campaign for Digital Health Brand

Posted on by Mark Macias

Many consumers have heard of the popular weight loss program, Noom, but back in 2016, the brand had little name recognition. But that began to change when MACIAS PR took over their publicity after their previous PR agency failed to deliver.

This case study looks at how MACIAS PR helped elevate the digital health coach via the media. It details the challenges we faced from the start and the deliverables we secured over our 3+ year relationship. You can also read a Linkedin testimonial from the CEO and co-founder of the company on his experiences working with Mark Macias.

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