Media Case Study – PR vs Advertising

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

The week of September 19th was a big week for Macias PR. Our team secured a total of 14 news stories with local and national news outlets in TV, print, radio and online publications for clients in healthcare, health tech, finance and mobile apps.

Local TV played a crucial role with our team’s success, securing local TV segments in New York, Miami, Phoenix and San Antonio. On Friday, September 23rd, our team secured a TV segment on the PIX 11 Morning News for our health tech client, MD Acne. We also secured that same day a story on NBC 6 in South Florida for our nonprofit client, VAREP.

But Phoenix and San Antonio proved to be an even bigger week for our team. In Phoenix, we secured publicity for a mobile app on four different TV stations in Phoenix: 3TV, CBS 5, ABC 15 and a live morning segment on Good Morning Arizona. That’s right, you heard us right – four different local TV stations. We also secured two TV segments on two different TV stations in San Antonio with KENS 5 and KSAT 12, as well as stories with the San Antonio Current Magazine and KYKX radio.

Media Case Study – The ROI of PR vs Advertising

So how much would have these media campaigns cost if they were run as advertising campaigns?

Macias PR put together an ROI Cost Comparison of these two local media campaigns. We compared ad rates and ad times to the equivalent air time spent during these newscasts. I’m sure after reading this cost analysis case study, you will see why Macias PR was named the top PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA by Finance Monthly and the 2016 top Financial PR Firm of the Year – USA. We were the only PR firm in the US honored with this recognition.

Here here to Click here to Read our Media Case Study – PR vs Advertising

Macias PR was named the 2016 “Financial PR Firm of the Year – USA” and the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” by Finance Monthly. We have launched and led media campaigns for clients in healthcare, finance, tech and the nonprofit sectors. The founder of Macias PR – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He is also a PR contributor with CNBC, providing media analysis, insight and crisis advice on timely business topics.

Publicity for Mobile Apps – Media Strategy

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

It’s getting harder to secure publicity for mobile apps because the competition for news coverage is getting tighter. These days, many companies – including Macias PR – have mobile apps to help with business development and they’re all reaching out to reporters, trying to get their story on the news.

In the case with Macias PR, our team created The Publicity App, which helps businesses identify their news narrative in the B2B space. Our other mobile app, Blush No More, is a communications app designed to help consumers with talking points when the conversations lag.

Publicity for your Mobile App

Businesses are quickly learning it’s not easy getting their app coverage with the media. In the last month alone, I spoke to roughly 25-30 entrepreneurs, asking us for help promoting their mobile apps. One of those mobile apps was for a mortgage lender who wanted to get his story in front of veterans, reservists and military families.

The VA Loan App is a great mobile tool that helps veterans, reservists and active military save potentially hundreds of dollars a month, via the VA Loan program. We launched this media campaign last week and have already secured a TV story on Channel 3 and CBS 5. ABC 15 is scheduled to run a story on the mobile app in the next few days. Now, we’re in the process of selling this story to Univision, which has a larger reach than many English speaking TV stations in Phoenix.

Our team also pulled a few insider strategies to maximize that news exposure. A few of those news organizations syndicated the story, giving the VA Loan App even more exposure.

What does this PR campaign mean for your mobile app?

Mobile apps are great tools for promoting your business. If you’re in the service sector – like any lawyer, accountant, etc – a media campaign around a mobile app can raise the profile of your business. Healthcare apps are also full of potential leveraging PR.

And if you don’t have a mobile app yet, don’t worry. Macias PR can help with that. Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to discuss a detailed media strategy for your mobile app.

Does Personality help with Healthcare PR?

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

Personality helps in life, but don’t rely on a bubbly personality to secure healthcare or health tech media placements. When it comes to stories of substance, a deep understanding of media strategy leads to medical coverage.

Earlier this morning, I spoke with a dermatologist who told me she spent “a lot of money” on her last PR firm and “they delivered nothing.” She went on to tell me how her PR firm couldn’t get her skin services publicity with TV or print.

Why Experience Matters with Health Tech and Healthcare PR

When it comes to securing stories with the media, medical stories are always a harder sell than traditional news stories because they are more complicated and have larger ramifications. It’s one thing to get a new dating app or restaurant app in the news because those stories likely won’t destroy the health of a person. But with medical and health tech stories, the potential for harm is a factor with editorial.

For example, we led a media campaign last year for a prominent healthcare center, Burke Rehabilitation Center, that published a study on how a lack of Vitamin B shows up in Alzheimer’s patients. Even though the study was published by a reputable organization, it was not yet peer-reviewed and as a result, the news organizations were slower and more cautious to pursue the story.

As one medical reporter told me, we don’t want to give false hope to people suffering from Alzheimer’s that Vitamin D will save them. As I was pitching this medical reporter, I used his concern to pivot to how Vitamin D can help younger people now and reinforced the story sell with the hospital’s distinguished record and long history. For the record, we did end up securing several stories and video segments on that study, including a big story with the Wall Street Journal.

A Great Personality Doesn’t Secure News Stories with Healthcare Reporters

But we didn’t use a bubbly personality or smiling face to get that story on the news. It was a serious conversation that involved substance. We secured the big media placements by selling these medical reporters on the details from the study and by communicating its impact on society.

So the next time you meet with a PR firm over your healthcare or health tech PR needs, make sure you aren’t seduced by personality or looks.

Health Tech PR – Why Experience Matters

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

Medical and health reporters are typically the most experienced journalists in the newsroom. Their experience and understanding of medical studies runs deep and that will play a critical factor in the success of your health tech or healthcare media campaign.

You can’t approach these medical reporters with a story that is half-baked or full of fluff. You need to identify the research and understand it from a news editorial perspective before you even get on the phone with them. And when products aren’t yet peer reviewed, your publicist needs to identify unique story angles that can still position your brand on the news.

Why Experience Matters with Health Tech and Healthcare PR

During my time with NBC, I oversaw the medical and health units, approving the scripts and story ideas of reporters and producers in those units. Our three medical reporters all had post-graduate degrees from Ivy-League schools. Likewise, our medical producer had more than a decade of news experience in New York. These reporters and producers could see a bad medical story idea within the first three sentences.

This is why it is so important to make sure your publicist has experience when it comes to pitching your health tech or healthcare company. PR teams only get one shot with these medical reporters and if your publicist doesn’t present the story accurately or succinctly, reporters will be less likely to listen to their pitches in the future.

So as you begin vetting potential publicists to sell your health tech or healthcare ideas to the media, don’t assume a bubbly personality will get you on the news. It’s not youth or personality that persuades these experienced medical reporters. It’s a solid understanding of the news angle that succeeds with media placements.

Healthcare PR – The first 60 Days of your Campaign Launch

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

You will always perform better in team sports and business when you have a game plan in place. It’s no different with healthcare PR, especially when a media launch involves different messages from different departments.

In healthcare PR, a 60-day game plan becomes even more significant because it typically requires a better understanding of the research and/or data needed to launch the media campaign. If you’re getting close to launching a healthcare or healthtech media campaign, here are five items to line up before your official product or service launch with the media.

Your Healthcare PR Plan

Data – If you’re using any data for your media campaign, make sure you acquire it before your campaign starts. Data can take days or weeks, and there is nothing worse than waiting to launch a PR campaign because the data isn’t available.
Product Availability – This might sound like common sense, but make sure your product is available for the public during your media launch. If you plan on updating the product in the few weeks after the media campaign, consider promoting the more updated product version with the media and brand it as an advanced look at the upgraded product.
Line up your Experts – Healthtech products and services require experts to explain how it impacts consumers’ lives. Make sure your expert speaking about your product or service is vetted and knowledgeable on the topic. Investors don’t count as experts. If you’re pitching a healthtech app, reporters don’t want to speak with your investor relations person. They will want to interview the person behind the technology.
Source your Research – If you’re making healthcare claims, you better source your material because any solid reporter, including inexperienced reporters, will want to hear about the research behind the product or service.
Identify Potential Clients or Customers for the Narrative – The best PR stories are told by others. If you can line up customers, patients or enterprises who use your product or service, your story will sound stronger (and less like an advertisement) when you pitch health, medical and tech reporters.

Healthcare PR – Pitching Medical Reporters

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

The bar for securing healthcare and health tech stories is much more difficult with local and national news outlets, which means your media strategy and editorial campaign need to be that much stronger from the start.

Generally speaking, healthcare and medical reporters are more educated and more suspicious of stories that aren’t backed by science or peer-reviewed studies. Yes, that is a very broad statement but during my time with NBC and CBS in New York (as an Executive Producer and Senior Producer respectively), as well as my journalism years in Phoenix and Miami – I repeatedly observed how medical and health reporters analyzed story ideas with more skepticism.

This difference in editorial style was even more pronounced in New York.

Healthcare PR in New York

During my time as Executive Producer with NBC, I oversaw the consumer, health and medical units, approving scripts and story ideas from producers and reporters. It was much harder to sell medical reporters on news stories. Even when I – as their boss – wanted to pursue a medical story, I frequently had to sell the medical reporters on the substance or research behind the story.

These reporters were also more educated. The medical and health reporters with NBC all had post-graduate degrees that included an MD from Harvard, an MD from Yale and a PhD from Princeton. The medical reporters at CBS also had MD and experience in the hospital.

I’m sharing this information not to brag, but to help you see that if you want to run any media campaign targeting the health or medical reporters, you must make sure your media strategy is full of substance. Don’t think you can get away with fluff, or internal science that has little merit outside of your company.

Take the time to identify strong editorial angles that are backed with objective research. If you take these initial steps before you launch your healthcare or health tech PR campaign, you will have more success with your media placements.

Healthcare PR – Do Press Releases work?

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

There is a belief in healthcare PR that press releases posted on the PR newswires can get your story on the news. Don’t be misled by those promises from your PR firm or the PR newswires that these news releases will lead to media coverage.

Healthcare reporters and producers are highly suspicious of any form of advertisements. They are typically the most educated and least susceptible to press releases that make bold claims. Every healthcare reporter knows press releases on the PR newswires are nothing more than advertising.

During my time as an Executive Producer with NBC, I oversaw the consumer, health and medical units. I approved the story ideas from producers and reporters, and I signed off on their scripts. It was much easier to get stories by the consumer unit than the medical unit.

In the case with NBC, I worked with an MD from Harvard, an MD from Yale and a PhD from Princeton. All three of these medical correspondents could identify BS stories a mile away. There is no chance in the world these medical and science reporters were going to the PR newswires to look for story ideas. They go to the medical journals first.

Press Releases Don’t Work with Healthcare PR

If you’re trying to get a healthcare or medical story on the news, don’t waste your time with press releases distributed by PR newswires. You will have more success by identifying the true news narrative and reaching out to the reporter or producer directly.

And do your homework before you pitch. If the medical or healthcare reporter is an MD, you should expect the bar to be higher. That means – no hype. Tell it like it is and your story will have more credence from the start.

Top 10 Healthcare PR Firms – The Back Story

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

Type in “top 10 healthcare pr firms,” “top 10 tech pr firms”, or any other “top 10 pr firms” derivative and you will see different websites that rank PR firms. The top-10 lists lead consumers and business owners to believe that PR firms are ranked by a legitimate source, but here’s the inside scoop.

These lists are paid placements. That’s right, PR firms pay to be on that list. I know because they emailed my PR firm and asked if we wanted to pay to be on their top-10 list.

My firm passed on this offer because we had already won the 2015 “PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA” award – and that was an authentic honor given by researchers and journalists with Finance Monthly. Not some made-up site that gives away awards based on money.

Top-10 PR Lists are Paid Placements

10BestPR is actually an incredibly smart idea. Consumers love to break down products and services by rankings, so why not assume they will do the same when researching their PR firms? Hopefully, most entrepreneurs and business owners will dig a little deeper than these top-10 PR lists.

Do your own homework. Ask the PR firm for a media strategy, ask to see their case studies and speak directly with the media strategist who will lead your PR campaign.

But even if you don’t have the time for that, please, please, please don’t fall for any top-10 PR website list. You’re smarter than that.

Healthcare PR – Is Bigger, Better?

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

If you type top-10 healthcare PR firms on Google, you will see websites that rank PR firms by revenue. Edelman PR is at the top of the list bringing in $854 million as a whole and $154 million as a healthcare PR division. But do the bigger healthcare PR firms deliver more media placements than smaller, boutique PR firms?

Unless you’re Coca-Cola or Walmart, those types of retainer fees are reserved for the multi-nationals and publicly traded companies who can afford to pay $100-thousand-plus a month for PR representation.

If you’re like most businesses, you don’t have $25 thousand dollars a month for a retainer fee. Your total yearly marketing budget is probably closer to $25 thousand for the year. Here’s the good news.

You Don’t Need to Hire a Big PR Firm

Don’t be deceived by those big numbers.

PR is not about numbers. It’s about MEDIA strategy.

A short time after I left CBS, I consulted two global PR firms under NDAs. Both were big names in the industry. This experience allowed me to see how they work from the inside. It was eye-opening how little media strategy and knowledge these PR teams have. I’m not saying that to disparage their PR expertise. I’m trying to shed light that these PR firms bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars a year are not bringing the equivalent market value to their clients.

Inside Story of how Big PR Firms Work

Throwing bodies at problems doesn’t work in corporate America, and it doesn’t work in PR. More people on a project just causes more bickering, debate (which can be good, but typically leads to a stalemate). It also ignites poor communications channels.

I saw that consulting these global PR firms. Politics set in as SVPs questioned who this former media guy was (ME) – with no PR experience – telling them what to do. They thought they had to know more about PR based on their decade long career in the industry. They didn’t realize or understand how every morning I pitched story ideas and got real-time feedback from journalists and news managers.

If you have a PR budget, don’t assume that you need more bodies to succeed on a project. You need a solid media strategist and a team to execute. If bodies thrown at a problem with your business don’t work, assume the same with your PR firm.

Healthcare PR – Strategies to Get your Healthcare Organization on the News

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias

How do you get your healthcare or healthtech business on the news?

If there were a news algorithm to that formula, trust me, the code would have been hacked and posted already. However, there are ways to increase your chances for coverage with the healthcare media by following a few strategies.

4 Strategies for Healthcare PR

Don’t Use Medical Jargon – Poor communications is one of the biggest reasons most solid news stories are ignored by the media. The reporter or producer simply didn’t understand the story. This is usually because the healthcare journalist was lost during the definitions. If you are looking to hire a healthcare PR firm, make sure your potential PR partner doesn’t use medical jargon to communicate with reporters. Get a solid understanding in how your PR firm is pitching your healthcare services to the media because if outsiders don’t understand it, your media campaign will fail. Sure, a few healthcare reporters deep in medical jargon may understand the story with medical jargon, but in today’s media landscape, those people are rare. Always communicate complicated healthcare stories in simple ways that any general consumer reporters will understand.
Alert the Media – Many healthcare organizations believe in press releases and the PR Newswires will thank you for it. Here’s my take on that. No healthcare reporter or producer is going to the PR Newswires to find a story idea. If you want the media to hear about your press release, you need to alert them to it. That means calling, or emailing them. Don’t wrongly assume an expensive press release will motivate the healthcare journalists to call you.
Stay on Top of the Healthcare News Cycle – During my time as a Senior Producer with CBS in New York, I always tried to read JAMA and all the other trade journals. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to read every journal and frequently, I would miss solid, timely story ideas because I was never alerted to the news. If your industry has a solid report coming out in the trade journals, make sure you alert the healthcare writers to it. Email them the study and explain in a simple and easy to understand way – why this news impacts their readers.
Relationships Matter – I always say that media contacts are not a media strategy. They are an assist. A good reporter contact will be more receptive, but that being said, a large portion of our media placements in healthcare, finance, tech and other industries were secured without ever meeting the reporter in person. But in healthcare, it is a little different. Relationships with journalists matter more with the healthcare media. Healthcare reporters frequently have to turn more enterprise stories than traditional news reporters and that requires a steady flow of ideas. Healthcare is usually a specialty so if you are in the know of healthcare trends, you will have an edge with these types of campaigns. This is why even when I don’t have a healthcare client to pitch, I always make sure our team continually communicates solid news ideas to the various healthcare and medical reporters. It also makes them more receptive to our pitches when we are pitching our own clients.