Media Relations - Ochsner Clinic Foundation

The Challenge:

The Ochsner Clinic Foundation, a nationally recognized leader in patient care and medical research, commissioned Bressler Advertising to develop and implement a six-month public relations campaign in January 2002. The main goal of the campaign was to raise awareness of the institution both nationally and regionally. Other objectives included:

  • Positioning Ochsner as one of the country’s premier medical institutions;
  • Establishing Ochsner as a leader in patient care, research and medical education; and
  • Raising the regional and national profile of Ochsner’s clinical expertise, particularly in cardiology, organ transplantation and oncology

Strategy:

We began by implementing a media relations program to position Ochsner as one of the premier medical centers in the Gulf South, regionally and nationally. In order to position Ochsner, we knew it was important to develop key messages that could be used throughout the public relations campaign as well as in media dealings. Four key messages were created:

  • Ochsner Clinic Foundation is a leader in medical research, with nearly 650 ongoing research trials/year and nearly 250 annual publications in medical literature.
  • Ochsner Clinic Foundation is one of the largest non-university based physician-training centers in the nation, with over 350 medical residents and 250 allied health students per year.
  • Ochsner Clinic Foundation is an internationally recognized leader in cardiac care as well as gastrointestinal diseases, diabetes and hypertension.
  • Dr. Alton Ochsner made the first discovery between tobacco and lung cancer in 1939.

These messages also successfully accomplished the goal of raising awareness concerning Ochsner’s pioneering efforts and innovative clinical programs and research.

Execution:

Bressler was challenged with the fact that while Ochsner Clinic enjoyed considerable success regionally, its name recognition in the media was relatively low nationally. Therefore, we created the Ochsner News Bureau as a primary public relations tactic, in order to elevate its profile in the media. The Ochsner News Bureau was strategic and proactive as well as ongoing and responsive to include both proactive and reactive outreaches to all genres of media (print, radio, television and online.)

Results:

We exceeded the original media placement goal of four hits per month, securing a minimum of ten placements per month- in several instances exceeding the original goal by performing up to five times stronger following the first six months of execution.

These placements included media outlets representing radio, television, online and print. As of October 2002, the number of secured media placements for the Ochsner Clinic Foundation totaled 12,600 with an approximate advertising value of $450,000. Examples of these top national placements include: USA Today, ABCNews.com, CNN.com, New York Post, New York Daily News, Self Magazine and WebMD.


Tagged: media relations, healthcare