Background

You’d need a microscope to find the fine line that exists between shouting into space about your healthtech freeware during COVID-19, and trying to show the difference the thing you’ve invented could possibly make, if given the chance. 

We’ve been giving the same advice to clients wanting to discuss their COVID-19 offerings. Most importantly, asking the question, if you go out with this, will you be able to fulfil your promises, on a doily-thin supply chain and reduced team? How will doing this affect your existing customers, what’s the focus there? And, most importantly from the media perspective, who has already benefitted from your decision to offer this, how are they using it, and what has it changed?

Challenge

Dan, CEO at Refero, got in touch just before we went into lockdown. Refero makes secure patient-clinician teleconference stuff. Video appointments, personal contact for people with mental and physical health professionals. 

But in early March, things became darker, and Dan knew that Refero’s tech was going to become not an alternative or a time and money saving choice, but a necessity; a utility. 

It became a sensitive campaign to pitch. To a medical professional, this is a solution to a problem. To a patient or relative, this is an alternative that in many cases, can’t replace what should have been. 

Results

We’ve worked with a press release on the offering itself, and several detailed briefings from Dan and Refero’s chief medical officer Dr Jackson.

Roy Lilley’s NHSmanagers.net site picked up the cause straight away, followed by Tier One health titles HSJ and Digital Health, as well as Raconteur and Computer Weekly.

As we widened the call to include free provisioning to local government and police forces, we spoke to UK Authority, Tomorrow’s Care, Police Professional and Police Oracle. 

It’s been constant, daily media relations work from Rebecca and Martine that has gotten us the reach and the 25 pieces of coverage in less than six weeks.