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Tipsforenteringawardsprograms

VincentRhodes,PhD,APRChiefCommunica5ons&Marke5ngOfficerEasternVirginiaMedicalSchoolvarhodes@gmail.com•@varhodes

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IncreaseFacebookengagementby100percent

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Wri6ngSMARTobjec6ves

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IncreaseFacebookengagement(likes/shares)by50percentinthefourthquarter

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13B • Sepsis Treatment Awareness Campaign • EVMS • Page 1 of 2

13B • Sepsis Treatment Awareness Campaign • Eastern Virginia Medical School Summary: What do you do when a physician claims he has a homegrown cure for the deadly infection sepsis? His discovery is inexpensive, safe and has potential, he says, to save millions of lives globally. At first glance, it looks like a blockbuster story guaranteed to grab headlines worldwide and revolutionize medical care. But the evidence — while compelling — is limited. Not only that, vitamin C (one of three treatment ingredients) is widely scorned by the medical community. Despite those challenges, our announcement achieved unprecedented coverage, attracted considerable support to underwrite additional research and ignited a national conversation that has helped save lives. Insights & Analysis: It was the medical equivalent of a “Hail Mary” pass. Dr. Paul Marik’s patient was dying of overwhelming sepsis (a complication resulting from an infection). Weeks earlier he’d read about vitamin C as a possible treatment for sepsis. He knew septic patients have low or undetectable levels of vitamin C in their cells. He also knew vitamin C and steroids work similarly — and that they would not cause harm. In a desperate attempt to save his patient, Dr. Marik asked nurses to combine the vitamin C and steroids and inject them intravenously. Within hours, the patient was recovering. Within two days, she left the ICU. Amazed at the outcome, Dr. Marik began using the experimental treatment on dying patients with remarkable results. Pharmaceutical companies have conducted more than 100 clinical trials and spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 25 years in an unsuccessful search for a sepsis treatment. Dr. Marik stumbled upon a potential answer. Prior to our campaign, Dr. Marik’s article had appeared electronically in the journal CHEST, and he had presented his research at a handful of meetings in the U.S. and abroad. However, there was no media attention when the article published (our office learned of the research the same day the article published) and scant public acknowledgement of his work. We faced an uphill battle. Our research (discussions with doctors and a review of journal articles and media coverage) revealed that vitamin C had been touted as a miracle cure for many conditions with little scientific evidence of its efficacy. Countless failed clinical trials involving vitamin C over the past 40 years have predisposed medical professionals to dismiss new claims. Even many of Dr. Marik’s colleagues rebuffed his research, particularly given the dependence on vitamin C and claims of dramatic results. In our physician’s retrospective study of 94 people, four died among 47 people who received the experimental treatment (but NONE from sepsis). In contrast, 19 people died (including nine from sepsis) among 47 patients who received the prior treatment. While the results were breathtaking, we understood the limitations. We knew for the world of medicine to accept the results, there would have to be a large-scale clinical trial to confirm that the treatment is safe and effective. But we also knew the research would take years, and millions around the world would continue to die in the meantime. More than 250,000 people in the United States die from sepsis annually, according to the Sepsis Alliance. It is the most common cause of death among hospitalized patients in the U.S. The Global Sepsis Alliance estimates that eight million people die worldwide as a result of sepsis each year. The potential impact of this discovery was too great to let the information languish. Despite the inclination of some in the medical community to dismiss a vitamin C-based treatment as ridiculous, we needed to expose more people to the protocol in hopes of spurring more trials. Planning: We were reassured by the physician’s continued treatment success and by the fact that a handful of colleagues also had tried the treatment elsewhere with similar results. So, with assurances from the physician that the treatment would do no harm, we decided to undertake a media campaign and highlight the treatment success for the benefit of physicians and families touched by sepsis. We also planned to create original news stories to capitalize on our own media channels and to demonstrate the viability of the story for journalists. Given the importance of this medical discovery, we considered using a national PR firm to assist us but did not have the funding necessary for this type of engagement. We had no budget for the campaign relying solely on existing staffing and resources. We developed three objectives for the campaign, which ran primarily in the fourth quarter (April-June) of FY 2017:

1. Convince at least one national media outlet to report our story and motivate at least two media outlets to download raw/b-roll footage.

2. Attract a minimum of 5,000 visits combined to our medical and public web resources, with at least 500 visits from viewers outside state boundaries.

3. Increase our Facebook engagement a minimum of 50 percent over the corresponding quarter from the previous fiscal year.

SepsisTreatmentAwarenessCampaignSilverAnvilFinalist,2018

#Felinethropy#GiveRightMeowSilverAnvilFinalist,2016

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EVMSSilverAnvilEntry•2016#Felinethropy#GiveRightMeowCampaignOverviewFora24-hourperiodinMay2015,catstookoverEasternVirginiaMedicalSchool’sdigitalmedia.Butitwasn’tthecat-tastropheyoumightexpect.In2014,EVMSparticipatedintheregionalGiveLocal757onlinecampaignwiththegoalofraisingmoneyfortheschool’sannualfund.Usingtypicalsocialmediapostsandemailforour2014participation,oureffortsattractedonlyfourgiftstotaling$5,200.Oneofthosegiftswas$5,000andanomalous.Theremainingthreegiftstotaled$200.ThefourFacebookpostsusedin2014reached1,495peopleandgarneredonly14likes,commentsorshares.Additionally,wenoticedthateachsubsequentpostgarneredfewerviewers.Withouttheanomalousgift,thiswouldhavebeenunsuccessful.Thatmeantweneededanewstrategyfor2015—onethatsoughttofriend-raiseaswellasfundraise.Research(seereferencesinattachedPDF)Wedecidedtoemploywhatwethoughtwasthepurr-fectstrategy.Catvertising.It’sathing.Really.Justthink:GrumpyCat,LOLcats,orICanHasCheezburger?Wethoughttheremightbeawaytotakeourguiltypleasureandturnitintoabonafidestrategy.Afterall,thereevenhavebeencallsforlookingatcatmemesasalegitimateobjectofacademicstudy.TheBritishmobilenetworkThreecommissionedresearchinFeb.2014thatfoundmorethan350,000catownershadcreatedaccountsfortheirpetsonsocialmediavenuessuchasFacebook,Twitter,andInstagram.Infact,Britishinternetuserssharemorethanfourtimesasmanycatphotos,videosandmemesthantheydoselfies.That’s3.8millioncat-relatedpostsaday.And,whileourtargetaudienceisintheUnitedStates,wehadtobelievetherewasasimilarappetitecapableofcat-a-paultingustosuccess.Indeed,thePewResearchCenternotedinaFeb.2015onlinepostthat,“Animals—especiallycats—arepopularsubjectsofvideostopostonline,asareeverydaypeopleandevents.Amonginternetuserswhopostedanoriginalvideoonlinein2013,45%uploadedtheirownvideoofapetoranimal.”Weknewwe’dbeusingnotjustcatimages/memes,butalsodigitalvideo.Andweknewcatsperformedwellinthatmedium.AccordingtoaDec.2012AdAgeDigitalNextpost,catvideosaresignificantlymorewatchedthandogvideosonline.AdAgelookedat100most-watchedvideoclipsforthetimeforbothdogsandcatsandfoundcatvideosgeneratedmorethan1.6billionviewscomparedtothedogvideos’1billionviews.Catsoutperformeddogsonadailybasisbringingin1billionviewsonaverageperdaycomparedto700,000viewsperdayfordogs.Thus,wedecidedtotradeintraditionalphilanthropyforfeline-thropy.PlanningOntopofthedesiretoattractphilanthropicdollars,wewantedtoincreaseawarenessofEVMS.Theprevioustwoyearsbroughtintensifiedbudgetpressuresforourschooloverallandouradvertisingbudgethadbeencutsignificantlywithwarningstoexpectasimilarcutinthecomingfiscalyear.Thus,welookedtoincreasedpublicrelationseffortstoboostpublicawarenessofourmissionandcommunityimpact.Ourgoalsforthe2015GiveLocal757campaignwere:1.Increasethenumberofindividualgiftsmade;2.Increasetheamountofmoneyraised;3.Increasethenumberofimpressionsandviewersforourmessages;and4.Increasetheengagementwithoursocialmediaposts.For2015,151localnon-profitorganizationsparticipatedintheGiveLocal757campaign.Thismeanttherebeconsiderablecompetitionforcontributionsastherewouldbeextensiveoverlapofdonorsupportfortheseorganizations.WeknewFacebookwouldbethecoreofourcampaign.Butwewantedtouseallthedigitaltoolsatourdisposal.Thus,weplannedtowritealternateversionsofourmessagesthatcouldbepostedonFacebookandTwitter.Printanddigitalsignagewouldbeusedacrosscampustodirectviewersonline.HTMLemailswouldalertkeyoff-andon-campusaudiencestoourefforts.Thevisualelement(eithercatmemeorvideo)wasclearlyimportant,butwebelievedthetextpostswouldbeaswell.So,wetooktimetoensurethattheyemployedatoneappropriatetoourcat“overlords,”werefun,followedcatmemetropes,andreliedheavilyonpuns.Wealsodevelopedcustomhashtags(#felinethropy,

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Tipsforenteringawardsprograms

VincentRhodes,PhD,APRChiefCommunica5ons&Marke5ngOfficerEasternVirginiaMedicalSchoolvarhodes@gmail.com•@varhodes

ReachthePinnacle