El Paso Round Up!

Pur Publicity has been contracted to do media relations work with the health care company, Arcadian Health. The Company is based in Oakland, CA and has smaller networks in the cities they occupy. For instance, El Paso, TX, where the health care plan is known as Texas Community Care.

This contract has had some obstacles and a few missing links in the communication department. However, Pur still managed to wrangle up a number of TV stations and publications and rope them into the event! Why..... the message was NEWS WORTHY!

It was your standard health fair for senior citizens. Challenge one, I was told I can't use the words senior citizens. Okay, so basically I need to talk to and influence an audience that I can't even identify. Why?.... Well, it comes down to government regulation and a touch of bureaucratic red tape. So, I'm told to use the words, Medicare eligible. What?

Next challenge, make this senior swaray super sexy!

How?.... What is making news in El Paso, TX at the moment? Swine Flu.... and we all know what kind of trouble that can give senior citizens, opps, I mean Medicare eligible. Trouble is, I get more road blocks from the corporate office, "We can't panic people in El Paso about Swine Flu." says the professional "marketer." Well, of course not..... but we do need to use the situation and exploit it for all the right reasons.

PS.... Marketing is very different than Publicity, know the difference!

So how does Pur decide to positively exploit Swine Flu, (or H1N1)?..... We use Statistics, from the CDC. We get physicians to give us their expert advice in combating contagious disease, like Swine flu. We talk to seniors about their personal health care. But, I got more resistance from corporate. So, I still ended up using the Swine Flu angle, just a a very soft sell. I sent out three different press releases. What press release do you think every photog showed up with. Yep, the Swine Flu presser. Proof positive, case closed!

So, what did I learn? Well, the organization that actually put the event on didn't do any public relations. They did advertise, but their efforts were, in my opinion, weak. There was a "press conference" the day of.... it was very lack luster! So, what was the result of this situation.... a number of photographers completely disengaged and darn near ignoring the message! WOW, now that's what I call great TV! NOT SO MUCH! The moral of this story, always have a press conference, but always make it worth their while!

So.... considering how many obstacles I had to get over, I'm pleased with the result.

Get Pur Publicity, just email me, jeneemichelle@gmail.com