Securing BBC One TV coverage for your health product or service - how we did it
Last week, we secured our health client the above 12-minute+ segment on BBC One's flagship morning show 'BBC Breakfast' - a programme that was watched by around six million people (almost 10% of the UK population!). This followed another 9-minute item just a few weeks ago - that one on BBC One’s ‘Morning Live’ programme.
This kind of exposure can supercharge awareness of a health cause, product or service and, if designed the right way, can trigger measurable business outcomes too.
How did we do it, you may ask?
I think there were three key elements that you can learn from for your health business, cause or organisation:
Our campaign story
Our media package
Our own extensive experience
The story - a purpose-driven narrative
In our case, we are working with the Royal College of GPs, NHS England and the Office for Veteran Affairs to raise awareness of the need for GP practices to get ‘Veteran Friendly’ accredited so they can offer support to veteran patients - a group that can experience specific health needs.
We brought this issue to life using data to demonstrate the very specific health issues that veterans experience and the fact that many suffer in silence because they worry that a civilian healthcare professional won’t understand their needs.
This purpose-driven narrative brings to life the challenge in a very human and relatable way. It also communicates how, simply by getting accredited, a GP practice can send a strong signal to a veteran to let them know that they have taken steps to improve their understanding.
Health organisations that want to uncover their own purpose-driven narrative should think back to why the organisation was founded. Was it to tackle a debilitating condition, support an under-served community or champion an important cause?
As I wrote about for Influence Magazine some time back, ‘health brands have social purpose built-in’ as nearly every healthcare organisation was, ultimately, set up to help people in some way. This is your chance to bring that mission to life.
Start by gathering facts, information and human truths that illustrate the following:
The scale of the problem or challenge
The impact it is having on people and/or society
The risks of not taking action
This information then needs to be shaped into something compelling and, ideally, you will be able to unlock a unique angle. The goal in developing a broadcast-worthy story is to be the first to shine a light on a particular problem or perspective, and it is even better if you can do it with some new data or information.
This kind of creative treatment is where we excel, whether it’s the impact of tinnitus on mental health, the need to scale-up the use of technology to tackle type 2 diabetes or, in this case, the silent struggle faced by veterans.
Get your framing of the problem right and it provides the perfect platform upon which to present the campaign, product or service that you have designed as a solution to this problem.
The package - data, people and location
TV is about stories, people and pictures and you need to think about all three elements to be successful.
If you don’t have a strong story then you won’t even get your foot through the door but, once you have, you better have the package to bring it to life.
Most broadcasters like to receive a package that combines expert spokespeople who can talk with authority and clarity on the problem and solution, and case studies, who will share their personal experience of the issue in a way that their audience will connect with emotionally. Ideally broadcasters will want to receive a short written biography and pictures of these potential guests.
If the story is compelling enough and the guests are strong, the above package can sometimes be enough to secure you a spot with a broadcaster. The icing on the cake though is to offer an on-location filming opportunity.
With these items, we were able to offer the BBC a chance to film in a GP practice that had already signed up to become ‘Veteran Friendly’. This allowed the programme-makers to show things ‘in context’. BBC breakfast chose to combine on-location filming with a spot on the sofa for one of our client’s expert spokespeople.
The team - more than 20+ years of working with national and regional broadcasters
This package was handled by our very own Matt Thompson, who has 20+ years of experience in working with broadcast media and who has delivered hundreds of national and broadcast media interviews.
This kind of experience doesn’t only help with securing broadcast items, it also means that we are adept at managing the message. We work closely with journalists to shape the story, and coach and support spokespeople and guests to make the most of their 12-minutes on the UK’s biggest morning news programme by delivering powerful and precise messaging that leads to action.
The result was a carefully coordinated 12-minute package that made for compelling TV for BBC Breakfast, that enabled veterans to tell their stories and that positioned our client’s programme as an important solution to improving the quality of veteran healthcare in this country.
Around six million people watched the programme and the GP whose practice was featured on the show told us that his appointments all took longer that week as everyone who came in had seen it on TV! While anecdotal, the excitement generated there gives some indication of the power of securing such a hero item - though as an outcomes-generating agency, our focus will be on the measurable impact.
As an integrated health communications team though, we think much more broadly than just the TV item. Ahead of the show airing, we worked with our client to support this activity with some well-timed social media campaigning and recently updated the Veteran Friendly programme’s website landing page to better bring to life the value practices get from getting ‘Veteran Friendly’ accredited.
Right now, we’re waiting to understand the impact of these two TV items on the number of GP practices getting accredited - but our previous work in this area drove a 645% uptick in the number of GP practices getting accredited and, with the other elements of our fully integrated health communications campaign being rolled out over the coming month, we’re looking forward to generating a similar impact.
This post was written by Leigh Greenwood Chart.PR, founder of Evergreen PR, who was worked in health communications that drive impact for 20+ years.
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