Challenge
Bring awareness to ISTH 2015 Congress; Increase media participation; Generate coverage.
The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) acknowledged the need to generate media interest and attendance at its biennial congress, ISTH 2015, in Toronto, Ontario. With the goal of building awareness of the meeting, the Society also sought to garner visibility of key congress events, its annual awareness day, World Thrombosis Day, and notable publications by the president of ISTH 2015 and other Society leadership during the course of the congress. To do so, the ISTH wanted to increase the number of registered media in attendance, hold a well-attended press event and staff a fully functioning media room for onsite reporters.
Founded in 1969, the ISTH is the leading worldwide not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of thrombotic and bleeding disorders. The ISTH is an international membership organization with nearly 4,000 clinicians, researchers and educators working together to improve the lives of patients in more than 94 countries around the world. Among its highly regarded activities and initiatives are education and standardization programs, research activities, meetings and conferences, peer-reviewed publications and expert committees.
In 2015, Toronto played host to the nearly 8,000 attendees from more than 100 countries who participated in the ISTH 2015 Congress. It was also the first meeting in its history that featured a formal media relations strategy.
Solutions
Pitch targeted media with newsworthy topics surrounding the event.
Issue news releases, pitches and followed up with reporters.
Hold on-site press conference with Congress president and other notable experts.
A full-scope media strategy was implemented leading up to the Congress and continued onsite, With the support of ISTH leadership, especially the Congress President, all aspects of the media program were successful, including:
- Developed a detailed plan including media lists with appropriate contacts, key messages and elevator speech
- Created media resources including releases and pitch to educate targeted media on the meeting and newsworthy topics
- Integrated interesting data from plenaries, surveys and other ISTH-approved sources to support coverage of trends
- Incorporated research findings into pitches and releases to establish relevancy, credibility and to generate interest
- Developed an onsite media event with Congress President Sam Schulman and colleagues, Thomas Ortel and Charles Pollack. Set-up media briefings and media briefed all subject matter experts. Prior to the Congress, Tech Image pitched the press conference to local media, medical research publications, hematology and cardiology media
- Designate a media liaison to oversee the day-to-day media activities taking place throughout the 2015 Congress, including coordinating the media event, media interviews and connecting journalists with subject matter experts; ensured seamless communications between the media and the Society
