Cases - Business

The Client: New Deal Playing Card Company “Making the best of the hand you are dealt.”

Several months ago I took a phone call from an executive at The New Deal Playing Card Company. Her husband had just invented, patented and launched a unique line of ergonomically correc

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

t playing cards designed to fit the natural curvature of the hand. The woman had come across a magazine article about another client of mine whose new product was receiving some widespread media exposure. “Can you do the same for us?” she inquired. We did and to our delight

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

the campaign was even more successful than the other campaign she had initially inquired about.

We researched and implemented a multi-faceted campaign of publicity and media exposure that quickly spread the news about New Deal Playing Cards through the media market. We gen

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

rated dozens of features in media outlets nationwide including: every local print and TV medium in their market; large general circulation magazines like Men’s Health, Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day and Child, to name a few; National Public Radio; and several newspapers and TV n

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ws broadcasts.

How Did We Do It? Diversified Publicity The key to a successful media campaign is something I call Diversified Publicity. That is, generating exposure in as many different media outlets in as many different ways to optimize the chances of publicity for the

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

roduct or business. Here’s how we dealt a winning hand to the New Deal Playing Card Company:

1) Media Notification We knew the client had a great product, but consumers simply didn’t know about it yet. This isn’t advertising, this is “media notification” of an interest

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ing new product that their readers and viewers would be interested in. We let the media be our bullhorn to educate consumers about New Deal. We researched and contacted media outlets whose profiles matched New Deal’s product line and submitted effective feature pitches to a

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

propriate editors, reporters and producers. But that was just the beginning.

The key to generating the most media interest and placements is meticulous media interaction over an extended period of time: weekly/monthly follow-ups; prompt fulfillment of media requests (inter

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

iews, photos, samples); ongoing editorial calendar research and pitches, etc.. This is where many publicity campaigns fall short. Many business owners have the misconception that they can simply write a single release, submit it to a media release distribution service and t

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

e media interest will pour in. The majority of the media interest comes several weeks or sometimes months into the campaign, after the media has had a chance to see your pitch a few times and determine how/when they are going to lend it coverage. Just like when playing card

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

, sometimes you have to deal them several times before you win a hand -- but that winning hand can be very beneficial to you.

2) Relative Releases This is an aspect where business owners often fail to take full advantage of the media market. We interviewed all of the prin

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

cipals involved in the New Deal Playing Card Company and came up with information like hometowns, cities where they may have lived or been employed in the past, towns where they attended college, etc.. We then hit the media in those markets with what I call “relative releas

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

s” – a pitch alerting them that someone with a connection to their market (native/former resident/alumnus) is involved in an interesting, newsworthy venture – i.e. “Former Waukesha Resident Launches Innovative Playing Card Company.” Local media are typically very recept

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ve to features that have a local connection. Those local features many times get picked up by news syndicates that may make the story go nationwide. It’s a creative and effective way to turn a local story into a national one and generate extensive media exposure for your p

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

oduct or business.

3) Parallel-Media Targeting One of the biggest mistakes with most publicity campaigns is improperly determining the media market. For New Deal Playing Cards we covered our bets by cross-referencing the entire North American media market to determine pot

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ntial media targets for them. That is to say, in addition to obvious media targets like Children’s Editors or Feature Producers, we made many creative pitches to gain interest from several other contacts at magazines, newspapers & broadcast media nationwide. For instance, i

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

n the New Deal campaign we made three different pitches over the course of the nine-month campaign. We targeted media outlets whose editorial profiles focused on:

a) Games, Hobbies, Toys, Children, Family
b) Feature, Lifestyle, Elderly, Physically Challenged,
c)

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

Business, Entrepreneurial, Consumer Interest,

By hitting these parallel media with our pitch, we were able to saturate the entire media market with newsworthy pitches and generate placements in multiple media outlets, from senior citizen magazines to kids shows to business

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

news features. The key is to tailor the media pitch to the respective media market. A consumer product pitch to family magazines has a much different editorial slant and focus than an entrepreneurial feature pitch to business reporters at newspapers & TV shows.

Much like a

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

game of cards, the success of your publicity campaign comes down how you take advantage of the cards you are dealt. The player who can create a winning hand will be the one who ends up with the most money in the end. And isn’t that the deal you want for you and your company

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Cases - Business Publicity/P.R. Success - And How It Can Benefit You Too

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