Best Healthcare PR Firms – Do they Recycle Campaign Ideas?

By Weiqing Sun

The best health tech and healthcare PR firms will get your story told in the biggest media outlets, but how do they do it? How do they identify the creative media campaigns that the media will cover?

For that answer, we went to the top PR media strategist, Mark Macias, who was an Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He now runs his own healthcare PR firm, Macias PR, which Finance Monthly named the PR Consultant Firm of the Year – USA.

“Many clients frequently ask me why we can’t recycle an old media campaign that previously worked,” said Macias. “On the surface, it sounds like a good idea. Hey – if it worked before, why won’t it work again? However, that’s not how news works. News must be new, which is why it’s in the root. Also, if you pitch those same reporters the same story idea, you will quickly lose credibility.”

Macias says the best PR campaigns are executed to perfection. If you targeted the right reporters and secured media placements with your first media campaign, it’s unlikely going to work a second time, using that same idea.

The Best Healthcare PR Firms Create New Ideas

Macias says the best PR firms will always develop and push new ideas. They will look to the news cycle to identify trends and position your business inside of that trending news story. Only the inexperienced publicists will try to push the same campaign ideas.

“During my time as an Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS, I used to see a lot of recycled pitches,” said Macias. “Yes, I received a lot of emails, but you still tend to remember the same publicist names when you are continually pitched. News is new and without that, no one is going to be interested.”

However, if you have a really good campaign that the media continues to love and pick up, Macias says continue with it until the media starts rejecting it. Macias says with this type of campaign, you want to continually push it until reporters say no.

Want to learn more about what the media looks for in story ideas? You can watch a VLOG on this topic from Macias.