NEW YORK - Manhattan plastic surgeons are increasingly seeking public relations counsel to enhance their reputations and generate leads. In return, the PR industry is realizing a financial windfall.
Consider, for example, that top New York City plastic surgeons earn in excess of $1.5 million annually, and the monthly public relations retainers for those surgeons begin at about $3,500, industry expertstell PR NEWS.
It is not only in Manhattan that the pairing of publicists with plastic surgeons is becoming rampant. Such relationships are sprouting nationwide, in cities large and small.
For all PR practitioners who represent service professionals, the media marketing of "appearance medicine," the latest euphemism for elective plastic surgery, is a success story worthy of study. The PR pros who succeed in this niche are the ones who first understand the delicacy of promoting appearance medicine and then learn how to translate that knowledge into sound media relations.
Leslie Weller, of Manhattan's Leslie Weller Public Relations, suggests a minimum one-year contract for PR agencies, with an option to get out at six months if the relationship is just not working. In the short-term, then, a gain of just one new patient monthly potentially covers the PR overhead. But the benefit of quality client media exposure is progressive, cumulative and long-lasting, much more so than a similar amount on advertising.
Why? Because consumers who buy a cosmetic surgical procedure want one thing: a safe, predictable and positive outcome. The best way to ensure that result is by selecting from among the best and most experienced surgeons. Therefore, would-be plastic surgery patients want to feel that others - especially responsible journalists - have sought out a particular doctor for reasons of personal appeal, knowledge and expertise.
So a marketing program driven by media notice as a story source and other targeted speaking platforms creates professional credibility in a selective, discerning way that advertising monies cannot buy. And that credibility translates into a bigger and better plastic surgery practice.
"Everybody wants to look better, so you would approach an editor from that point of view," says Weller, who discreetly represents a Park Avenue plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
Even the most passive, least-interested media observers today find themselves astonishingly well-informed about the roster of plastic surgery procedures now available. Recently, a flurry of articles related to plastic surgery appeared in the many national magazines which have their main editorial offices in New York - the Hearst and Conde Nast chains, for example. Television news magazines and talk shows followed suit, with a spate of features ranging from a technology report on laser wrinkle removal to male executives who undergo rejuvenating surgical overhauls to remain competitive at work. The neutral coverage is part news, part entertainment. But client media appearances, in print or in person, as plastic surgery experts in those same neutral stories, is without question highly positive and beneficial to the doctors' medical practices. As a result, few, if any, of the doctors got there without PR finesse, however buried.
A Gingerly Approached PR Pitch
The pitch marketing of a complicated concept like plastic surgery requires a great deal of delicacy and tact. It is, after all, an invasive medical procedure with risks that include the possibility of death. Promoting surgery as a fashion/beauty option can seem too drastic, tasteless and even ludicrous, if not carefully restrained. And the PR results of representation may be slow - four months at a minimum, according to Weller.
"I've been handling plastic surgeons and dermatologists for the last 12 or 15 years," says Lee Canaan, the founder of Canaan Public Relations, a Manhattan-based boutique agency specializing in beauty, to include appearance medicine. "It's a real sub-specialty. Even today, some of our doctors don't own up to having a public relations expert on retainer - they'll refer to us as 'the communications director' for the office," claims Canaan.
Canaan consults with his plastic surgeons and dermatologists on everything from the layout of their offices to the in-house videos the doctors use to explain procedures to press kits touting the surgeon's credentials.
"I wouldn't take a client who advertises in the bus or subway system," says Canaan. "It's very difficult to move those people editorially because they lose credibility by selling their services in such a big, big way."
By way of contrast, the newsmaking-crop of appearance medicine stories were launched in very specific media niches. "I do not believe in sending out canned press releases for plastic surgeons," says Barbara Kling, of Barbara Kling Public Relations, New York. "I do everything on a one-to-one basis." Kling, for example, scored a hit in W magazine by inviting a writer/editor to attend a laser eyelift operation performed by her client, Dr. Paul Striker.
Working With Journalists
Canaan also recommends giving journalists exclusives - to the point of self-sacrifice, it seems. He himself was photographed and discussed as a successful plastic surgery patient in an article written by Amy Spindler and published on the cover of the Sunday "Money & Business" section of The New York Times last June.
Weller, Kling and Canaan all stress the importance of professional candor. "When you hire a lawyer, you don't hire the guarantee of a favorable legal verdict," says Canaan. "You hire that person to ensure that you are represented by the best possible legal mind; you buy a certain seasoning."
It's the same thing, he adds, when patients select doctors, and doctors retain publicists. When it comes to selling professional services, the most effective marketing message is one of best possible human effort.
(Leslie Weller, 212/308-4208; Barbara Kling, 212/581-8024; Lee Canaan, 212/223-0100.)