The New York Daily News was looking for a way to position itself as more involved in the community during June of 2000. And with Father's Day approaching and a few very
prominent New York men suffering from prostate cancer, what better way to do it than to reach out to New York males and offer a widespread prostate cancer screening program to the
entire community?
The paper turned to its PR agency, Dan Klores Communications, to help it promote the program. DKC immediately recommended that the newspaper partner with its client Continuum
Health Partners, which included five hospitals in the New York area, 60 freestanding sites, clinics and ambulatory centers. That partnership would allow the program to screen men
in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and lower Westchester, and the agency asked Continuum officials if they could recommend an organization to fill in the gaps. St. Vincent's was
the obvious answer, with seven hospitals around Staten Island, Queens and lower Manhattan.
The hospitals would be positioned as charitable institutions since healthcare was being heavily scrutinized (as usual) for being financially-driven and providing poor service.
Trust for healthcare is also notoriously low among minorities (a major audience for the campaign since the risk of prostate cancer for African Americans and Latinos is
significantly higher than for white males). The hospitals also benefited from serious media exposure and the probability that potential patients identified through the screenings
would seek further treatment from institutions that were part of the campaign.
Once the partners were procured, DKC launched a massive multimedia outreach that ultimately drove thousands of men to be screened for the deadly disease.
The Planets Were Aligned
The timing for the campaign couldn't have been better - Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Yankees Manager Joe Torre were both fighting public battles with the cancer, and prostate cancer
was gaining national attention as "the male version of breast cancer," says Sean Cassidy, partner with DKC. "The planets were aligned," he says.
Because the Daily News was the driving force behind the campaign, media coverage was a given. The News broke the story with a feature piece on prostate cancer and details on
the upcoming screening on Sunday, June 11. Six days before the kick-off, DKC arranged a major press conference hosted by Les Goodstein, Daily News president. Goodstein and the
presidents of Continuum and St. Vincent's explained the program to the media and displayed a coupon which would run in the paper each day during the screening, allowing the holder
to be screened for the disease. The coupon also served as a tracking mechanism for the medical staff.
Torre also was on hand to serve as a spokesperson for the campaign. A testing station was set up at the press conference allowing camera crews and still photographers to get
shots of individuals receiving the simple PSA blood test required to screen for the disease.
The press conference resulted in coverage by every New York City TV news station, with the exception of one which ran a package later in the week. News radio stations, the
Associated Press, and ethnic media outlets attended the press conference and ran stories as well.
Over the next 10 days, DKC pitched media opportunities for Continuum and St. Vincent's doctors on radio talk shows, TV newscasts and morning shows to discuss prostate cancer
and the Daily News campaign.
Several New York papers referenced the Daily News program in a syndicated weekly column written by Mayor Giuliani.
The Daily News naturally continued to cover the campaign extensively in its own pages. On the opening day of the screenings, for example, the paper ran a four-page special
section devoted to the program. Plus, the media coverage was supplemented with PSAs on local radio, flyers distributed to Continuum and St. Vincent's facilities, and truck-based
rolling billboards.
Results
The campaign resulted in 19 million media impressions for the hospitals and 12 million impressions for the Daily News. But most importantly, 26,000 New York-area men were
screened during the six-day program. Of those 26,000, about 2,600 were found to have elevated PSA levels (indicating concern about possible prostate cancer and requiring
additional testing). A significant number of those patients turned to St. Vincent's and Continuum facilities for further care.
(Contact: Cassidy, 212/685-4300)
Campaign Stats
- Timeframe: June 18-23, 2000
- Budget: Undisclosed
The Sequel
In 2001, Dan Klores and The Daily News ran their prostate screening program a second time, and although they still tested thousands of men, "the buzz on prostate cancer had
gone down a little bit," and the numbers weren't nearly as high as for the first year of the campaign.
This year, the PR firm has brought in the American Cancer Society as a highly visible, highly credible partner on the campaign. "They have grassroots outreach and access to
mailing lists" that will enhance the campaign's reach as well, says Cassidy. The agency also is considering partnering with a TV outlet for six days of exclusive coverage. Plus,
the team is looking into the possibility of a partnership with a Spanish-language media outlet.