Our publicist team had the pleasure of attending the 10th annual Living With Breast Cancer Conference last Saturday, sponsored by the Breast Cancer Awareness Association (BCAA). It was a proud moment to look around the room and see such a large crowd, because we had been hired several months ago to boost attendance, as well as to build awareness about the association and conference.
The Living With Breast Cancer Conference is where people can educate themselves about the disease, explore local resources, network with other survivors and their families, enjoy an incredible breakfast and lunch, and celebrate life with the Sense of Style fashion show – the always-spirited highlight of the day’s program. This year’s conference also featured seminars by world-renown breast cancer experts who practice within Minnesota.
The organization was smart to use publicity because it is the most effective way to reach a large number of people. We started by creating a comprehensive press release outlining all of the benefits of attending. Then our publicist team got on the phone, arranging for fantastic publicity on TV and radio, in print and online. We even made calls to local health professional organizations, resulting on online mentions telling nurses and others that they would receive continuing education credits by attending.
Among the 50 placements were a feature in the Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, numerous online calendar listings, regional newspapers, and live interviews on several radio and TV stations including WCCO radio and KARE 11 TV. Many newspapers thought our press release was so well written that they agreed to run it in its entirety both in print and online.
I don’t have the final tally but as of last Friday, BCAA was thrilled to report a substantial uptick in ticket sales.
We are passionate about this cause because breast cancer has struck co-workers and immediate family members. We look forward to one day helping the BCAA publicize that a cure for this disease has been found.
