There is no doubt that the current economic climate has impacted PRs across the country, but industry experts all agree that healthcare PR is surviving the recession in comparatively rude health. We’re pleased to hear it because Gorkana has invested heavily over the last six months getting its healthcare data in ship shape order.
Working with seasoned healthcare PR Gina Constantinides, Gorkana has revamped and updated its healthcare data. Gina, who has more than 12 years’ PR experience, and has worked on campaigns for Benecol and Splenda, as well as new drug launches in key therapy areas, has spearheaded a project which has seen the
Gorkana Media Database more than double the healthcare data it lists and tracks.
Gorkanapr caught up with Gina as she was planning the grand unveiling of the new-look data to hear more...
Firstly tell us a bit about your role.
Thinking like a healthcare PR, the first thing I did was check the existing data and how it was displayed to see if it was user friendly for healthcare PRs. I also drilled down into the content to see if it was comprehensive enough for these busy PRs.
What we had on the system was a good start but I could see there was certainly room for improvement.
So what changes have you made?
We’ve added two new sectors: Consumer Health and Professional/Ethical Healthcare and under each we’ve got a whole range of new sub-sectors to reflect the world of health.
Under Consumer Health we’ve got seven sub-sectors including sports and fitness, diet and nutrition, patient groups and media specialists. I know when I was putting together campaigns I would have found it very useful to have a ready list of doctors, nutritionists and psychologists who are media friendly.
We’ve also beefed up Professional/Ethical Healthcare with 24 sub-sectors including biotech, dentistry, nursing, sports medicine and disease/therapy areas. We’ve even drilled down into the disease areas and have included 18 of the key therapy areas.
All these changes make the database easier for healthcare PRs to navigate. I know first-hand how busy PRs are so the primary concern was working out how to save them time and energy so they can focus on the important things like coverage and keeping clients happy.
What about the key healthcare titles and journalists?
We’ve doubled the number of healthcare titles on the database and included Pan-European and global titles. We’ve also substantially expanded the number of freelance journalists listed. We want to take the legwork out of trying to track down the right journalists and build accurate media lists so the PRs can focus their energies elsewhere.
How do you know what you’ve done is what healthcare PRs want?
Before we started the project we asked many people in the industry what they wanted from our database. We checked it again halfway through the project to make sure we were on track and again once we finished to make absolutely certain. All the feedback has been incredibly positive!
How often will the healthcare data be updated?
We’ve got a team of 18 researchers who are constantly refreshing the data to make sure it's as accurate as possible.
What’s next?
Watch this space because we’re trying to line up a speaker for a healthcare breakfast briefing in the new year. We’ve done breakfast briefings for our consumer and financial clients with key journalists and publications and they always go down a storm. Keep your eyes peeled for our first foray into healthcare.
Thanks so much for speaking to us Gina– stay in good health!
If you are a Gorkana Media Database client and would like more information about our specialist healthcare data contact Gorkana Support on feedback@gorkana.com.
Login to view entire article