Ultrasound Therapeutics Ltd

 

UTL were introduced to Graham after many failed attempts to get their revolutionary and highly successful HIFU treatment system into the Press. They needed to generate more patient traffic for private treatment in order to fund further trials aimed at gaining approval from NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) to supply the treatment to the NHS.

The company was about to invest £10-12,000 in a two-page Daily Mail advertorial slot – a very expensive way of gaining column inches, with a much lower likelihood of high readership levels. Advertorials are also less trusted by readers than genuine editorial – crucial in the context of life or death treatments. Graham’s alternative strategy proved vastly cheaper and measurably more effective.

Graham compiled a detailed Press Briefing to explain to journalists what HIFU did (destroying suitable tumours with ultrasound, thus avoiding the need for invasive surgery). The briefing provided quotes from and contact details of doctors, and written case histories of patients who had been successfully treated during four years of clinical trials.

This long-term campaign cost approximately £4,000 in total and initially resulted in the Daily Express commissioning a freelance writer to interview one of the case histories, producing a graphic two-page spread. Hits on the UTL website to download application form for private treatment, then costing £12,000, shot up from eight per day to 78 per day. This spectacular Return on Investment (RoI) continued as Graham wrote and supplied case history features published in five regional newspapers, including the Manchester Evening News, gaining additional coverage on Central TV and Radio Oxford.

After the campaign ended, Graham went on to write a full-page feature on HIFU for the Daily Mail, at no cost to the company.

 

Frank Taylor, Marketing Manager, Ultrasound Therapeutics Ltd:

 

“Graham’s quick understanding of our complex, revolutionary, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) cancer treatment led to him delivering coverage in national and regional Press and TV, giving us a much higher profile and potential patient awareness. We hope the association continues for many years to come.”