Finding success with rapid parallel story A/B testing and produce a miracle
We used creative stories to uncover possible solutions for hard-to-diagnose diseases generating more than 4x many media placements
The Brief
After graduating from the prestigious Y Combinator incubator, San Francisco-based CrowdMed faced a PR dilemma: They had hired one of the Top 5 largest PR firms in the U.S. for the past 6 months and had received decent yet unspectacular results. They reached out to TOP Agency to inquire about whether we were willing to work in parallel to the traditional PR firm to test whether our innovative data-driven, growth-focused, and viral-optimized methods could generate much larger ROI for the startup in its quest to spur broad awareness and growth.
The Execution
TOP Agency set out to tell a fresh series of stories about how CrowdMed uses the “wisdom of crowds” to uncover possible solutions to hard-to-diagnose diseases. Because most journalists don’t have first-hand experience with medical mysteries, TOP Agency repositioned the company to make it more accessible and emotional.
By working in parallel story idea tracks (including tracks for mass consumer, business, health, and healthcare trade) TOP Agency A/B tested a series of PR pitches — eventually optimizing a “miracle on tech street” pitch in time for the holiday season that named CrowdMed the “miracle makers of Silicon Valley” and cited examples of “miraculous” CrowdMed diagnoses.
The Result
TOP Agency generated more than 4x as many media placements as the other PR firm in 1/6 of the time — an overall improvement in PR effectiveness of 25x — CrowdMed soon dropped the other firm and named TOP Agency their lead agency for all marketing efforts.
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