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#PRAwards 2021 highlight: The influence of PR in elevating Duke-NUS brand recognition

#PRAwards 2021 highlight: The influence of PR in elevating Duke-NUS brand recognition

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Duke-NUS is Singapore’s flagship graduate-entry medical school established as a landmark collaboration between Duke University and National University of Singapore. It has the objective of providing innovative education and impactful research that enhance the practice of medicine in Singapore and beyond.

Along with its educational programmes, Duke-NUS is also a research powerhouse with distinguished scientists. According to the school, its signature research programmes are aligned to critical areas of public health needs in Singapore. These disease-focused, multi-disciplinary programmes have facilitated research discoveries that will improve the lives of patients in Singapore and around the world.

In the recent PR Awards 2021 hosted by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Duke-NUS was the finalist for the category of “Best PR Campaign: Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals” upon facing stiff competition. Find out how the school managed to leverage on its PR efforts to gain more brand recognition during the COVID-19 period.

Challenge

Although Duke-NUS has a strong focus on basic research, the brand has found engaging mainstream media about its discovery science to elevate the brand challenging at times.

Strategy

Duke-NUS adopted a multi-pronged strategy to use the COVID-19 pandemic to overcome the challenges faced by the school and deliver higher brand recognition.

The first prong is to raise international awareness of Duke-NUS’ brand by proactively engaging local and international tier-one mainstream and science media, providing regular public updates on key scientific breakthroughs and research milestones on COVID-19. Tier-one media outlets refer to high-impact publications such as The Washington Post, BBC, South China Morning Post and The Straits Times that are influential and highly regarded by the local and international readers.

The second prong is to identify key scientists from its programmes who can offer insightful opinions and comments on COVID-19 issues during different phases and on different aspects of the pandemic. The goal was to make Duke-NUS the media’s first to go-to brand for professional views.

Last but not least, Duke-NUS looked to enhance online visibility of its research findings, innovations and scientists to provide a centralised platform on COVID-19 research to make relevant information available directly to media and the general public.

Execution

The team at Duke-NUS developed and grew its local and international media contacts by cultivating new contacts and tracking key journalists’ COVID-19 coverage. In engaging local and international media, it actively reached out to mainstream and scientific media in Singapore and overseas to pitch its news releases, opinion pieces and comments on topical issues. In positioning the views from Duke-NUS scientists, the school leveraged its strong research capabilities and proven track record in SARS-related research.

To ensure its announcements are timely, insightful and yet relatable to the general audience, Duke-NUS worked closely with the school’s scientists to make good use of images, infographics and even metaphors in explaining the sciences in its communications. With the rapid development of COVID-19 pandemic, it also offered forward-looking opinions to help keep the media momentum going. In doing so, Duke-NUS was also mindful in providing responsible comments that are backed by scientific data.

In stepping up on its efforts in digital PR, Duke-NUS created a COVID-19 microsite to share regular updates on the school’s research findings. To make it easier for the media to find suitable experts for their COVID-19 questions, the team listed relevant Duke-NUS experts and their respective research areas. The microsite not only helped enhance Duke-NUS’ online visibility but also enabled media to reach out to more Duke-NUS experts easily and quickly. This in turn helped avoid any potential media fatigue arising from profiling the same scientists. Internally, the team at Duke-NUS also conducted webinars to hone its scientists’ communication skills, in particular on how to write compelling editorials, opinion articles and commentaries. Additionally, Duke-NUS is continually engaging its scientists to share their research findings with the general audience to sustain its thought-leadership.

Results

Duke-NUS’ COVID-19 PR campaign was rewarded with a sharp increase in media coverage. Its research garnered attention from top international media outlets including The Washington Post, New York Times, Lancet, BBC, NHK, Bloomberg, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, South China Morning Post, The Hindu, The Conversation, Scientific American and Nature.

The breaking story on Duke-NUS being the first-in-the-world to use a combination of two serological tests to detect antibodies in asymptomatic people brought recognition from Singapore’s prime minister and deputy prime minister. NBC News also interviewed Duke-NUS dean professor Thomas Coffman in a one-hour COVID-19 documentary. The school was invited to take part in several documentaries on the science behind COVID-19 as well, including ones that appeared on Channel NewsAsia, the History Channel and the Smithsonian.

These efforts have resulted in greater brand awareness among media, a reflected through its growing share of voice. The team also cultivated this through both pitched and invited commentaries on COVID-19- related issues. Commentaries by its experts have appeared in multiple media outlets. The increased profile of Duke-NUS and its scientists has also led to invitations to participate in key events such as Bloomberg’s Future Economy Forum and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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