Case Studies
No peer-review article? No problem.
How to get coverage without the coveted peer-review research.
For organizations with research breakthroughs,
the peer-review article is the
be-all and end-all if you want media
coverage. Without it, mainstream
media reporters may be interested in
your pitch, but they´ll hold off on coverage
until they have the third-party
credibility they need.
Edge Communications, based in
Encino, Calif., managed to get around
the peer-review problem for its client,
PrimeGen, a biotech company in
Irvine. Even without the article, the PR
team was able to win mention of
PrimeGen in more than 100 newspapers,
magazines and online journals in
March and April.
Background: PrimeGen is the developer
of PrimeCell, a stem-cell engineering
product that is not derived
from embryonic stem cells (i.e., from
fetuses). PrimeGen came to Edge
Communications in late 2005 to build
awareness of the PrimeCell breakthrough,
which involves using immature
cells found in testicles and ovaries
to create stem cells and develop them
as nerve, heart and bone cells.
The fact that PrimeGen´s research
did not involve embryonic stem cells
was a definite plus, explains Edge
Communications President Ken
Greenberg. "The stem-cell controversy
was the best thing that could happen
for the company," he explains.
"They´ve been able to sidestep the
controversy, and we´ve been able to
use the fact that their research doesn´t
use embryonic cells."
So that was a plus - but the fact
that PrimeGen had not published the
research in a scientific journal was a big
negative. "Peer review is still the gold
standard by which scientific discoveries
are viewed as credible, and thus are
endorsed for broader publication,"
explains Jana Williams, a strategic communications
consultant for Edge.
Adding to the pitching challenge
was the fact that the company didn´t
quite fit the mold of the typical biotech
firm. "They´re not what people expect,
which is a place full of Ph.Ds," Greenberg
says, "but their unconventional orientation
is a part of their story." Says
Williams, "Because the company didn´t
have that traditional Ph.D. structure, the
media would be even more skeptical
and would expect to see the articles in
peer-review journals."
News peg: PrimeGen had selected
Edge Communications after working
with another PR firm without landing
significant media coverage (the lack of
a peer-review article being the main
roadblock). The Edge team knew that
they´d need to go beyond the usual circle
of biotech and science trades to
land media coverage.
"We had to speak English," says
Greenberg, explaining that the PR
team needed to interpret the importance
of PrimeGen´s findings to the
general media, not just the specialists.
Williams says the plan included ideas
for pitching business and even beauty
reporters—anyone that might have an
interest in the possible applications of
the stem-cell breakthroughs.
In addition, "we created our plan so
that we had a pre-peer review strategy
and a post-peer review strategy,"
Greenberg says. Pre-peer review, the
plan was to pitch media who wouldn´t
be hung up on the lack of a journal article.
Also part of the strategy: "We wanted
to have other scientists validate the
work of the company," Greenberg says.
The PR team initially reached out
to top science reporters at major outlets
like The New York Times and The
Wall Street Journal, knowing they
might not cover the PrimeGen news
immediately. They hoped this would
pave the way for coverage down the
road, Williams says:
"They didn´t say no to us—but
they did say they needed the peerreview
article."
The pitch: In late March, the team
found a way to generate discussion of
PrimeGen without the peer-review article.
A research team in Germany had
discovered so-called "germ-line" stem
cells in mice, and was publishing its
findings in the peer-review journal
Nature. Reuters had also picked up on
the story.
The obvious PR tactic might be to
ignore the German team´s breakthrough,
since it appeared to compete directly
with PrimeGen´s own research. However,
"we openly cited articles and stories
about this research and framed it in support
of PrimeGen´s work here in the
U.S.," explains Williams. "We decided to
embrace it. Using the peer-reviewed
journal as a stepping stone, we noted that
PrimeGen was excited that another independent
research team had confirmed its
findings in mice. In effect, we let the
German research speak for them."
Three days after the team found
out about the German discovery, they
put together a media advisory and a
press release citing the German
research, but also touting PrimeGen´s
breakthrough. "We explained that
PrimeGen had already been engaged in
this work with human tissue - not only
mouse tissue -and that the findings had
been submitted to a scientific publication,
even though no publication date
had yet been set," Williams says.
Results: Reuters, which had reported
on the original Nature article, picked up
on PrimeGen´s news and filed an article
that appeared in more than 100 U.S.
and overseas newspapers. And,
"because of the Reuters story, two scientific
journals invited PrimeGen to
submit articles," Greenberg says.