Driving Worldwide Awareness

In the swift spread of a disease outbreak such as swine influenza, early intervention can mean the difference between life and death for people in countries potentially affected. Veratect, a company that tracks global civil unrest and disease outbreak, called Communiqué in April 2009 for help during the initial epidemic of H1N1 flu.

PR objectives

Our call to action was to help Veratect build awareness for it role in first sounding the alarm on the unusual pneumonia and respiratory disease cases with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC), and several other state and foreign governments as well as NGOs and other non-governmental public health entities.

Our strategy

Communiqué PR initiated the campaign by issuing a press release to inform journalists and the broader public that Veratect began reporting an unusual respiratory illness in Mexico and noted a growing a number of cases as they arose a full 18 days before the WHO posted its first public report of disease outbreak on April 24, 2009. We also included information on how Veratect would continue to provide updates about potential spread of the disease via Twitter so public health, humanitarian and aid organizations, as well as local and national governments could assist in early response efforts. The press release, which was sent to medical and health reporters, sparked massive interest with news media worldwide.

Results

As a result of our activities, more than 150 articles appeared about the company within 13 days. In addition, there was significant broadcast coverage of Veratect on the BBC, Canada Broadcast Company, FOX News, ABC Radio, KING 5 News, KOMO 4 News, MSNBC and the Today Show. Today Veratect is providing its customers (enterprise companies, NGOs, and governments) with early warnings around disease outbreak and civil unrest. As a result of this publicity, the startup company is now well known to humanitarian, global health and disaster relief organization as well as with government agencies in the U.S. and around the world.