This is a good example of how “staged” storytelling is problematic as opposed to authentic accounts of health topics and treatments by professional athletes. Just ask Russo Partners’ Sports-Health Alliance Leader Solomon Wilcots. A former NFL player turned broadcaster, Solomon created with us our sports PR offering more than eight years ago. A client asked us how to navigate the NFL to help communicate the need for greater participation in an Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial. While we didn’t pursue work with the league, our team built a national network of sports friends: retired players, broadcasters and agents. Leigh Steinberg, Steve Tasker, Ron Pitts, Joey Harrington, Christian Fauria, Joe Rose and others led the way under Solomon. And in Canada, the team pivoted to hockey, collaborating with the Kelowna Rockets Hockey Enterprises Ltd. We mobilized a line-up of individuals who had direct connections to the disease and were passionate about helping. From Super Bowl 50 Radio Row work to educational and memory screening events in local markets nationwide, and then a media tour in Canada along with a press conference at the hockey arena in Kelowna, the campaign exceeded expectations. The biopharma company met its enrollment goal very quickly. Our team won several awards for this work. We mobilized a real team with real connections and authentic storytelling experiences. No staged or overly produced activities! Fast forward to 2024. We are planning our work at yet another Super Bowl as well as several major medical meetings. Oh, and getting back to the migraine drug conundrum, we have a better story. When a small biopharma was in fierce competition to bring a new migraine prevention drug to market, our Sports-Health team created a campaign to beat these companies in awareness, interest and measured mindshare: Solomon called on his friend Terrell Davis, who taped a video story for the company’s website and social media channels. This video package created by Scott Stachowiak, a former ABC News producer, focused on the “what if” TD had a migraine prevention treatment back at Super Bowl XXXII, when he played through a migraine episode to help the Denver Broncos defeat the Green Bay Packers and earn the honor of game MVP. “Wow,” was TD’s message about how this approach could be a game-changer. TD’s story was woven together with other migraine experiences as communicated by the biopharma company’s own HR executive and migraineurs. This helped a small company to beat its deep-pocketed competitors in the battle for mindshare of investors, strategic partners and the medical community. As Tony Russo, Ph.D. and I say, we align passions and interests at the intersection of sports and health. We do this regularly in the areas of orthopedics, pain management, sickle cell disease and others. And we collaborate with athletes, coaches, broadcasters, agents and other true friends, including medical key opinion leaders such as Scott Sigman MD. Onward!
