Case study: Atlanta medical device firm finds
a PR cure through 'key messages'
By Pat Curry • Bankrate.com

Proxima Therapeutics in Atlanta makes medical devices for brain and breast cancer. Reggie Blackburn, vice president of business development, says his company got a public relations firm because "when you're living and breathing a product, you understand it so well. The challenge becomes boiling all that down to a simple message that can be delivered easily to a lay audience."

The first big step was developing "key messages" for brochures, ads, press releases, client presentations and media interviews.

"Our life has gotten simpler through the key messaging concept, instead of having to constantly create new documents from scratch," he says. "Our ability to get things done more quickly has increased dramatically."

Matter of prestige
It's also made the company look and sound like it knows what it's doing.

"We've now hooked up with various, prestigious medical institutions," he says. "It's portrayed us as a professional company that's going to help them also. We're not just asking them to do something for us. We're coming back with a professional media campaign that's a benefit to them also. From an image perspective with our clinical study sites, which are future customers, we're building a relationship past what's traditional."

Going with a small firm
After talking with a large PR firm, Proxima Therapeutics went with a small, independent agency for two reasons -- price and individualized attention.

"When you're small or earlier stage, working with large, large PR firms, your project is so small, you might not get the attention you need," Blackburn says.

Pat Curry is a freelance writer based in Georgia

-- Posted: Oct. 25, 1999