CASE STUDY: Kids' Dental Health Electronic Press Kit

⌛  By Kaylin R. Staten ⌛

This month, we’re highlighting some of Hourglass Media’s award-winning case studies.

Earlier this year, the Kids’ Dental Health Month Electronic Press Kit brought home the 2019 Tribus Award in the Electronic Press Kit Tactic category, as well as the 2019 Best Tactic in the Tri-State. (Just a note: When you win the “Best Of” award in a PRSA category, your score from the judges is the highest out of all of the entries.) Needless to say, we were honored to be highlighted amongst communications professionals and amazing work going on in our 15-county radius. 

Learn more about the 2019 Tribus Awards and see the master list of winners here.

These case study blog posts won’t be as expansive as the actual award entries or scholarly articles, but they will give you a brief foray into what it takes to plan for and execute a successful tactic or campaign. Our goal is to give you valuable information in bite-sized chunks.

In each campaign and tactic, we use the RPIE process of public relations, which is: Research, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. I’m sure you’ve seen me use that formula before, as it is a cornerstone of what Hourglass Media does internally and externally in its continued public relations efforts. You may also know it as RACE or ROPE, depending on your school of thought, but we use the APR-standard of RPIE.)

RESEARCH

Each February, Hourglass Media helps its client, Cabell County Family Resource Network (also known as Cabell County FRN), promote positive children’s dental health practices, tips, and resources during the official Kids’ Dental Health Month. Cabell County Family Resource Network (FRN) is a partnership of individuals, families and agencies working together to promote the wellbeing of children and families in Cabell County, West Virginia. Each year, we add a different component to the successful campaign, and in 2018, we decided to use Electronic Press Kits in conjunction with our press releases to make an impact on our target audiences. 

A few years ago, Cabell County FRN and its partners conducted research based on a problem throughout West Virginia: the alarming rate of childhood tooth decay. In West Virginia alone, 34 percent of preschoolers already have dental caries, according to the 2014 WV Oral Health Surveillance. The group conducted primary and secondary research, including focus groups, content analyses, and more to lead into the Planning stage.

PLANNING

Based on the group at large’s research, we created the Resources for Healthy Teeth Toolkit in 2017. That resource guide provides information to eight key sectors: Children, Parents/Caregivers, Early Education Programs, Schools and Teachers, Community Organizations and Statewide FRNs, Dental and Health National Resources, County and Community Health, and Dentists. For example, a parent can use this guide to discern where to take his or her child to a local dentist for the vital age-one dental appointment. Since its inception, the resource guide has been downloaded thousands of times. The overall goal of the guide, and its supplemental promotional efforts like the electronic media kit, was to raise awareness for kids’ dental health issues and the collection of local, regional, and national resources to prevent tooth decay in West Virginia. The SMART objectives included: Reach each targeted public directly through the media kit and its earned and shared media for a cumulative awareness approach with 100,000 impressions; and establish at least 10 new partnerships.

IMPLEMENTATION

Each year, we focus on earned and shared media to spread the word about the Resources for Healthy Teeth Toolkit and related kids’ dental health issues and solutions. The team crafted a press release announcing the updated guide and resources were available in February 2019, and used that copy to begin the electronic press kit process. Hourglass Media uses Adobe Spark Page to create its electronic press kits, as that is a universally accepted method for most Internet browsers. As any communicator knows, we aim to make information easily accessible for our target audiences to consume and then act upon.

After sending the press release in a Word document and the active link to the electronic press kit, we also spread the word in myriad ways. We shared the link on Cabell County FRN’s social media channels, talked about it in in-person meetings, email newsletters, and more.

Learn more about media kits in our July post!

EVALUATION

While attitudes and behaviors will take possibly decades to change, we believe we are educating parents, caregivers, and others about kids’ dental health issues in Cabell County and beyond. We assessed our Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned media in a PESO spreadsheet at the beginning of March 2019. 

Key analytics revealed that we garnered more than 310 placements and more than 500,000 impressions during February 2019. One highlight during this campaign was Associated Press coverage. We also were included in multiple community and statewide publications and communications. Ultimately, hundreds more people downloaded the guide, and we formed 20+ new partnerships with publics while maintaining our existing relationships. So, we met our goal and objectives and then some! 

Learn more about Cabell County FRN here. 

Kaylin R. Staten, APR, is an award-winning, accredited public relations practitioner and writer based in Huntington, WV with 18 years of professional communications experience. As CEO and founder of Hourglass Media, she uses her compassionate spirit and expertise to delve into the heart of clients’ stories. She is a recovering perfectionist, mental health advocate, wife, Luke’s mom, cat mom, and Leia Organa aficionado. Connect with Kaylin on LinkedIn.