NEARLY $500K IN EARNED MEDIA
highlighting local market trends to promote app downloads
To feed StaffDNA’s exponential growth that began in 2020, TPG strategically services StaffDNA in a similar style to startup businesses, with respect to the current fickle state of the nursing industry. Through local market media relations, we speak to what traveling healthcare professionals want while answering what communities want to know.
the situation
In June 2020, StaffDNA – based in Plano, Texas – launched a new platform and mobile app that allows travel nurses and other healthcare professionals to search and apply for temporary contract opportunities across the United States. The StaffDNA app also gives healthcare workers more control over their contracts and allows for higher pay packages.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses were in high demand everywhere, which led to extreme growth opportunities for StaffDNA. They partnered with TPG in Spring of 2021 to support growth with media relations. Later that year, they also involved TPG with their ESPN’s First Responder Bowl. With the due date upon us, we quickly provided creative in-house production and efficient means to reach more healthcare professionals and promote downloads of the app.
strategy
StaffDNA needed to reach nurses everywhere. Meanwhile people everywhere wanted to know what was going on with the state of their city’s hospitals. TPG bridged the gap by focusing in on local-level news media to offer StaffDNA’s experts and network of nurses to address questions around nursing job openings and the experiences of the nurses filling those roles.
Read the Stories:
NBC DFW | News 4 San Antonio | KXAN | Fox 10 Phoenix
ESPN’s First Responder Bowl invited first responders, including nurses, to attend the game on December 27. During the game, StaffDNA aired TV spots and digital video ads on ESPN and in the stadium.
execution
TPG monitored markets experiencing higher nursing news or higher-than-average activity/pay packages in StaffDNA’s app to address COVID-19 surges. Our PR pros vetted the media interest in those markets and coordinated interviews with 1) StaffDNA representatives to speak to job data from the app and anecdotes from area hospitals, and 2) a StaffDNA-placed nurse working in each market to speak about their job experiences in relation to using StaffDNA. TPG also supported StaffDNA’s growth story with DFW business trade media relations and contributed articles in other states’ medical trade outlets.
Meanwhile, TPG kept a close watch on the language used around nursing shortages during the pandemic. TPG coached StaffDNA’s subject matter experts in interview skills and positioned StaffDNA neutrally in the sensitive topic of addressing nursing shortages clearly and providing temporary staffing solutions to hospital networks.
For TV, video, and digital ads airing during the First Responder Bowl, we used real StaffDNA employees showing them caring for a patient, using the app, and meeting friends after work. This genuine feel attracted our target audience because we weren’t communicating “at them” but “with them.”
the results
In just six months, TPG secured more than 200 pieces of earned media coverage in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Phoenix, Orlando, Arkansas and more valuated at nearly half a million dollars ($492,000) in advertising equivalency across online and broadcast news. Even better, we increased app downloads by 62%!
Coverage highlights:
- 212 pieces of earned media across online and broadcast news outlets within six months
- Successful media pitches in multiple media markets including Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Phoenix, Orlando, Northwest Arkansas, and more
- Nearly half a million dollars ($492,000) in AVE (advertising value equivalency) of earned media
...and more
additional
support
TPG also supports StaffDNA’s online and marketing initiatives, such as recommended TikTok and Instagram content/engagement to nurses while on their mobile devices, sponsorship in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl to amplify the brand’s values, and a 2022 advertising campaign to entice potential users to download the app and explore.
