by Madeline Mohatt
December 15, 2022
As generations pass and new ones emerge, shifts in present-day society are inevitable. It hasn’t even been a quarter century since water bottles made it through airport security, Alexa was just another popular name in the baby book, and a tweet was merely the noise birds make. While the world is ever-changing, the need for effective brand marketing is perpetual. Recognizing this, the Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO) adopted new promotional strategies and campaigns – like IO Awareness Week – to keep its mission at the top of minds everywhere.
Awareness campaigns can be an influential way to help raise public interest, educate a community, and combat serious health issues. In October 2022, SIO held its second-annual IO Awareness Week to generate more multidisciplinary awareness of SIO’s mission to advance interventional treatment as the fourth pillar of cancer therapy alongside medical, surgical, and radiation oncology.
The society created a microsite to serve as the hub for IO Awareness Week content, which included educational offerings, interviews, and sharable collateral. From there, the society also shared posts on social media and sent out segmented emails to reach each of its target audiences. While many different mediums were used throughout the implementation of this initiative, SIO managed to keep its communication consistent and abide by a similar set of style guidelines across every promotional platform.
SIO encouraged its members to participate through peer-to-peer activities and celebration materials. Of course, the good stuff didn’t just stop there. To prompt members to post on their personal social media platforms, SIO put together a marketing toolkit. This online resource was packed full of shareable graphics, message templates, and other content bound to boost engagement.
Outside of member participation, awareness weeks also serve as a perfect opportunity to engage applicable stakeholders and industry sponsors. SIO capitalized on this by partnering with over six industry partners to deliver various learning opportunities, including expert-led webinars. Thanks to the plethora of secured partnerships, SIO was also able to release its very-first podcast series, hosted and produced by BackTable – a podcast company started by an interventional radiologist, adding more meaning to the project for the interventional community.
SIO’s second-annual IO Awareness Week was nothing short of successful. In addition to high numbers in webinar registration, the association saw a 36.83% average in opened emails throughout the week-of celebrations (which is over 9% greater than what the society saw last year), garnered more than 11,000 impressions on Twitter, acquired a 5.82% average engagement rate on LinkedIn, and successfully implemented the use of two hashtags: #IKnowIO, #IOAwarenessWeek.
Madeline Mohatt is in Marketing and Communication Services at Smithbucklin.
Madeline Mohatt
(she/her)
Marketing &
Communications Services
Smithbucklin