B2B Events PR & Media Healthcare Marketing

ViVE2022 and HIMSS22 PR Analysis – Few Customer Briefings & Little Personalization

It was clear from the number of story pitches that we received leading up to ViVE2022 and HIMSS22 that both conferences would be bigger than anything in 2021. In total, we received over 475 pitches. Sadly, most of those pitches were for product demonstrations or product briefings. Very few offered the chance to speak with a customer and even fewer were personalized beyond the “Dear Name” opening.

Pitch Volume

Even though ViVE2022 was a new conference and only had a small exhibit hall, we still received 92 PR pitches ahead of the event. For HIMSS22, we received 386 pitches. Here is the breakdown:The pitches for ViVE2022 started arriving about 19 days before the event and they kept arriving all the way until the second full day of the conference.

The deluge of pitches for HIMSS22 started a month before the event and carried through to the very last day of the conference. The number of pitches being received once the conference began was a bit surprising.

Please note, that there are days missing from the X-axis because there were days where we didn’t receive any pitches or follow-ups.

Pitch Content

From a content perspective, the pitches for both ViVE2022 and HIMSS22 fell into five categories:

  • A product announcement or an offer for a product demo
  • An offer to interview a company executive for industry insight or commentary
  • A partnership announcement or an offer to interview a partner
  • A customer announcement or an offer to interview a customer
  • An offer to speak to a company executive about a recently published report/study

Here’s how the content pitches from both conferences broke down:

*Note: some pitches fell into multiple categories – ie: some included both a product briefing AND an offer to interview a company executive for industry insight.

It was disappointing that there were so few offers to connect with customers. This might be due to the inability of staff from healthcare providers to travel/attend conferences. Hopefully this will rebound next year.

Pitch Length

Last year when I analyzed the HIMSS21 pitches, I commented how shorter pitches were more effective than longer ones. This year, I decided to analyze the length of each pitch. Here’s what I found:

A deeper analysis shows that most pitches are indeed brief:

Personalization: A Missed Opportunity

After studying the pitches, very few  were personalized beyond the “Hello Colin” opening line. Only 10 of the pitches we received for ViVE2022 and another 10 for HIMSS22 were truly written directly to John Lynn or I. This is a HUGE missed opportunity

As an example, one PR Agency opened with “Hello Colin, I noticed that you are moderating a Patient Experience panel at the start of HIMSS22. That’s a topic you write a lot about. If you have time, I’d like to set up a time with…” This pitch stood out because (a) they actually did their homework to see what else I was doing at HIMSS22 and (b) they know that patient experience is a favorite topic of mine.

A few mentioned recent articles that we had written on similar topics. One made note of the HITMC/HITsm/hcldr/pinksocks photo that was happening.

Not one mentioned prior interviews that we had done with the companies and executives that they were pitching. That’s unfortunate because it is so easily searchable on our website.

In total I counted 65 pitches from people that I have gotten to know over the years, but almost none of those pitches were personalized. Most just had the “Dear Colin” opening and were followed by the generic boilerplate pitch that every other member of the media received.

If I have one message this year, it’s this: If you’ve taken the time to get to know me, then LEVERAGE THAT. Mention how we met last year or how we spoke about a particular topic. Even better, mention the past work we have done or past interviews with that same executive. Don’t just send me the same templated pitch.

Worst Pitch Ever

There was one pitch that stood out for all the wrong reasons. In fact, it is a candidate for my “worst pitch ever”. I debated calling it out, but I think it’s a good learning opportunity for everyone.

The author of this pitch tried to tie in world events to make the pitch more enticing, but it came across tone deaf and wasn’t well thought through. Here is the opening:

We are all bearing witness to the humanitarian crisis taking place in Ukraine and want to underscore that Company-X is doing its best to stay focused on the patients, caregivers and hospitals its teams and products support. Company X will stay vigilant about providing access to Solution-A and Solution-B for patients. In that vein, in the interest of keeping you updated on Company- X news, we’d like to share that Company-X announced a new contract with Company-Y to offer Solution-C…

The rest of the pitch was a standard offer to interview someone from Company-X about this exciting new contract. I don’t know about you, but an exciting contract is just about the last thing on my mind when I’m watching a humanitarian crisis unfold.

I’ve added this pitch to my library of examples of marketing triumphing over common sense.

Other fun facts

Here are some other findings from my analysis:

  • 2 pitches had the wrong name in the opening (that’s an instant skip)
  • 5 pitches had “Dear Journalist” as the opening (that’s also an instant skip)
  • 8 pitches used “HIMMS” rather than “HIMSS”
  • 1 pitch used “HLTH” rather than “ViVE”
  • 12 pitches were sent to us that were the exact same for ViVE2022 and HIMSS22 – not one word was changed except for the name of the conference

For more interesting analysis and findings from this past year, be sure to catch my “HITMC by the Numbers” session at the upcoming HITMC Conference!

About the author

Colin Hung

Colin Hung is an award-winning Marketing Executive with more than 15yrs of healthcare and HealthIT experience. He co-founded one of the most popular healthcare chats on Twitter, #hcldr and he has been recognized as one of the “Top 50 Healthcare IT Influencers”. Colin’s work has been published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, American Society for Healthcare Risk Managers, and Infection Control Today. He writes regularly for Healthcare Scene and here at HITMC.com. Colin is a member of #pinksock #TheWalkingGallery and is proudly HITMC. His Twitter handle is: @Colin_Hung.

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