Kaiser Permanente creates successful online newsroom

In March, health care provider Kaiser Permanente ably positioned itself as a key news source for media outlets covering the annual South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. In recent years, South by Southwest Interactive has incorporated a track exploring health care issues. Kaiser implemented a winning strategy to reach out to the news media by producing six online infographics—one-page news releases packed with information—that provided top trending tweets (“Who to Follow @ SxSW”), best panel discussion insights, most compelling articles, and a schedule of each day’s events. 

The online newsroom was viewed more than 400 times and advance pitching resulted in interest from The New York Times, NBCNews.com, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and others. The company also used the news releases to promote its own session, “No Such Thing as TMI in Digital Health,” which garnered 250 participants at the session and a Twitter reach of 1.2 million users for #DigitalTMI. 

Kaiser Permanente wins the prize for Best News or Press Release in PR Daily’s 2014 Digital Awards for its innovative spin on the traditional news release. Congratulations to Kaiser and to the agency WCG and its team: Vince Golla, digital media and syndication director; Ravi Poorsina, communications manager; and Amanda Wardell, senior communications consultant.