CASE STUDY: NPS Pharmaceuticals and the American Chemical Society — How to Recognize a Great Opportunity and Translate it Into 200+ Stories in Six Weeks

SITUATION:

When NPS Pharmaceuticals’ then President President, Hunter Jackson, said he would be out of town and would need to reschedule his next meeting with David Politis and Politis Communications, the calendar could have simply been changed and left at that. But it wasn’t.

When Hunter said he was making a 10-minute presentation at a conference in Atlanta, it could have been left at that. But it wasn’t.

When Hunter explained that his presentation was on some preliminary lab results and that he would be speaking at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), it could have been left at that. But it wasn’t.

Instead, Politis Communications convinced Hunter that even preliminary lab results are often important — and newsworthy.

Specifically, Dr. Jackson would be presenting information at the ACS conference about NPS’ preliminary lab results on the potential beneficial effects of spider venom in preventing the long-lasting and debilitating effects of stroke on its victims.

SOLUTION:

After placing one phone call to the ACS media relations manager, David Politis

• Landed and coordinated NPS Pharmaceuticals’ participation in an ACS-sponsored press conference,
• Wrote, produced and distributed an NPS news release,
• Secured NPS inclusion in all ACS media materials, and
• Coordinated all media liaison and story outreach for NPS Pharmaceuticals.

RESULTS:

Out of these public relations efforts, the Politis-led team landed more than 200 print articles and broadcast stories for NPS Pharmaceuticals in a six-week period, stories that reached between 25—30 million people*.

Among the notable media outlets that covered this story were the

• Associated Press, (three separate stories),
• Atlanta Constitution-Journal,
• CNN,
• Cox News Service,
• Gannett News Service,
• Mutual Radio Network,
• Scripps Howard News Service,
• United Press International, and
• USA Today.

NPS Pharmaceuticals was able to leverage such publicity results and its breakthrough scientific research to raise over $1 billion in private and public investments and list its shares on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol “NPSP.”

* {NOTE: This campaign occurred prior to the widespread adoption of Websites and media-based coverage on the Web.}