Best of CASE District II Award
 

Institution: McMaster University

Title of entry: McMaster develops inhaled vaccine: Protection without pain

About this entry: When the media relations team learned about a new inhaled vaccine to fight COVID-19, including variants of concern, being produced at McMaster University, planning kicked into high gear.

Months of work spearheaded by Michelle Donovan, Associate Director, Reputation, was done in advance with key researchers to prep for large-scale media interest and to craft a compelling story targeted to multiple audiences, including donors, government, alumni and an international research audience.

Results:

* More than 600 media mentions, resulting in a reach of more than 100 million views, including all major national outlets (CBC, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, CTV) and several key international platforms, such as CNN.

* More than 27,000 global researchers received the news in a customized email, which received a phenomenal 39% click thru rate, much higher than industry standard.

* The story, and a follow up, generated more than 100,000 unique pageviews and had readership from around the globe.

* Social media ads featuring the lead researchers, and linking to the original story, were served worldwide within days of the media coverage to drive additional traffic to the story.

* The story served to heighten awareness of Canada’s Global Nexus for Pandemics and Biological Threats — a new initiative and top priority at McMaster — and increase interest among government officials, a target audience.

* A social media strategy to cultivate dozens of McMaster researchers as influencers supported substantial engagement on multiple platforms, including more than 200,000 video views on Twitter and Facebook.