Hologic

When FullTerm, the Fetal Fibronectin test received FDA clearance, the test was used primarily on women presenting with preterm labor symptoms in the hospital setting. Today, Hologic is focused on marketing the test as a predictive tool at routine prenatal appointments for high-risk pregnant women.

Business Challenge

The PR challenge was to raise awareness of the “in office” application of the test, but the news value of the story was low given that the test received FDA clearance more than a decade ago, and no new significant clinical research was underway that could be leveraged from a media perspective. Traditional media outlets considered the test an “old story” and were reluctant to revisit it in the absence of hard news. These issues, combined with a shrinking number of traditional media outlets to approach, presented a challenge in bringing awareness about the fFN test to women.

Hologic and Schwartz strategized about other influential and popular venues to target. Given that pregnancy is one of the most widely researched health conditions on the Internet, we determined much of the PR effort would be spent ensuring the Internet was well-populated with accurate information about the fetal fibronectin test so that women would easily find it when researching pregnancy.

Schwartz PR Strategy

• Schwartz conducted an audit of the top 25 women’s health and pregnancy web sites to learn if and how fetal fibronectin testing was being discussed.
• Schwartz launched a social media campaign to cultivate a community of women informed about the fetal fibronectin test and motivated to tell others about it.
• Schwartz developed a Facebook Fan Page as a forum of relevant information about pregnancy/premature birth.
• Schwartz developed a newsletter, “Motivated Moms,” featuring general information about preterm birth, including stories and mentions of the fetal fibronectin test both in the online and offline worlds.
• Schwartz began using Twitter to connect with pregnancy experts, encouraging them to tweet about fetal fibronectin testing, as well as women writing about their own pregnancies, encouraging them to become fans of the Facebook fan page.
• Schwartz monitored the blogosphere for women writing about their experiences with the fetal fibronectin test and, as appropriate, approached them to stay informed about “all things pregnant” via the Facebook fan page.

Results

Schwartz has increased and improved Hologic’s presence online in order to reach its target audience of pregnant women at high risk for early delivery. A few examples include:

• Information about the fetal fibronectin test on pregnancy sites such as Babycenter.com was either corrected, updated or expanded.
• New content appeared about the use of fetal fibronectin testing in high-risk pregnant women on targeted sites, including iParenting.com and FitPregnancyBlog.
• Schwartz encouraged fetal fibronectin patients to join the discussion about high-risk pregnancy and premature birth on several pregnancy chat rooms and forums, including About.com, Babycenter.com and Parents.org.
• Schwartz stimulated discussion of the fetal fibronectin test on Twitter by forging relationships with pregnancy experts tweeting about pregnancy and asking them to tweet about the test as well as tweeting relevant information about the test (mostly sending news stories about the test) from our individual handles.


• Of note, the founder of KeepEmCookin.com, a forum for high-risk pregnant women, has tweeted about the fetal fibronectin test repeatedly and has also uploaded new content to the website about the use of the test as a predictive tool for high-risk women.

In addition, through our outreach to women blogging about the fetal fibronectin test, Schwartz developed lasting relationships with women who now serve as media references for the PR campaign.

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