Positive Coverage Resonates
Leading the daily duck parade at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis in celebration of her 100th birthday. A final fishing trip with a best friend to a favorite nearby lake. A ride in a vintage WWII bomber like the one he flew in the war. A roaring throaty road trip on a Harley. These are all examples of Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care’s Gift of a Day patient program.
Inspired by the 2007 Jim Stovall book, The Ultimate Gift, the initiative is based on the idea of creating a very special, personalized day for patients receiving end of life care from Crossroads. The gifts are created and implemented by caring teams of professionals that include social workers, chaplains, event planners and volunteers.
SPRYTE has been supporting the Gift of a Day program at Crossroads’ 11 locations in seven states for more than 10 years. We may have 100 under our belt but two recent Crossroads Gifts of a Day reminded us how special and how fruitful, from a public relations perspective, the program is.
A Carriage Ride Around Liberty Park Lake
The first one was for Merry Schlobohm of Sedalia, Missouri. Pulled by horses Red and Ted, Schlobohm was treated to a carriage ride around the lake in Sedalia’s Liberty Park in a donated antique English carriage with her husband, daughter, son and brother. A life long horse lover, it was a chance for Merry to get up close and personal with the horses and spend a special day with her family. The heartwarming gathering, with permission from the Schlobohms, was covered by the local daily newspaper, the Sedalia Democrat. Actually, it was the cover story.
World War II Veteran Charles Leist of Springfield, Ohio, was the second recent memorable Gift of a Day. On his 90th birthday, Ohio State Representative Rick Perales joined Leist’s friends and family to celebrate his milestone birthday and thank Leist for his military service long ago. The small intimate gathering led to big earned media coverage, with two Dayton TV stations (WBDT and WRGT) running multiple segments throughout the weekend.
Many organizations would value this type of positive exposure if they could secure it. Keep in mind, it doesn’t just happen because enterprising reporters are looking for good stories. It starts with the initiative. Crossroads’ Gift of a Day is the there.
Public Relations Reinforces a Competitive Advantage
And PR is just one of the disciplines in Crossroads’ multilayered, integrated marketing program. Do you agree that earned media coverage of a Crossroads’ Gift of a Day shows rather than tells Crossroads’ point of differentiation as a hospice provider in an endearing and credible way?
So what is the value of this type of earned media? Here are some top-level benefits Gift of a Day newspaper articles and TV segments deliver Crossroads:
- A Positive Third-Party Endorsement of the Crossroads Brand
- Prospective Patient Families Learn About Crossroads Through Gift of a Day Media Coverage
- Earned Media Placements Delight Crossroads Patients and Their Families
- Crossroads Professional Staff are Validated by External Exposure
We are always so impressed by the creativity displayed by the professionals who bring Gifts of a Day alive for Crossroads families. It’s a pleasure to support the program each time SPRYTE is activated. And when our efforts to entice the media don’t deliver earned media to Crossroads for a multitude of reasons? We repurpose our pitch materials into Blogs for the Crossroads web site.
