Reactive Media Relations: Could Nanomedicine Fix Rob Gronkowski?

The Opportunity

Northeastern University’s College of Engineering (NUCE) retained Belfort Group (BG) to bring Dr. Thomas Webster’s important research work out of the lab and into the living rooms of mainstream audiences. BG needed to develop a forward-thinking story idea that emphasized the shorter recovery period that nanomedicine could provide for athletes and their teams.

The Strategy

After monitoring the local and national media opportunities for placements to showcase how the work at NUCE is relevant to critical health applications, BG identified the Rob Gronkowski knee injury as an ideal story opportunity. BG created customized pitches for business, sports, medical and general assignment news. We offered NUCE’s innovative research to the local sports media on how nanomedicine could be a “game-changer” for this type of injury and stressed that nanomedicine and the Northeastern College of Engineering should be a part of the sports injury conversation across New England and the country.

The Result

BG secured a Fox 25 WFXT-TV live segment with Dr. Webster, who talked about nanomedicine in relation to Gronkowski’s injury. The segment effectively positioned NUCE as a leader in nanomedicine research and Dr. Webster as an expert in the field and made it clear to a diverse audience why this type of research is critical to advancing medical treatments and care.