June 2, 2016
At Aria, we’ve worked with plenty of large, multi-national companies, but few can match the enormity of IBM. Since the launch of IBM Watson Health just over a year ago, Aria has played a role in introducing the company and its executives to eager journalists and key influencers in the healthcare industry.
Aria and IBM’s partnership began when the company announced its first acquisition in healthcare -- our client, Explorys, a healthcare intelligence cloud company that built one of the largest clinical data sets in the world. The announcement was made at HIMSS15, inciting instant media attention and setting the stage for what would become a very exciting collaboration for Aria.
Even before the dust had settled, it was clear that working with IBM Watson Health would be a wild ride. While fast-paced and challenging, the work we’ve done for IBM Watson Health has been some of the most inspiring and rewarding. We’ve learned a lot over the past few months, including how best to work with a company that has such a massive scope. Below are three of our biggest takeaways:
- Time is a commodity. The depth of expertise and vision at all levels of this company is staggering. While there is no shortage of innovative ideas, pitch concepts or interview requests, we’ve realized that time is one of the scarcest resources for the company’s thought leaders. As a result, we’ve learned to be extremely efficient in getting what we need to feed our PR machine.
- Go with the flow. With so many people working on so many big ideas, there’s bound to be last-minute conference calls, emergency press release drops and on-the-fly interviews. At Aria, we’ve learned to remain nimble and flexible to be able to pivot to where we’re needed the most to ensure the job gets done.
- Practice empathy. Aligning messaging, organizing logistics and executing media campaigns for a company that spans the globe and works with several agencies can be exasperating, but we’ve learned a little empathy goes a long way. After all, we’re not the only ones on a planning call at 7 AM. Remaining open and collaborative has been a critical success factor in fostering meaningful relationships with IBM and its partners.
Working with IBM Watson Health has provided Aria the unique opportunity to hone many of our PR skills, as well as to nurture a renewed sense of wonder in what the future of healthcare holds. For more information on how Aria is supporting IBM, email cbenoit@ariamarketing.com or check out our Twitter page @AriaMarketing for links to the latest media hits.
