Boost Media Exposure for Multispecialty Practice
Kelsey-Seybold Clinic
Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is a 60-year-old multispecialty group practice based in Houston. Its more than 320 physicians practice more than 40 medical specialties in 18 Houston-area locations. Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is part of the St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System, and its Kelsey Research Foundation works to improve community health through information, education, and research studies.
The Challenge
Kelsey-Seybold’s busy in-house marketing staff needed external media relations support to build and maintain awareness among current and potential patients throughout the geographically expansive Houston region. Kelsey-Seybold hired FrogDog to promote a wide variety of topics including key health care service lines and facility openings. FrogDog also provided vital crisis and issues management counsel.
The FrogDog Approach
- Kelsey-Seybold’s ubiquity in the Houston area and its physicians’ day-to-day relationships with patients provide opportunities to address common health issues that affect just about everyone at some point in their lives.
- FrogDog leveraged these strengths to pitch stories about key business lines such as pediatrics, ophthalmology, orthopedics, dermatology, and cancer screenings. The media relations team focused on seasonal issues—like summer eye injuries and winter flu season—and diligently monitored media queries to match physicians to reporters already working on relevant stories.
- The FrogDog team provided media relations support for key Kelsey-Seybold affiliations including its support of the Houston Wellness Association, the Galleria Chamber of Commerce, and Hope through Grace, a nonprofit devoted to raising awareness of colorectal cancer and screenings.
- By establishing new relationships for Kelsey-Seybold with outlets such as Texas Family magazine and sports radio channel ESPN the Ticket, FrogDog expanded the reach of the clinic’s marketing efforts.
- Additionally, FrogDog worked with Kelsey-Seybold to publicize new facility openings, its 60th anniversary, and the 95th birthday of its founder, Dr. Mavis P. Kelsey.
- FrogDog drew on its extensive and award-winning crisis and issues management experience to effectively communicate about a variety of topics. It also helped develop and establish a blog on health care reform for a Kelsey-Seybold physician–executive.
The Results
- FrogDog nearly tripled the broadcast time devoted to Kelsey-Seybold. This resulted from pitching relevant seasonal stories and establishing a weekly appearance on ESPN the Ticket for a leading Kelsey-Seybold orthopedic surgeon. That relationship directly resulted in significantly greater call volume and appointment scheduling in the orthopedics department.
- FrogDog’s work increased Kelsey-Seybold’s total column inches in print despite the Houston Chronicle’s shrinking news space and the demise of its weekly health care page in favor of a lifestyle-oriented monthly tab.
- FrogDog helped Kelsey-Seybold mitigate—and in some cases avoid—media crises.
- Overall, FrogDog increased Kelsey-Seybold’s media impression in one year to more than 96 million and the media-equivalent value of its press exposure to nearly $900,000.
