V Formation has been working with Medilink Midlands since the summer of 2022, helping to raise their profile, manage their PR activity and support their internal marketing team. Every year, Medilink Midlands host their annual flagship business awards helping to establish innovators in these sectors across the region to gain recognition and reward. The Medilink Midlands’ Business Awards is a spectacular showcase of the very best collaborations between industry, academia, and the NHS across the Midlands.

Maximising PR

V Formation established a digital marketing strategy to promote the awards, profile the sponsors and categories, and engage with potential applicants and help generate ticket sales. At the Awards ceremony, we live-streamed the event to increase the organisation’s profile and engage with a much larger audience.

Ahead of the event and over the course of three months, the V Formation team created and managed a focused social media campaign across LinkedIn and X (formerly known as Twitter).

Our strategy was robust, with a steady stream of content informing Medilink Midlands’ followers of what they could expect of, and from, the Awards.

On the night, it was a team effort during which we briefed and co-ordinated the photography, ensuring promotional pictures would be available for immediate media coverage, website and social media activity; directed winners and runners-up to deliver a quick video message and live-streamed content throughout the event.

Results

Not only did we build momentum in the months running up to the event, but we achieved an excellent amount of engagement on the night. As a result, we saw:

• a 137% increase in LinkedIn followers compared to the previous month
• a 261% increase in post engagements compared to the previous month

Highlighting the Midlands’ life science innovators

Due to the success of this campaign, Medilink Midlands approached the V Formation team to help with the real-time promotion of their annual Innovation Day, held in October of that year.

Patrons, members, stakeholders and industry specialists attended the Medilink Midlands’ Innovation Day, held in Coventry.

We undertook live postings throughout the event, capturing the size and feel of the event, and engaging with those exhibiting and those presenting. We directed, filmed and posted comments from stakeholders including sponsors, project partners and key Medilink Midlands personnel. Contributors were directed by Joss and filmed by Jo who then edited and posted the VT’s to Medilink’s LinkedIn profile, tagging the individuals and companies for maximum coverage.

Results

As a result of the work we undertook, we saw a large spike in activity centred around their Innovation Day, including:

• a 77% increase in post engagements compared to the previous month
• a 64% increase in LinkedIn followers compared to the previous month
• a 75% increase in audience reach compared to the previous month

We found that being in the environment for both events and seeing how passionate people are about their own businesses and the life science sector was awe-inspiring.

Zoe Heather, Medilink Midlands’ Marketing Manager says:

“Over the last 20 months, V Formation has been an integral part of the Medilink Midlands marketing team, supporting our marketing and PR activities, and more recently, our digital marketing. Our Account Manager Jocelyn, or more well known to us as Joss, always gives 100% in whatever she does. Joss has a fantastic rapport with our members and regularly attends events and networking occasions to film case studies, testimonials, etc., and manages to put everyone at ease. The V Formation team, including Rachel, Lucy, Jo and Susie are a pleasure to work with, delivering excellent support, creative input and limitless energy.”

V Formation Account Manager and Head of PR Jocelyn Braithwaite comments:

“We are constantly reviewing how we can engage and interact with audiences. It’s our role to make sure we’re delivering the right messages to the right people on behalf of our clients, whether that’s using AI, digital marketing or traditional PR.” She adds: “The results in these instances speak for themselves, and it was great to deliver another valuable resource for our client.”

Do you need marketing and PR support for an important event? Get in touch with the V Formation team to get started.