Cancer chronicle
Undergoing CyberKnife treatment
Published: 12 Aug 2011
Warren’s Cancer Chronicle video series raised awareness of CyberKnife
Client: Accuray
Agency: Schwartz Communications
Campaign: Follow-the-Patient Webisodes
Timescale: November 2010 to March 2011
A quick look
Schwartz produced a five-part video series that followed a patient through prostate cancer treatment with the Accuray CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System. While previous Accuray and CyberKnife videos profiled patients post-treatment, Warren’s Cancer Chronicle was the first to provide insight into the patient experience during treatment. The digital campaign offered a first-hand account during each of the five days of treatment, helping underscore the fact that patients undergoing CyberKnife can complete treatment while carrying on with normal daily activities. During one week in March, the videos were posted daily to YouTube and promoted through social and traditional media to drive awareness of CyberKnife’s benefits and traffic to Accuray’s corporate and patient websites.
Challenge
The CyberKnife System delivers beams of high-dose radiation to tumors with extreme accuracy over the course of five days, helping spare healthy tissue and providing a pain-free, non-surgical option with few side-effects. The technology has been used to treat thousands of patients with prostate cancer to date. To raise patient awareness of the ease with which CyberKnife patients can maintain a normal routine throughout their cancer treatment, Accuray tasked Schwartz Communications with executing a strategic campaign to tell one patient's story, generate fresh content for CyberKnife.com and supplement existing patient resources.
Solution
Schwartz conceptualized and produced a digital video campaign, Warren's Cancer Chronicle, that followed a prostate cancer patient through five days of treatment with the CyberKnife System. The agency believed that telling the story directly from the patient's perspective made it not only more compelling for viewers, but also more valuable for patients exploring treatment options.
Accuray worked closely with leading radiation oncologist Dr. Alan Katz at the CyberKnife Center of Queens (Flushing, NY) to identify 67-year-old Warren Forman as the ideal patient for the video series. Dr. Katz is a published clinical investigator who has studied the effectiveness of using the CyberKnife System to treat prostate cancer, making him the perfect physician spokesperson for the video. Warren was a well-spoken patient who had educated himself on all his treatment options. The video gave Warren an uncensored format to discuss his fears about cancer, the extensive research he did on the CyberKnife System and his treatment plan. Warren's family and colleagues were also filmed providing candid testimonials.
Filming began in November 2010 and resulted in five mini webisodes and one compilation video that launched the first week of March 2011. The videos were posted on YouTube and promoted on Twitter and via the CyberKnife Facebook Fanpage. Concurrently, Schwartz conducted traditional media outreach to relevant radiation and medical device trade publications and reached out directly to patient-focused prostate cancer blogs. In addition, Schwartz and Accuray followed up with key CyberKnife customer sites to encourage them to share it on their websites and via social media.
Results
Four weeks after the launch of Warren's Cancer Chronicle, the video series was viewed 600+ times on YouTube and shared across social media channels, including blogs, Facebook and Twitter. The video was also viewed over 118 times on the company's patient-focused site CyberKnife.com. Several CyberKnife centers plan to share the video across their own social media channels as well.
Client verdict
Feedback from the Accuray executive team has been very positive – it was impressed with the professional quality of the video series – and future digital campaigns are now under consideration.