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On October 22nd, Matter Health’s Vice President Ryan Lilly and Director Paul Berthiaume shared key takeaways and lessons learned while shepherding more than thirty healthcare brands through the pandemic, social movements and volatile political environment of this year. Participants also heard firsthand examples and direct commentary from guest speakers representing Matter Health’s client base and HITMC’s broader community. 

Check out the full production streamed live from Matter’s in-house video production studio:

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This article originally appeared on HITMC by Jill Oestreicher Gross, Account Manager, Matter Health.

March 11th was a chilly, sunny day when the news flashed across my phone: The WHO officially declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. In that instant, I knew newsrooms worldwide were lighting on fire, and that the media landscape would forever be altered by this breaking news. I breathlessly walked into the office of Ryan Lilly, Matter’s vice president of healthcare, to unpack the news. We both knew our lives were about to get very busy, but little did we know exactly how busy.

When a global health crisis takes over, it follows that healthcare organizations will need to understand the effects the crisis will have on its company, its people and its mission. The  pandemic has affected all walks of life, from every country to every industry to every slice of humanity, and it turns out healthcare marketing is at the forefront of it all. Every client’s priorities and initiatives needed to be analyzed and remapped through the lens of COVID-19. 

As Matter quickly pivoted to a remote environment, our Matter Health teams “met” with clients to begin to unpack and understand the implications the pandemic might have for each account’s initiatives. Plans long in the works were suddenly halted to ensure the program’s intent was still viable, or even worse, seen as insensitive in some way. Initially, every day surfaced a new nugget of information, a new way of considering programs and messaging, with plans derailed, repositioned, and postponed.

Sensitivities toward journalists working round the clock paired with promoting the right type of content at the right time became the healthcare’s team focus as we audited the media landscape to find appropriate openings. And just as we began to get our arms around COVID, a sweeping social justice movement overtook the media landscape. Our clients needed us to help them through these uncharted waters, and to guide them to safe harbor, to a place where the important healthcare work they do greatly impacts those who need care the most.

And so we persevered, again strategizing on positioning, newsworthy announcements, social content, thought leadership, when to share and when not to share…the list goes on and on. We did it all in the vein of adding value to the important stories being told throughout the news cycle. We tirelessly worked with each client to examine the pros and cons of releasing announcements, anticipating reporters’ questions, respecting journalists’ time, brainstorming “safe” announcements and advising when to hold back on sharing news. 

Amidst all this chaos, we somehow managed to secure new client partnerships and stand up new programs, adding our detailed and thorough attention to each nuance of each account to ensure consistency. In parallel, we even further solidified our relationships with existing clients by providing open communication and brainstorming discussions on myriad healthcare-related topics. During this time, we leaned heavily on our integrated capabilities within the wider Matter agency and pivoted toward appropriate social posts, videos, graphics and case studies, to continue to tell our clients’ stories internally and externally.

What we’ve learned since that fateful March day is that more than ever, audiences like and respond to data supporting trend-oriented stories. With conferences being cancelled well into 2021, marketing dollars have in many cases been shifted to new forays into virtual speaking engagements, targeted digital advertising, webinars, podcasts and engaging influencers. Analyst relations are also playing a larger role in the media sphere, giving clients an additional platform to become involved in trend reports and thought leadership.

We’ve gleaned a massive amount about how our healthcare clients’ marketing strategies overlap with the world at large, and one thing looks certain: pivoting has become more or less permanent. Explore the changes and strategies with our team and several well-known HITMC experts in our live webinar, now available on-demand.

October usually conjures up images of pumpkin spiced lattes, Sunday afternoon football and trick or treating. It’s also National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). Now in its 17th year, the annual observance driven by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) continues to work toward its goal of raising awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and ensuring Americans have the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.

For many reasons, this year’s theme, “Do your Part. #BeCyberSmart” seems to resonate even more given everything that’s transpired in 2020. As the world around us is compromised in so many ways we previously never thought possible, having a month designated by CISA to “encourage individuals and organizations to own their role in protecting their part of cyberspace, stressing personal accountability and the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity” feels particularly appropriate. But with the stakes significantly raised  due to the frequency and severity of cyberattacks – specifically ransomware attacks – it’s no longer sufficient to only raise awareness, educate and offer up friendly tips. Being “CyberSmart” means recognizing the magnitude of threats that exist and heeding advice from the experts defending against the bad actors who seem to be getting more aggressive, more emboldened and even more organized.

All you need to do is read the daily headlines to understand the seriousness of cybersecurity risks. The spread of disinformation continues amid the impending presidential election, while threats from foreign hackers targeting COVID-19 vaccine research persist. More than 1.2 billion students worldwide have been impacted by school closures and submerged in distance learning, while vast numbers of remote workers are increasingly susceptible to cyber threats. We are now living in an era where the list of warnings is literally endless. This is a moment where well-intended advice needs to become an urgent call to action.

We tapped the insight of a few Matter cybersecurity clients who are intent on educating, rather than stoking fears. They work tirelessly to develop products and services which their customers and partners can use daily to defend against relentless attackers. We asked them what Cybersecurity Awareness Month means to them, and why it matters more in the year 2020. Here is what they had to say:

“The security landscape always changes and always will. Today, that may be the complete breakdown of the traditional ‘perimeter’ around a company’s digital assets or the need to suddenly support a massive shift from office work to work-from-home. Tomorrow, we’ll add new challenges, like the impact of quantum computers on our entire computing landscape. No matter where it goes, security innovators will be there to ensure companies and individuals are able to continue their work and personal activities safely.” – Tim Callan, Chief Compliance Officer, Sectigo

“Cybersecurity takes a ‘village.’ It is not only about the information security team’s actions; it also requires making cybersecurity a foundational element of company culture. To defeat today’s cyber criminals, every employee has a role and responsibility to do their part in preventing cyber risks, detecting threats quickly, and allocating the right business and personal resources for continuous improvement. Companies should have KPI’s related to cross-department level cybersecurity and track these indicators alongside other core metrics. A ‘+security’ mentality will also shift how organizations approach new development and services. This thinking will in turn foster lower risk releases and mitigate downstream challenges associated with viewing security in hindsight.” – Carolyn Crandall, Chief Deception Officer and CMO, Attivo Networks

“NCSAM aptly focuses on ‘If You Connect It, Protect It.’ However, one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing is that of Shadow IT assets – or in other words, systems connected online but not known to the central security team. Shadow IT is on tremendous rise due to remote working, cloud, IoT and API adoption, and causes one third of all breaches. As an industry, we need to have systems in place to proactively discover such blind spots and conduct continuous testing to ensure that enterprises are safe online.” – Bikash Barai, Co-Founder at FireCompass.

We’re continuing to do our part to help raise Cybersecurity Awareness both this month and throughout Q4 with additional content, including our new “Cyberside Chat” video series launching soon. We are sitting down with cybersecurity industry leaders, including company executives, bloggers, industry analysts and VCs, and look forward to sharing with you what we learn.  Stay tuned, stay safe and #BeCyberSmart!