Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA)

About the client:

‍The goals of CARRA are to better understand all pediatric-onset rheumatic diseases; how to treat each and every patient most effectively and safely, and eventually find a cure.

Challenge:

We were contacted by Gray Scale Media, a consulting firm representing CARRA, on a Friday evening. Gray Scale’s public relations (PR)team had a dilemma. CARRA had recently conducted a study from 25 countries led by the University of Manchester and Boston Children’s Hospital that found children and young people with underlying rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases are uncommonly hospitalized with COVID-19. The journal had published the study ahead of schedule and the PR team wanted to create a video press release to coincide with the study’s release. They needed a trusted video team to film at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio to create a video narrative to go along with the press release and they needed the project wrapped in a week. They were eager to work with a team of former journalists who could produce, shoot, script, voice, and edit a news package while sensitively and professionally “putting a face” on their research. Two rounds of edits were made after both Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital’sDoctors and PR teams reviewed the work to make sure their message was clear and concise. We were able to finish the project within three days, well under the original week deadline.

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Our Work:

Working closely with Gray Scale Media, our team communicated with the marketing department at Nationwide Children’s to coordinate an interview with an 11-year-old, her mother, and a doctor on-campus. We also made sure everyone on our team accommodated all protocols necessary to film at a children’s hospital during the pandemic including extreme caution to not shoot any identifying markers or individuals not intended to be filmed.

We also made sure to accommodate the family, making them feel at ease to share their story. We worked closely with the family to share digital assets (photos and cell phone videos) to enhance the story. The video went through multiple edits, quickly, that involved input from the Gray Scale team and researchers who worked on the study.

The result:

A video press release that was picked up by state, national, and international media outlets.