Our primary objective was to raise the profile of FemTech Lab and amplify its credibility within the female health market, enabling it to attract the best and most innovative start-ups and investors. As the organisation had only been operating for less than 12 months, we were starting from a position of low brand awareness.
We wanted to position FemTech Lab as a fresh and unique accelerator program and a disruptor to the healthcare and tech sectors. Plus, it was important for us to clearly convey FemTech Lab’s core mission – to improve the lives of women everywhere.
Our secondary aim was to position FemTech Lab’s co-founders, Katia Lang and Karina Vazirova, as thought leaders in FemTech, MedTech and entrepreneurship.
In our inaugural six-month pro-bono campaign, we took a multi-pronged approach. First, we wanted to raise awareness of the program itself, which was less than a year old. We did this by announcing the FemTech Lab Spring cohort to the media, which generated much-needed excitement and buzz.
To position the FemTech Lab team as thought leaders, we drafted a series of content themes to pitch to the media, drawn from their research and insights. This strategy incorporated Q&As and timely open letters highlighting FemTech Lab’s stance on the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s consultation on women’s health strategy.
We also focused on pitching bylined pieces by Katia and Karina, discussing the lack of investment in women’s health – a notable barrier to driving innovation forwards. By being vocal on the challenges experienced by many start-ups, we were able to position FemTech Lab as a credible partner that understands this landscape inside-out.
Secondly, we implemented a social media strategy to spread the word about FemTech Lab’s activities and expand its reach. This included providing analysis into high-performing social media hashtags and drafting posts for LinkedIn and Twitter to accompany each coverage piece.
Finally, we supported specific start-ups from the FemTech Lab Spring cohort – including Aurat Raaj, Fertility Circle, WorryTree, Selectivity and MyMilk Labs – in increasing their media outreach. By showcasing the quality of these start-ups to the media, we further demonstrated FemTech Lab’s credibility. Our UK director Hannah Patel also gave communications training to all founders. These sessions were designed to equip them with the skills to begin building their own marketing and PR programmes to attract investment and customers.
