The Challenge

Overview

Air Methods is one of the largest air medical organizations in the country, with bases serving 48 states that have been crucial in getting COVID-19 patients to the care they require.

In rural areas, hospital access is severely limited. While ground ambulances might take over an hour to reach a patient in distress, a helicopter can arrive in minutes. Air Methods’ aircraft are essentially “flying ICUs,” equipped with experienced clinical personnel and equipment, such as ventilators, that many ground ambulances do not have. Without air medical services, overrun hospitals would also suffer greatly. Helicopters and fixed-wing are aircraft able to transfer patients from hospitals at capacity to other facilities that have the beds and staff to provide the necessary treatment.

Challenge

When Air Methods (NASDAQ:AIRM) hired Amendola, they were in crisis mode due to issues with balance billing, facing strong negativity from media, partners and employees that was impacting revenue and future sustainability. To increase positive sentiment and curb negative coverage while building brand equity and trust, Amendola proposed an integrated communications platform that included:

✚ Messaging platform that addressed customer, patient, employee concerns and built emotional connections to the brand

✚ Comprehensive crisis communications plan that empowered execs to respond quickly and with empathy

✚ Proactive storytelling pipeline that showcased positive patient stories, provided broader information about the key issues, and highlighted innovative clinical processes

✚ Company’s first-ever digital marketing campaigns

✚ Community Outreach Toolkit to engage local employees

First Year Results

✚ Transitioned media sentiment from mostly negative/neutral to more positive

✚ Secured >75 pieces of positive coverage in the first year and maintained a similar cadence in subsequent years

✚ Google AdWords Results 

• • 1,062,266 impressions
  • 9,316 clicks; $.39 average CPC

✚Facebook Ads Results

• Reached 2.3M people; 11.1M impressions
• > 100,000 landing page views
• Approximately 6M video views
• High engagement: 3.5k shares, 10.9k reactions, 572 comments, 394 saves