Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre

Sheffield Hallam University.

2023-4 | Public Relations / Case Studies / Blogs

Client

Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Accelerator is an R&D programme which supports pre-revenue and early stage companies developing solutions that support people to live healthier lives.

Following a competitive application process, successful applicants are supported by academics to build a project team and undertake a bespoke R&D project to help overcome a technical challenge that they have, which is possible thanks to the University’s world class R&D facilities and access to rapid prototyping and precision engineering capabilities.

Challenge

To increase the volume and quality of applications for the 2023/4 Advanced Wellbeing Accelerator programme, increase awareness of the accelerator with a view to encouraging companies to think about a future application, and to support retention and engagement among the cohort.

Solution

We conducted a targeted media campaign to reach, influence, and drive action amongst a combined audience of over 200,000 relevant individuals in the UK and internationally. This campaign involved two distinct press moments, focusing on the accelerator’s launch and on unveiling the 2024 cohort. These were covered widely and reached healthcare professionals across the UK, EU and US through publications including MedTech Innovation, Digital Health, UKTN and more.

We created case studies highlighting the impact of the accelerator on companies in previous cohorts and a blog explaining how the accelerator programme helps angel investors to identify high potential companies.

We provided a toolkit to help accelerator companies to benefit from the AWRC’s additional publicity and communications activity and provided ad-hoc generalist support.

Results

Applications increased by 30% compared with 2022 within a shorter application window, leading to the accelerator being highly oversubscribed.

Monthly website visitors increased by 133% between October and December (compared to June – September).

We secured valuable SEO-positive backlinks for the AWRC and cohort companies in several sector publications with high domain authority scores.

The campaign also helped to continue positioning the AWRC accelerator as one of the most exciting, dynamic accelerators for health and wellbeing companies in the country.

Ryan Sylvester, Programme Manager, Advanced Wellbeing Accelerator

“We were delighted by the results of Tarleton’s campaign, which led to an increase in high-quality applications for the accelerator programme within a tighter application window; they exceeded our expectations and achieved coverage across our top target publications.

This has been hugely beneficial for the profile of the accelerator within the MedTech community and has helped to keep us front of mind of health and wellbeing companies developing the solutions of tomorrow.”