Volcano Corporation

About Volcano: Volcano develops, manufactures and markets a broad suite of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and functional measurement (FM) products that aid in the diagnosis and treatment of vascular and structural heart disease.

Challenge: As one of only two manufacturers of IVUS globally, Volcano sought to increase patient awareness of IVUS and its uses in the treatment of coronary artery disease.

Strategy: Because the uses and benefits of IVUS were not yet widely understood outside the medical community, Ricochet sought to introduce the technology to mainstream journalists. Around the time of the campaign, an FDA panel on stent safety was generating a great deal of national news. Ricochet thus focused its energies on mainstream business and health care reporters, who were interested in the impact of the FDA’s recommendations on patient care and stent manufacturers. In this media environment, Ricochet set up briefings between Volcano executives and leading journalists in New York and Washington, DC.

Results: In the early weeks of this engagement, an FDA panel on stent safety began generating headlines throughout the nation. Consequently, Ricochet focused its energies on mainstream business and health care publications covering the FDA recommendations. Since most journalists were relatively unfamiliar with IVUS, Ricochet arranged meetings between Volcano executives and the media. During the two month briefings tour, nearly two dozen Volcano and IVUS stories were published, including two segments on Mad Money with Jim Cramer and coverage by Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Dow Jones and CNN Money.

As health reporters widened their coverage of stents and heart health, Ricochet leveraged the company’s financial coverage and the familiarity fostered by one-on-one briefings to secure significant mainstream coverage about the value of IVUS on the front page of the “Personal Journal” in The Wall Street Journal.