A review of previous media relations efforts made one issue clear: the press couldn’t get excited about technology they didn’t understand. That meant creating language for Blackrock’s extraordinary work that made it accessible across all audiences. Tapping our team of “tech translators” we reframed the story to highlight the impact of the work first. Through this shift, each announcement could get reporters excited about the news without heavy use of medical jargon. Working with CEO Marcus Gerhardt and his team, our resulting messaging accomplished our central goals of informing all readers -- in both science and non-science audiences -- while still maintaining the integrity of the research and respecting Blackrock’s partners and patients.This included reframing the social media content, focusing on telling patient stories that were captivating and shareable.

Our next step extended the focus of phase one, but with a specific eye on the competition. Neuralink’s entry into the BCI space, along with its famous founder, had resulted in news coverage with far-fetched speculation on what this technology could do. It also led some reporters to regard Blackrock as the less innovative company – the one running behind a competitor that was pushing boundaries. Our messaging had to change that. As the oldest company in BCI technology, Blackrock has been part of human research trials for more than a decade, and with demonstrated success: of the 36 participants with implantable BCIs, 32 are implanted with Blackrock technology. Lightspeed’s strategy was to emphasize this legacy of experience and accomplishment. Working with our client’s leadership, we pivoted away from their previously conservative talking points to take a more balanced approach. Our new stance would be bold – even going so far as to call out the competition – but importantly, it would always be grounded in facts. From Reddit to Twitter, we also joined social media conversations calling out the competition and showcased Blackrock’s success.

With our messaging, narrative and focus in place, it was time to take Blackrock’s story to wider audiences. We started by deploying our healthtech team to engage science and health reporters on the full story of Blackrock. Our reframed storyline succeeded in gaining coverage from prominent health, science, pharmaceutical and neurotech publications.

With the process proved, we took it further. Recognizing the reach of Blackrock’s innovations, our next step was to engage reporters outside of health and science. That included a business angle that earned coverage in major business media like CNBC, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes and MSN.

As interest built, our team kept close watch on competitor news to find opportunities to insert Blackrock into that conversation. We found initial success with The New York Observer, working with a reporter who had covered Neuralink. She was so impressed with Blackrock’s leaders that her resulting article was headlined: Elon Musk’s Neuralink Brain Implant Technology Is Outdated…says the CEO of Blackrock Neurotech. Throughout the article, Blackrock’s co-founders showed our new bold-but-balanced approach. They praised Neuralink, while setting the record straight about the technology. CEO Gerhardt even slid in a little humor, stating, “Elon got us a lot of publicity and awareness. That’s great for this space… He just has to come to terms with the fact that he’s not number one. I’m sure he’ll manage it. He’s already got two great companies out there.”

Another notable article was from Washington Post reporter Steven Zeitchik, that also demonstrated the balanced position we set out to achieve. Blackrock’s CEO was quoted calling out Musk for over-hype: ““If you send a sporadic message, on the spur of the moment, to patients and get their hopes up, it’s irresponsible no matter how you try to turn it.”

We also expanded our audience on social media. Historically, passionate investors made up the majority of the audience. We began engaging with media, researchers, the disability community and medical community to amplify Blackrock’s content.

Then we took our biggest step: with interest sparked and the technology understood, we finally had the platform to win attention from the general public. Working with the client, Lightspeed uncovered the human interest side of Blackrock’s story, sharing news of how its BCI patients were using the technology. Whether it was to create artwork, play video games, drive car simulators or control robotic limbs, these real-life examples illustrated the many ways Blackrock was improving lives. As a result, our team captivated interest from major market news outlets such as NPR.