Youth Sports Safety Campaign Makes a Splash

A new campaign to reverse an epidemic of youth sports injuries received an enormous boost from a Reingold rollout during April's National Youth Sports Safety Month. Through press outreach and a satellite media tour, we helped garner coverage that reached more than 40 million people in national print and broadcast media—including an article in The Wall Street Journal and coverage on ESPN and Fox News.

Reingold created the campaign for the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine to raise awareness among healthcare professionals, coaches, parents, and athletes about how to prevent and treat injuries from both trauma and overuse—and help keep kids in the game for life. Based on our market research, we named the campaign "STOP," for Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention, created a social media campaign through Facebook and Twitter, and provided AOSSM members with a toolkit of fact-filled collateral materials, including an interactive campaign brochure.

Gearing up for the rollout and announcement of the campaign, we developed and delivered media training for AOSSM's members and key spokespersons, including world-renowned orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, M.D. We created talking points and materials to use in pitching stories to select media outlets nationwide. And during the April 1 campaign launch, we orchestrated a national satellite media tour of more than 20 national and local media outlets—featuring major league baseball player John Smoltz and the first overall pick in this year's NFL Draft, Sam Bradford.

The result: coverage in 28 print and online news outlets, 32 TV and radio stations, dozens of online press sites, and 14 popular health-related blogs. And Reingold scored placements scheduled for next month's issues of Parents and Sports Illustrated magazines.

To build on the campaign momentum, Reingold created and optimized the dynamic STOP Sports Injuries campaign website. The site is loaded with safety tips and summaries of common sports injuries, downloadable PSAs and podcasts, a "Find a Specialist" tool, and links to AOSSM's partner websites. We're also generating a buzz with fresh content on Facebook and Twitter, a "Take the Pledge" effort to win support for safe sports, and invitations for random drawings to win a signed John Smoltz baseball or a Sam Bradford football.