The Challenge


Our client, the $100B+, Fortune 500 medtech that pioneered robotic surgery, had proved out the market over the previous decade and was beginning to see new market entrance by established brands like J&J, Medtronic, and Google. Building the Intuitive brand was historically a lower priority, which was fine when they were the only player in town. With a newly invigorated marketing push and the creation of their social media department, they sought out a strategic agency with deep roots in social to build their global social media capability from the ground up.


Our Approach


CROWN established foundational processes,
templates and tool sets, analyzing our and competitors’ channels, content, activity and audiences, translating strategic business goals and stakeholder priorities into replicable programs, deploying campaigns — testing, learning, and benchmarking throughout — and evolving creative
interest and content diversity, with the goals of winning human
connection, elevating product visibility, demonstrating brand values, and building a world class global social media marketing capability.










In-house and embedded


This was a 360º social media engagement in which CROWN was  an indispensible part of our clients’ extended team. We interfaced with product managers, creatives, data analysts, event coordinators, sales leaders, VPs, territory managers, legal, regulatory, clinical and public affairs, and talent acquisition, not to mention Intuitive’s not-for-profit arm, and partner organizations like the American Lung Association, Red Dot, Robotic Bariatric Collaboration and more.

We matched our clients’ business priorities and strategic opportunities with actionable social media strategies, developing internal teams for daily community management, organic social media, paid social media, creative design, photography, videography, motion design, project and account management, as well as analytics and reporting.




Concept to Creative Execution


With a full-service creative agency attached to our strategic consultancy, we jumped right in with creative concepting, campaign strategy, and design production to bring Intuitive’s valuable content to life. To ensure consistent look-and-feel, we built out social media design guidelines and templates that translated Intuititive’s exacting brand standards into the social realm.






Enablement projects
--Social listening & community management w/ daily response log
--"Call 4 Content” (cross-BU key customer content boost)
--Tactics map format w/ quarterly Agile PN process
--Event tiering system; added 4 on-site social integrations
--Built great relationships and processes w/ stakeholders: events, R/CA/L/GPA, design






Social Media Community Management


Social media is a two-way street, so beyond posting, we also developed and trained a team to consistently engage with our community members. After building out reporting templates, review processes, and engagement responses, we recommended and secured enterprise-grade social listening tools to track mentions and propose potential opportunities for engagement; in collaboration with the Global Public Affairs team, we created a social media crisis management plan, developing social listening and reporting processes to escalate notable content quickly.






Testimonial


"I couldn’t ask for a better partner than CROWN. They are nimble experts who have consistently delivered beyond expectation in dynamic and thoughtful ways.”

SENIOR MANAGER, CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA
INTUITIVE SURGICAL


QUOTES ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA IN MEDTECH
“Social media is […] far less expensive than traditional marketing methods, making it even easier for medical technology organizations to reach surgeons through video and online promotion”

"88% [of physicians] use the Internet and social media to research pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical devices." (source: Master of Health Administration)

“More than [50% of physicians] perceive social media to be an effective way to access current, high-quality medical information.”

"[Social media] strengthens relationships between patients, surgeons, and the medical community in an industry that benefits from visual interaction and education."

“It’s important that CMOs make a name for their companies as looking to eradicate a disease or relieve suffering, rather than trying to sell a product.”

“B2B companies with strong brands outperform weak ones by 20 percent.”

There is “a strong and statistically significant correlation between market share growth and ESOV (positive delta between share of voice and market share) for B2B brands.”




Results


CROWN not only built a smart, best-in-class global social media capability that leveraged Intuitive’s internal teams and positioned the company for international growth, we also rooted Intuitive’s social media program in success through C-suite buy-in, sales enablement, and full-funnel marketing integration, and then put the strategy to work with an insight-driven social media persona: “We speak to surgeons like Nike speaks to athletes.”



Intuitive

Project Information

Client: Intuitive SURGICAL
Title: BUILDING A BEST-IN-CLASS Social Media CAPABILITY at a fortune 500 company From The Ground Up
Tags: Social Media Strategy, Audience Targeting, Channel Strategy, Event STRATEGY, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP & EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS, Community Management, DESIGN, VIDEO, Copywriting, PAID SOCIAL, Analytics and Reporting, SOCIAL LISTENING
Credits

Strategy, Creative Direction, Concept + executions CROWN SOCIAL