Accuray – Livestream Event

Connecting with audiences virtually to launch a new product.

Client

Accuray

Solution

Industry

Project Brief

With smarter, more effective radiation systems and shorter, safer treatments, Accuray is innovating the marketplace with their patient-focused approach to cancer treatment. With their new product, CyberKnife S7, hitting the marketplace, Accuray needed a way to share the news and generate excitement for their innovations.

Strategies

Customer Experience

CHALLENGE

Accuray had planned to unveil their revolutionary non-invasive radiation treatment at an in-person launch event. But as many event professionals have faced in 2020, their event was forced to cancel due to the pandemic. However, Accuray still needed to share the news and generate sales for their innovative cancer-treatment product.

SOLUTION

Through a collaborative discussion, together, we identified why pivoting to a virtual experience was vital for Accuray’s announcement: they had a unique and timely message to share that was relevant with their target customers.

Thinking through the various directions we could take their virtual product launch, we mapped out the ideal customer experience and collectively agreed a livestream event was the appropriate method and platform to deliver their key message, and ultimately build awareness for Accuray’s new product.

In an aggressively condensed timeframe—18 business days from approval to delivery and launch—Derse worked with Accuray and their agencies to produce a livestream event.

Similar to an in-person event, Accuray’s livestream event required strategic, creative, and tactical elements to come together from the moment the in-person event needed to pivot, to post-event evaluation. Our team was there to lead and manage the various event components to ensure it ran flawlessly and achieved their vision:

Developed storyboards and wrote scripts to facilitate the content and messaging
Art directed the creative flow and direction of the event schedule
Designed a virtual TV studio to use as the backdrop for the speakers
Acted as the central hub of communication among stakeholders—video production agency, platform developers, and internal Derse team
Managed the many moving pieces with detailed timelines and run-of-show guides
Brought together (virtually) Accuray personnel from five locations spanning two continents to coordinate and produce video content
Integrated video, animations, and motion graphics into the virtual environment
Coordinated internal and external registration sites
Facilitated live Q & A with multiple subject-matter-expert mediators during the livestream event

RESULTS

There’s a well-known business quote: “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Therefore, we connected Google Analytics to their livestream platform and exported a detailed report to track attendees and engagement. By taking the initial step to incorporate mindful virtual measurement, we discovered the livestream event exceeded Accuray’s attendance goal by 90%.

Virtual experiences provide the opportunity to extend your reach beyond the timeframe the live event was broadcasted. By repurposing the recorded product launch and promoting the content on their social channels, Accuray extended their reach beyond the initial 1,858 attendees, to more than 4,400 views on YouTube.

In addition, the opportunity attendees had to ask questions throughout the event, led to 56 questions fielded in real-time by Accuray’s subject matter experts.

The inability to launch their product at an in-person event was only a temporary hurdle. Simply put, the nearly 30-minute livestream event was a success and exceeded expectations. Accuray effectively connected with their target audiences virtually and showcased how their patient-first approach to cancer treatment is revolutionizing the industry.

“I just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed working with you on this project. Your expertise and candid approach to helping us find our way through a script was invaluable. Kudos and job well done!”

–Creative Manager with Accuray