Project MARCH x En Serio collaboration during the pandemic

Helping someone with a spinal cord injury to stand up and walk again? Project MARCH makes it happen. The TU Delft student team consists of around 25 students who are dedicating a year to develop a new exoskeleton. This exoskeleton is a motorized robotic harness for people with paraplegia.

More awareness for exoskeleton technology

A key objective from the MARCH team is to raise awareness of medical exoskeletons. Therefore, media visibility is an important part of this project. We hope to encourage others to do the same and also contribute to the development of this technology.

Brand awareness is important for sponsors

Sponsors are important for non-profit projects like MARCH. That is why we work actively to raise our brand awareness and be and remain attractive to existing and new sponsors.

Every year a new student team

En Serio has been supporting Project MARCH since 2019. They do this pro-bono and it is an important part of their agency culture. Every year they offer their time and experience to support social projects like ours.

Each year in September, a completely new Project MARCH team takes over from their predecessors. This way, we aim to accelerate innovation. Each team bring a whole load of fresh, new ideas to the table at the start of their year.

2020: an unexpected turn of events

In 2020, the Project MARCH V PR team wanted to do and learn as much as possible, for instance, writing a press release. That is why En Serio took on the role of a PR expert and coach and communication advisor.  This required a great deal of interaction and feedback. Besides, this year was set to be very interesting for MARCH, as the Cybathlon – the Bionic Games – was on the agenda. From a PR perspective, this competition would be incredibly valuable.

The Cybathlon: the Bionic Games

The Cybathlon is an international competition that was organized by the Swiss ETH Zürich. During the competition, participating teams had to use their robotic solutions to overcome six obstacles in ten minutes.

This event is best described as the Bionic Games: a global competition in which people with disabilities and their teams strive to complete a set of obstacles as quickly as possible, supported by technological innovations like robotic limbs and exoskeletons. This is something Project MARCH has been working towards since its launch in 2015. It would be the first time we have ever participated in this competition. A great opportunity to generate a lot of publicity!

Communication played a key role in our collaboration with En Serio’s team right from the start. We kept them up to date with what was going on at our end. This enabled them to contribute their ideas and brainstorm with us effectively, and to provide us with tailored communication advice.

The start of an exciting year for PR

To get a taste of what working with the media is like, the Project MARCH PR team kicked things off by pitching stories to journalists. En Serio helped us to identify our key target audiences and narrow down our broad media list. We soon saw our first results: an article in Zo Zit Dat and a few pieces in regional newspapers. We had achieved our first personal goals: we approached the national media and written our first articles for various publications. All of this was in preparation for ‘bigger’ press events later in the year.

An unexpected challenge calls for new ideas

Unfortunately, something unexpected happened: the pandamic hit. Not only was our first own event – our design presentation – cancelled, but the Cybathlon was also postponed. A major setback, but it was not the end of the world. The competition had simply been postponed, and we still had the chance to show what Project MARCH is capable of.

The whole team worked from home, just like En Serio. This put the creative thinking of both Project MARCH and En Serio to the test. We decided to brainstorm ideas for a possible PR stunt or an alternative event. All sorts of ideas were thrown around during the Zoom meeting – nothing was too far-fetched. The idea that appealed the most to us was organizing an exoskeleton race, possibly a one-on-one race against the exoskeleton team from TU Twente. That race, that would feature the same obstacles as the Cybathlon, would be broadcasted via a live stream.

Meanwhile, there were some indications that the government would permit the organisation of small-scale events. Such an event would be a great way to finish the challenging year for the whole team and would provide the press with an interesting angle for a story. We thought we could kill two birds with one stone. Things seemed to be moving in the right direction regarding the pandemic, and events up to 100 people were permitted once more. With only four weeks preparation time, we decided to go ahead with an in-person event alongside the livestream.

Short notice

Due to the last-minute decision to hold the event in person, we – the MARCH PR team – were also short on time. The handover to the new team was also already in full process. Efficient time management was crucial.  The ‘save the date’, press invitation and press release were drafted, and we received a great deal of coaching and guidance from the En Serio team throughout the process. The Project MARCH team wrote the first drafts themselves, and En Serio provided them with feedback. Together, we finalised the document, while learning a great deal from En Serio’s tips and feedback.

A great end of our year

All the hard work paid off: during the final event, our exoskeleton pilot successfully navigated all the competition obstacles. It was also a successful day in terms of PR: not only Tweakers, but also AD Utrecht, AD (national edition), Omroep West and ANP attended and/or covered the event. An absolute highlight in terms of publicity: the event generated 44 articles, thereby reaching over a million people. Helped, supported by the PR experts at En Serio.  A great conclusion to a turbulent year!

Britt Sticker, member of the Project MARCH V Partnership & PR team