By the Numbers
440M+
Total impressions across all channels
38
Earned trade media placements
1.4M
Trade media impressions
28%
Professional audience growth
Overview
Overview
In April 2025, Ormco had three significant product announcements: EtchFree Bonding, Spark Retainers, and BiteSync. Rather than treating these as separate launches, Golden Arrow recommended an approach for Ormco to strategically launch at the AAO Annual Session in Philadelphia, the orthodontic industry’s premier event, where hundreds of industry leaders and practitioners gather to discover innovation. Every touchpoint (press releases, trade media relations, social amplification, community engagement, and onsite booth activation) was orchestrated to work in concert, each amplifying the others.
The result was 440 million combined impressions, 38 earned trade placements, and three products that dominated the top five organic social media posts in Q2 2025.
The Challenge
Three product launches in one week is not a timing problem; it’s a harmony problem. Launch them separately, and they compete for attention. Launch them together without coordination, and messaging becomes inconsistent, claims may lack defensibility, and resources scatter across disconnected channels.
Ormco needed to build credibility for three separate innovations without diluting the story around any single one. They needed to maximize booth traffic at AAO, the one moment when the entire industry is gathered. They needed to capture trade media attention in a competitive landscape with limited editorial space. They needed to maintain community engagement on its social channels and ensure regulatory compliance across every touchpoint. Most critically, every claim made in press releases, social posts, and media interviews had to remain defensible and consistent throughout.
Standard practice separates these into sequential tasks: press release, then media outreach, then social teasers and announcements, then booth activity. But that approach leaves gaps and wastes the power of simultaneity. The real challenge was orchestration, making every channel reinforce the others, ensuring consistency and compliance throughout, and transforming a compressed timeline into concentrated market impact.
Our Approach
Before any press release was written or media outreach began, the GA team met with Ormco’s product team to gain a deep understanding of each innovation, its clinical benefits, technical specifications, competitive positioning, and key differentiators. We then worked with Ormco’s marketing team to translate product materials into three distinct communication registers: press language for journalists, trade media language for editorial publications, and social media language for audience engagement. These aren’t the same story told three ways, they’re three separate narratives, each optimized for its channel and audience. Finally, we conducted media training with Ormco executives and key expert clinicians to ensure that every on-record statement remained compliant with regulatory requirements. This training was embedded into the media briefing schedule, so executives and experts understood which messages were safe to emphasize and which needed qualification.
Press Release Announcements
Coordinated press releases announcing Ormco’s new EtchFree product followed immediately by the launch of Spark Retainers and BiteSync, were developed in close collaboration with Ormco's product and marketing teams. Messaging hierarchies were intentionally different. One product (EtchFree) led with breakthrough innovation and clinical efficiency (the first meaningful bonding advancement in over 100 years) while the other two (Spark Retainers and BiteSync) emphasized workflow simplification and competitive advantage. Both releases featured testimonials from key expert clinicians, providing authentic clinical perspective and credibility.
Trade Media Relations
Before AAO opened, Golden Arrow conducted embargoed media outreach to target trade publications, ensuring coordinated coverage, including advanced executive interviews, upon launch without early leakage. Outlets had time to prepare substantive coverage and launched simultaneously with wire distribution and booth debut, creating a concentrated wave of professional editorial momentum. Onsite at AAO, Golden Arrow’s media relations director managed media briefings with editors, walking them directly from executive interviews to live product demonstrations.
Social Amplification
On launch day, three coordinated posts deployed across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn featuring booth-captured content, product messaging, and a call to action to visit the booth if attending the event. The very next day, five posts followed the same pattern. Posts included static carousels, reels, booth photography, and product-focused graphics, with a strategic boosting budget layered on top of organic reach to extend impressions during peak event timing.
Community Engagement
Golden Arrow’s social community management team maintained continuous engagement across Spark and Ormco channels pre-launch, during the event, and post-launch. Rather than letting momentum fade when the event ended, community management sustained visibility through on-brand content, response to audience interaction, and amplification of media coverage and user-generated content.
Onsite Event Activation
At the Ormco Booth, Golden Arrow’s social media director and videographer captured and edited booth activity in real time, including product demonstrations, attendee interactions, booth environment, and product detail shots, then created assets that fed directly into same-day social posts. Key experts conducted live product demos and peer-to-peer conversations with attendees. This content was simultaneously captured, organized, and delivered to Ormco for post-launch marketing use and future brand asset creation.
Results
The two press release announcements generated 440 million combined impressions. EtchFree Bonding reached 214.4 million impressions online, including 530 total pickups, 4,764 release views, and 161 click-throughs. Top outlets included AP, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Morningstar, Seeking Alpha, and Benzinga. The Spark Retainers and BiteSync launch reached 225 million impressions across the US and Canada with 554 total pickups, 9,673 release views, and 584 click-throughs.
Earned trade media amplified the story beyond wire. Thirty-eight placements across key orthodontic and dental publications generated 1.4 million impressions from professional editorial coverage.
During the launch timeframe, Ormco’s social channels grew 28% quarter-over-quarter, reaching 91,646 followers by the end of Q2. The three product launches claimed the top five organic social posts for the quarter. Real-time onsite social posts during the event generated over 374,000 impressions from carousel and video content alone, driving sustained attendee traffic to the booth.
George Darafeev
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Ormco & Spark
Golden Arrow doesn’t just manage our social channels, they protect the trust our doctors and their patients place in us every day. Going from a few thousand followers to over 300,000 combined across two very different audiences didn’t happen by accident. Golden Arrow built the systems, the listening, and the daily discipline to get us there and turned our social channels into something closer to a support network than a feed, for both patients and providers. They understand the regulatory stakes as well, which is why we’ve trusted them with something this sensitive for four years running.
