A New York Times State of Mind
In case you missed it, we had some pretty nice media coverage this month.
The road to being profiled on the front cover of The New York Times sports section was along but worthwhile one. It involved a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls, a lot of due diligence by journalists and editors, and a lot of hard work by our communications team here at Orreco and by our clients – the Dallas Mavericks. Yet on 7 January, there we were, sitting pretty on the front page of the NYT’s Monday sports section, in a long-read by acclaimed sports writer Marc Stein. The article explored how, as a trusted partner, we use blood samples to give our clients insights that maximize player-readiness. The headline read: ‘Point Guard Worn Down? Blood Work Offers Clues’. Part of the introduction to the piece said: “It is not just any blood test. The Mavericks import frequent testing from the Irish company Orreco, which is in its third season making personalized recommendations for Mavericks players regarding athletic workloads and diets, largely through the study of blood analysis.” It was a proud moment in the history of this company. We’ve been fortunate to have attracted great media coverage since our inception in 2010, but this article really got under the hood of what we do and the value and edge that we bring to our many global clients.
On 7 January, in a tweet introducing the article to social media users, The New York Times posted: “TheMavericks lost a league-low zero games to illness last season, when the league average was 7.1 games per team.” But some other key numbers were even more dizzying. As well as being posted to the NYT’s more than 47 million Twitter followers, the article appeared across all platforms of The New York Times. The print edition of the paper is bought every day by over half a million people (570,000). Its online readership is estimated at an eye-watering 330 million people (Coveragebook.com). In the hours after the story appeared, over 250,000 people clicked on the article – a pretty good day’s business for us.
Good stories happen when subjects are relatable and easy to understand and at Orreco we also strive to make our story as concise as possible and our science accessible and explainable to all. That’s why we have been fortunate to feature in pieces from outlets such as The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Washington Post and CNN. We are extremely grateful to Marc Stein for taking the time to learn about Orreco’s work and for then taking the time to visit the ‘Mavs’ and understand how they work with us. Since the article, there has been an inevitable and welcome increase in media enquiries, which has given us an appreciation of how much ‘The Times’ is regarded by the world’s most influential sports, science and media communities. Traffic to our website has surged this month and we are also delighted to have taken calls from other elite sports clubs and franchises around the world who are interested in learning more about what we do and how we might assist them. So, all in all, it has been a great start to 2019.
And here’s a nice footnote to end with: our great friend, our client, our investor and three-time Major Champion, Padraig Harrington has this month been named Captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup team for 2020. It’s been a privilege working with Padraig over the past eight years to help him maximize his performance and we look forward to helping him with his preparations for Whistling Straits.
Roll on 2020!
