Did you know that PR activities could contribute to the recruitment of 17,000 survey participants? This is the number of Poles who took part in the National Survey of Addictions conducted by psychologists from the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which we helped promote.

Mateusz Gola and Maciej Skorko, two scientists from the Institute of Psychology, launched the PredictWatch start-up. Based on the obtained data, they developed the Addictometer mobile app (Pol. Nałogometr), a technology that helps fight addiction.

WE RECRUIT STUDY PARTICIPANTS

Our task at pro science was to promote the app as well as an opportunity to take part in the research project, directly contributing to the scientists’ credibility as experts on addiction. We launched an extensive media campaign targeting all types of media outlets. We also maintained presence in social media, engaging influencers and creating a Facebook community from scratch using the slogan “Research on addictions”. In addition to press releases, we also created a video featuring Prof. Mateusz Gola explaining how to use the Addictometer. The name of the app itself (“Nałogometr” in Polish) was also inspired by the pro science team.

WE GIVE EXPERTS A VOICE

Over the course of two intensive months, over 100 articles were published on the app, the vast majority of which contained original contributions from the researchers. Thanks to pro science, 17,000 people took part in the survey and 7,500 people installed the app, including some 3,000 who actively used it, which met the survey’s goal.

OUR CONTRIBUTION

61 articles were published on the Addictometer. This helped the team of researchers develop an effective algorithms, which made it possible to predict, up to 48 hours in advance and with a probability of more than 85%, when a person with an addiction will want to use a particular substance again.

“The use of signature PR activities to recruit study participants is a model example which we present to scientists in the United States. Based on the data, we’ve created effective algorithms that make it possible to predict when an addicted person will want to use a particular substance again, even 48 hours in advance and with a probability exceeding 85%. The publicity of our research resulted in a number of new contacts. For instance, we’ve received an invitation to cooperate from the Chinese Academy of Sciences” – says Prof. Mateusz Gola, start-up co-founder.

PRESS RELEASES CONTRIBUTION

https://proscience.pl/newsroom/w-nowy-rok-bez-papierosa-psychologowie-radza-jak-sobie-pomoc-w-walce-z-nalogiem/
https://proscience.pl/newsroom/zmierzyc-nalog-aplikacja-nalogometr-to-pierwsza-tego-typu-proba-na-swiecie/