PR Case Study: An Acoustic Silencer Makes Some Noise

The Breakthroughs

Research Breakthrough

In January 2019, a pair of BU engineers, Xin Zhang and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh,  published a paper arguing it’s possible to cancel noise using an open, ring-like structure. Their prototype was capable of silencing sound while allowing for the free passage of air.

Public Relations Breakthrough

The acoustic silencer has since received an extraordinary amount of media attention. As of April, it’s been the focus of more than 100 feature articles, not including Chinese media or upcoming broadcast opportunities. The story has received more than 53,000 unique page views on BU Research and 80+ comments. BU’s social media efforts resulted in nearly 1,000 interactions (likes, shares, and comments) and reached 13,000 people—and the video associated with the story has been viewed more than 300,000 times.

Other notable highlights include placement on Phys.org, a news service for science and technology insiders, where the story garnered almost 20,000 social shares; and in popular outlets like Fast Company, BBC Mundo, Business Insider, and Gizmodo. At Gizmodo alone it generated more than 35,000 unique page views and more than 80 comments. 

The Players

The Research Team

This story began like so many others playing out right now around BU: in a lab, with a talented team who cared deeply about solving a real problem. From the team’s shared enthusiasm came a number of assets that contributed to widespread interest later. First, they set out to create something with real-world application. Second, the team took photos and videos to document their process. And third, when they realized they had something worth sharing, they prioritized promotion and responded to questions and requests as quickly as possible.

The Center Director

Dr. Thomas Bifano, Director of the Boston University Photonics Center, flagged the upcoming research for BU’s PR and editorial teams prior to the journal publication. He highlighted both the newness of the discovery as well as the real-world application, flagging that “it could change the way industrial sound canceling is done.”

The MarCom Team

The editorial team from BU Research and the PR | Social Media team reached out to the researchers, who promptly replied with an embargoed manuscript of the paper and their availability to meet with MarCom for an intake meeting to learn more. BU Research published an article following the journal publication. Photos taken by BU Photography of the device and team, along with the researchers’ own multimedia assets, helped create a compelling story.

The Outreach

Once the research was out in the world, BU’s PR | Social Media team moved into distribution mode to ensure the story reached broad and diverse audiences, including:

• Social media outreach, including sharing the research on the BU thought-leadership channel, re-sharing media hits and influencers’ posts, and targeting audiences interested in 3D printing, noise reduction, soundproofing, engineering, acoustics, and more
• A Chinese social media push, which included translating the story, sharing it on Weibo and WeChat, and conducting targeted outreach to Chinese media outlets,
• Outreach to influential republishers including Futurity, which features research from top universities and the Association of American Universities (AAU), asking that they share the story with a search engine optimized (SEO) headline to increase discoverability
• Media outreach, sharing the news on EurekaAlert, a science news distribution source
• SEO research to employ strategic words and phrases throughout the piece that would help the story gain traction through organic search