How I Pitched This - Halo Neuroscience

Halo Neuroscience makes the world’s first brain stimulating headphones. 

“Say, what??”. 

Exactly. Read that again.

As they explained to us when we came aboard, Halo Neuroscience made the world’s first brain stimulating headphones that facilitate faster acquisition of muscle memory by inducing a temporary state of hyperlearning in the brain's motor cortex. Their product, Halo Sport, had been proven to elevate the level of human performance through a 20-minute brain stimulating priming session which offers an hour of increased focus and accelerated gains.

My first thought was: “So you put on a pair and POOF you’re a superhero?” 

Not quite, but kinda?

Pitching headphones with such intangible claims was a feat in and of itself, though not as difficult as learning the technical background and education that it took to truly explain how exactly these headphones work. Science is a foreign language to me. My brain strictly works in English/History mode, NOT Math/Science. So when I was asked to lead the Halo Neuroscience account, I was nervous to say the least. Not only because of the scientific elements, but also because I had never worked with a tech client before, and one with a product that is so “open to interpretation” and truly dependent on each reviewer’s experience, which could essentially make or break it. Plus, it’s not something that you could try once and write a review on, like with shoes or a jacket. Halo claims it takes approximately 8-10 sessions until you see a real difference in strength, speed, or whatever motor function you're looking to improve.

Pitching the outdoor industry is one thing, but tech writers are a different breed. They want cold, hard data. Period. If they don’t have a good experience with the product, or don’t believe that the product can do what it claims, they have no problem telling that to their hundreds of thousands of readers.

So when Halo Neuroscience was getting ready to launch their new product, Halo Sport 2, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

My strategy started like all my other new product launches: compile targeted media lists, write press releases, send pitches. But this launch was different.

Seeing is believing in Halo world.

Their big reveal was happening at CES (the largest Consumer Electronics Show in the world) in January 2019. Unfortunately, we were faced with a few challenges along the way…

We had to troubleshoot the headphone interface that some testers had an adverse reaction to (read: burning sensation), and we had limited access to functioning units at launch for press demos. For a product like Halo Sport, editors won’t write an in-depth review if they can’t test it first hand. Since we didn’t have enough devices to send to top tier media before the launch at CES, we had to improvise – so I switched tactics. 

At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, I was able to lock in 15 top tier media meetings to come by the Halo booth to look, feel and wear the Halo Sport 2 headset. While this didn’t replace the full multi-week testing experience, it at least bought us time for them to see that the device is functioning and we have plenty of Olympic athletes and musicians that can vouch for it.

Still, was it enough?

I spent these meetings talking about countless case studies, clinical trials and used all of the scientific jargon I’d learned working with Halo over the past year to encourage the media that these headphones are the real deal and not just a bunch of hocus pocus. From coordinating executive interviews and in-depth custom pitches to each editor, the long hours finally paid off.

We garnered 21 hits and 143,874,390 media impressions post-CES. From Wearable, Tech Crunch and Tech Radar, to Gear Patrol, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Runner’s World, it seemed like everyone from hard core tech to mainstream lifestyle was interested in the new product. HALLELUJAH!

Not only did Halo have their best CES presence to date, but they took home 3 of the most coveted awards: Wareable CES Top Pick, Runner’s World Editor’s Choice, and Women’s Health Editor’s Choice.

Now all of that was amazing and the client was certainly happy with the coverage, but apart from the usual suspects of outdoor and fitness media, it was a larger business and tech story on NPR that I had my eyes on. Prior to this, Halo had never been featured on NPR (which garners almost 16 million monthly web visits).

After meeting with NPR at CES, one of their colleagues reached out to us who was working on a new video series called, “Future Human.”

Our email exchange started on Feb 22, 2019 with me sending her background information on Halo along with video case studies and data. After receiving an enthusiastic response from her, I sent her a unit to test, coordinated in person interviews with the two founders and set up a meeting with one of Halo’s influencers in LA to take her through a training program (Kim Glass, Olympic Silver Medalist in Volleyball and now personal trainer). The back and forth via email and phone calls continued for months as we worked to find a sport she wanted to “learn” that would be appropriate for Halo and a good visual story for her video (she originally wanted to pick up surfing, but the headsets couldn’t be submerged in salt water and the waves aren’t identical enough to get the proper repetition of movement needed). She then came back with other options: knife skills, throwing a football, or Dance Dance Revolution. We finally landed on a vertical jump. After 5 weeks of “training” her vertical jump improved!

On June 6, 2019, she finally posted this 4-minute video about her experience proving that Halo Sport 2 isn't, in fact, witchcraft.

All that to say, step outside your comfort zone both professionally and personally to grow, and you’ll 99.9% of the time surprise yourself. I know I did.

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Halo background:

Just to recap, Halo Neuroscience is a neurotechnology company that champions human potential. Halo Sport 2 is the second generation of the company's flagship product, Halo Sport, which facilitates faster acquisition of muscle memory by inducing a temporary state of hyperlearning in the brain's motor cortex. Halo Sport has been proven to elevate the level of human performance through a 20-minute brain stimulating priming session which offers an hour of increased focus and accelerated gains. Originally designed with elite athletes in mind (including members of the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NCAA, as well as the Olympics and U.S. Military) to enable them to learn movement and skills faster, Halo Sport 2 was created for the everyday active consumer with the same benefits of Halo Sport, only better. In Halo Sport 2, the primer form factor has been improved for increased connectivity, including bluetooth audio for an entirely wireless experience. The long-term goal is to build a suite of Halo products that will use neurostimulation to optimize both human performance and human health. 

Halo's technology has been acquired by Flow Neuroscience. The team at Flow will build on Halo’s research and technology and will continue to innovate in neuromodulation with a focus on mental health. You can read more about this here.