Dr Geoff Cashion
Successful PR Campaign for a service-based business
Dr Geoff Cashion has more strings to his bow that the average Aussie.
Not only is he Australia’s most prolific vasectomy doctor – he’s performed more than 11,000 of them since 2017 - he’s also a canny businessman (he built up and sold four GP clinics in Rockhampton) and an accomplished singer-songwriter (his 2006 album “Threads” – featuring backing vocals by Vanessa Amorosi – led to an international publishing deal).
So it’s a fair call to give this Brisbane-born, Rockhampton-raised banker-turned-doctor the title of Australia’s Vasectomy Virtuoso.
But for Geoff, it’s not about the title or the glory: it’s his passion for making healthcare more accessible and user-friendly – and his desire for men and women to share the responsibility for contraception more evenly – that drove him to disrupt the industry and create Australia’s highest-volume vasectomy clinic, Vasectomy Australia.
Despite being a trailblazer in his field, Geoff wasn’t getting the media attention he deserved. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take on this PR challenge - because let’s face it, vasectomies aren’t something you read about very often in the mainstream media! It’s actually a fascinating topic that’s of relevance to women as well as men, because vasectomies take the pressure off women to be solely responsible for contraception. It’s also a gender equity issue: across the world, higher vasectomy rates correlate with greater gender equity and higher socio-economic development.
PR Strategy
Over a four-month PR campaign, my goal was to build Geoff’s reputation as an expert in the field of vasectomy and contraception, and to raise awareness of Vasectomy Australia as Australia’s foremost vasectomy clinic.
We timed the campaign to coincide with the lead-up to World Vasectomy Month (November), and pitched stories to general news, health & wellness, lifestyle and business media across print, digital, TV and radio.
PR Results
We achieved excellent PR results, with two major news stories published across multiple media platforms.
The first major story was based on an opinion piece, “Why are more men under 25 seeking the snip?”. New Medicare data shows that the number of young men under 25 seeking a vasectomy is growing quickly – in fact, the number doubled in Australia between 2019 and 2023. Geoff offered his opinion on why that is the case, and what young men need to be aware of before they decide to go ahead with the vasectomy procedure.
The story was originally published in the Courier-Mail (both print and online), quoting Geoff and mentioning Vasectomy Australia. It was then picked up by the Herald Sun (print and online) and Sky News. A couple of weeks later, Geoff was quoted in a 9Honey article.
The second major story pointed to Medicare data showing that the number of Australian men having vasectomies has grown by 75 per cent over the past 10 years. Over the same time period, the number of women having tubal ligation (the female equivalent of a vasectomy, also known has “having your tubes tied”) dropped by 50 per cent. And vasectomies now outnumber tubal ligations by more than seven to one, whereas ten years ago it was only two to one. This shows that Australian men are shouldering much more of the contraceptive burden than they did a decade ago.
The story was published in the Courier-Mail (print & digital), Adelaide Advertiser (print & digital) and Herald Sun (digital). The online articles received numerous comments from readers, and included links to Vasectomy Australia’s website, a photo of Geoff and an embedded video of Geoff explaining the vasectomy procedure.
Dr Geoff Cashion, Founder & CEO, Vasectomy Australia