McNeil has jointly
\nwith Hill & Knowlton (H&K)
\nSilver Anvil Award for 1999.<\/i><\/p>\nOverview<\/h2>\n
The client's request was clear: A PR programme was needed to be the centre of all pre-market preparation for Benecol, a new line of functional cholesterol-lowering foods. N&K's role was to \"help create a phenomenon\" for McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson, before the product was launched in the US in Q2 1999. The challenges included: positioning a product originally marketed by an obscure Finnish company and making it known to Americans; creating trust in a drug company in a new area of food; adapting the product to meet rapidly changing regulatory developments; managing media relations while a formidable competitor was advertising a similar product; and finally, overcoming the perception of a \"no-go\" attitude in the news media. Despite these obstacles, the campaign leading up to the launch of the new product was successful and energetic in meeting all of its objectives.<\/p>\n
Based on this research, N&K developed the programme, identifying four target audiences: medical professionals, cholesterol-conscious consumers, 10 national media outlets and McNeil salespeople.<\/p>\n
Objectives:<\/b><\/p>\n The strategy was divided into four stages:<\/b><\/p>\n Media briefings, research programmes, lexicons, press releases, recorded video reports, photographs, retail information materials and videos were used to win over the audience. The programme was based on the PR strategy and tactics used in all McNeil events prior to the launch:<\/p>\n Stage I:<\/b>\u00a0\"Here He Comes!\" (running time: Q3 1997-Q1 1998) - Benecol's Finnish origin, clinically proven efficacy and international recognition were an advantage when entering the market. The results of product research published in medical journals (NEJM and Circulation) and in press releases were used to position Benecol as the \"gold standard\" in functional foods. A business agreement was published between McNeil and Raisio, the Finnish inventor of Benecol, to create an expectation effect in the US financial market. This resulted in media reports, including in Business Week, The New York Times, CNN and Fox News.<\/p>\n Stage II:<\/b>\u00a0\"Oh! It works!\" (timeframe: I-III quarters of 1998). Stage III:<\/b>\u00a0\"He's already here!\" (time: III-IV quarter of 1998). Stage IV:\u00a0<\/b>\"Attention! Time is of the essence!\" (time: IV quarter of 1998). Evaluation<\/b><\/p>\n Several evaluation methods demonstrate the success of the H&K\/McNeil team in achieving its goals. Benecol was featured in a total of 804 million impressions across a variety of national and local media, exceeding the internal target of 104 million. The analysis showed that the cost of \"buying\" the equivalent advert for McNeil would have been $33 million. A two-bus tour of the study, which was conducted by Yankelovich Partners and involved 1,301 interviews, confirmed that without the benefits of advertising, 30% Americans know that cholesterol-lowering margarine is coming, and more than 5% Americans know the Benecol brand.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u041a\u043e\u043c\u043f\u0430\u043d\u0438\u044f McNeil \u0441\u043e\u0432\u043c\u0435\u0441\u0442\u043d\u043e \u0441 \u0430\u0433\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e\u043c Hill & Knowlton (H&K) \u041f\u0440\u0435\u043c\u0438\u044f \u00ab\u0421\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0431\u0440\u044f\u043d\u0430\u044f \u043d\u0430\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u044f\u00bb \u0437\u0430 1999 \u0433. \u041e\u0431\u0437\u043e\u0440 \u0417\u0430\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0441 \u043a\u043b\u0438\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430 \u0431\u044b\u043b \u044f\u0441\u0435\u043d:…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pr-campaigns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liberty.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\nThe company's budget for PR activities before the launch of the Benecol brand exceeded USD 1 million.<\/p>\nImplementation<\/h2>\n
\nTo help the media understand how Benecol works and assess its importance for American health, a press conference and a series of related overview articles, factual material on the product's ingredients and cholesterol were prepared. Briefings were held with leaders of likely supporters and leading experts, including nutritionist Nilo Cater, MD (Centre for Human Nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre) and Frank Sacks, MD (Harvard School of Public Health). We presented to this group at a media roundtable entitled \"A New Tool at Cornell Medical Centre, New York, to Regulate Cholesterol through Diet\". The roundtable was attended by the media, including representatives of Newsweek, Reuters Health, NBC's Today Show, CBS and Berkeley Wellness Letter.<\/p>\n
\nAt this stage, the mainstream media continued to spread the word that Benecol had arrived. In order to guarantee success, a top-down approach was initially used, with national media taking turns to create a cascade of publications and coverage across the country. In addition, an agreement was reached with experts to hold consumer-oriented briefings and tastings with the editors of women's and men's magazines for the mass consumer, which are read by an active audience interested in health and diet. The articles were published in Better Homes u Gardens, Men's Health, American Health, Nutrition Today and Weight Watchers Magazine. Coverage was expected in Good Housekeeping, Prevention and Self.
\nTo further leverage the PR programme in other market segments, McNeil's professional programme was maximised at the annual meetings of the American Dietetic Association in October 1998 and the American Public Health Association in November 1998. The challenge was that competitors also made their debut at the American Dietetic Association meeting. Since Benecol was already well represented in the media, press reports positioned the competitors as additional players on the playing field. Among others, the information appeared in Time, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, CNN and NBC Nightly News.
\nIn order to create a sense of anticipation among retailers and encourage the trade environment to carry McNeil, Benecol information materials were prepared and distributed, as well as materials for coverage in mass media. Extensive feedback from retail chains such as Harris Teeter and GIANT was obtained.<\/p>\n
\nOnly one day before the national launch, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised questions about Benecol's positioning as a food supplement, arguing that it should be classified as a food. This forced the client to delay the launch of the product by several months. The controversy, which drew attention to the brand, required building relationships with the media that would keep key messages intact. A dedicated publication management mechanism was set up to overcome any potential obstacles. Interviews with key regulatory, marketing and medical players formed the basis of a book of \"what if\" scenarios. These planned activities have borne good fruit, with coverage in USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. An Associated Press report described the debate over the labelling (or classification) of a unique functional food. There were constant reports about the product.<\/p>\n