Medisept - Public Affairs Campaign of the Year

Company: Medisept, Lublin, Poland
Entry Submitted By: Partner of Promotion
Company Description: Medisept is a Polish manufacturer of disinfectants, professional cleaning agents and a distributor of cleaning equipment for institutional customers.For over 23 years Medisept has been delivering complex solutions for professional hygiene maintenance to healthcare institutions. The Medisept products are used in and by hospitals, private clinics, dental and medical surgeries, public institutions.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Public Affairs

Nomination Title: FIGHT FOR A PUBLIC SAFETY

Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched: March/April 2020

In March 2020, the pandemic outbreak exposed the weakness of Polish health care system. The disinfection products market, so far dominated by foreign suppliers, had practically ceased to exist. Polish society was left without access to life saving disinfection products.

According to the European Union directives the professional disinfection products dedicated to health service are registered as medical products, therefore they are subject to extremely restricted procedures and laboratory microbiological tests. In order to meet the quality demands they also need to be produced with the alcohol certified by European Agency ECHA. With the pandemic outbreak the demand for certified alcohol grew to such an extent, that at the beginning of March 2020 its availability dropped down almost to zero. The only opportunity at that time was an immediate change in law regulations facilitating the professional producers the use of non-certified alcohol. The fact was that the change of ingredient would influence the quality of the final product (e.g. smell) but it would not affect its effectiveness . What needed to be done was an immediate implementation of relevant permissions for professional disinfection producers and suspension of excise duty on potable alcohol used for the production. Therefore MEDISEPT and the agency undertook actions influencing the government and public institutions decision makers to implement the relevant regulations.

Medisept, together with the PR agency, analysed the situation and possible actions. The interviews with hospital management showed that the situation was downright dramatic. Foreign suppliers stopped their supplies, leaving patients and medical personnel unsecured. It was necessary to bring about changes in the law as soon as possible in order to be able to provide Polish society and the Polish health service with life-saving products. In view of the crisis, the lockdown and the chaos that came with it, time was critical. The most effective way to achieve this goal was to combine legal actions with intense communication precisely targeted at the appropriate decision makers, with a strong support of PR campaign.

MEDSEPT and the agency constructed an action & communication plan consisting of two main pillars. First pillar was to exploit all, possible at that moment, official and legal means of addressing Polish public institutions as well as health service institutions and hospitals head administrators. The second pillar was an intense communication addressing the public opinion via media and PR campaign

The agency & MEDISEPT implemented the action & communication plan in two stages. At first, the open letters, signed by MEDISEPT Board, which were sent to Polish government and ministries (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Chancellery of the Prime Minister) as well as to hospitals head administrators and personnel. The key messages to the Polish government were: the present situation is dramatic, the lack of ingredients will soon result in shutting the production, Polish health service would not be able to heal the patients, the only remedy to help Polish society is an immediate action and support for biocidal producers, by change in law regulations. Secondly, the agency addressed the media with an intensive PR campaign. A series of press releases and articles were sent out to journalists, followed by telephone calls, one-to-one interviews, individual online meetings TV and radio interviews.

Thanks to all above actions, within only 5 weeks the government and the relevant institutions proceeded and implemented the necessary regulations. All Polish disinfection manufacturers got the permission to use of non-certified alcohol and a short-term suspension of excise duty on potable alcohol had been introduced.

All activities addressed to the media resulted in an impressive media response in form of high quality publications: articles and interviews in biggest and most influential newspapers, portals and in nationwide TV stations. Together we managed to achieve 153 publications in just 5 weeks, generating AVE 615 000 EUR, 9 859 763 reach.

TV POLSAT – nationwide tv station
https://www.polsatnews.pl/wideo/szpitale-zostana-bez-srodkow-dezynfekujacych-za-chwile-zamkne-zaklad-ostrzega-przedsiebiorca_6767522/?ref=wyszukiwarka

ONET – one of the biggest portals general info & lifestyle
https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/tylko-w-onecie/koronawirus-w-polsce-w-szpitalach-zabraknie-srodkow-do-dezynfekcji-dramatyczny-apel/lwlwnwv

Rzeczpospolita – business & economics daily newspaper
https://www.rp.pl/Biznes/303199909-Producenci-srodkow-biobojczych-tocza-walke-o-spirytus.html

Money.pl – business & economics portal
https://www.money.pl/gospodarka/koronawirus-szpitalom-koncza-sie-srodki-do-odkazania-za-kilka-dni-moze-ich-juz-nie-byc-6490643425007745a.html