Nutricia Clinical Care Case Study
Challenge:
For twenty years, Nutricia Clinical Care has established its position as a leader in nutritional care through production, innovation and service to healthcare professionals and patients. The company provides enteral tube feeds and support systems and a range of oral nutritional supplements under the brand name Fortisip
There are currently over 2 million people in the UK who are malnourished, and earlier diagnosis and treatment of the condition could help to save lives, and improve clinical and quality of life outcomes for those affected
The challenge was:
- To raise awareness of malnutrition in the UK
- To reach GPs, nurses and other health care professionals who come into contact with malnourished people, and make them aware of the prevalence of the condition, as well as ways to diagnose and treat it
- To raise awareness of malnutrition amongst the UK public, so that they are aware that the condition may affect close family members, and may not be routinely picked up by their family GP or care home staff
- To encourage third parties and key opinion formers to help us promote our messages
Strategy:
The strategy taken was to communicate with the target audiences through the media The campaign was carefully designed to stay within UK advertising standards that prevent any prescription medications being marketed or advertised directly to the general public Because Nutricia Clinical Care is the market leader in providing oral nutritional supplements, it was decided that any increase in general awareness of malnutrition as a condition, and an increased rate of diagnosis, would have a knock-on effect on the brand itself The approach taken was to secure partners to communicate key messages on our behalf. Partners targeted included Help the Aged, the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and its standing committee, the Malnutrition Advisory Group, and the European Nutrition for Health Alliance
Tactics:
Media relations played a key role in disseminating messages to health care professionals as well as the general public. Many of the health journals have long lead times and the campaign targeted these as well as the more immediate national newspapers and broadcast media An article written by a pharmacist was commissioned to hit the pharmaceutical press and raise awareness around malnutrition amongst pharmacists at around the time of the new contracts A survey was carried out amongst UK GPs to ascertain how many of them regarded whether malnutrition was a serious problem, and whether there were geographic or age variations in GP awareness Case studies, highlighting both individual patients whose lives had been affected by malnutrition, as well as best practice employed by health care organisations and PCTs to detect and treat malnutrition, were developed to assist with selling-in feature-based articles A nutrition expert, Christine Russell SRD, as well as an industry expert, Jude Livingston of Nutricia Clinical Care, were offered for interviews to the media Third party organisations including Help the Aged were approached for supporting comment on the situation in the UK, where malnutrition is particularly underdetected in the elderly. A new organisation, called the European Nutrition for Health Alliance was also taken on as a media partner, to coincide with a major conference on nutrition that they were holding
Results:
- Media coverage resulted in national newspaper and website articles including The Times, The Observer, BBC News Online, Google News, Guardian Society Online and Guardian Health Online
- A Word on Health radio interview with Christine Russell was syndicated to 35 radio stations nationally, and was one of the best-received programmes the producer had ever made. You and Yours are planning a programme on Radio 4.
- Trade press coverage included Hospital Doctor, Complete Nutrition and Pharmacy Business. Survey results were presented at the European Nutrition for Health Alliance inaugural conference in London, in front of an audience comprising of members of the European Parliament, The European Commission, leading industry figures, international public health experts, NGOs across Europe, and health and social care professionals
- Articles about malnutrition appeared in the national and trade press reaching an audience of over 7 million, with radio pieces broadcast on over 37 stations.
