Optimum West

Objective

Identify and overcome barriers to the recognition and approval of the sale of successive BSE rapid-test kits to federal and provincial laboratories and regulatory agencies, as well as raise awareness of the client’s global leadership position in the Food Sciences sector.

Project description

With the identification of an infected cow in Alberta in May, 2003, Canada’s status
as a BSE-free beef producing nation ended. Within days, dozens of countries around the world closed their borders and banned the importation of Canadian beef, cattle and a range of ruminant related products. Like other nations that had struggled with the collapse of internal and external markets after classification of BSE in 1986, Canadian producers found themselves labouring under a new, strict set of World Animal Health Organization (OIE) guidelines, as well as unprecedented international scrutiny. Attention to the Canadian bovine market did not decrease after the initial index case in the spring of 2003; identification of two additional BSE-infected animals (one in December, 2004 and another in January, 2005) led to ongoing hardship across the Canadian agricultural sector, with losses estimated to eventually exceed $7 billion.

The sudden change in Canada’s BSE status made the country an immediate client prospect for bio-tech firms with testing expertise, and Optimum Public Relations was called upon by the world’s leading clinical diagnostic and life science company. Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., based in Hercules, California, and their wholly owned Food Science division based in Paris, France invited Optimum to participate in a competitive international qualification process. Bio-Rad chose Optimum as its Canadian agency of record to position the company and its BSE testing products with key decision-makers across Canada.

Working within constraints of international time zones, language barriers and with a client in offices situated in a range of diverse geographic locations, Optimum subcontracted a government relations partner in Ottawa to achieve identified objectives. Goals of the comprehensive public relations (PR) and government relations (GR) plans devised for Bio-Rad included:

• positioning the client’s leadership in the Food Science sector, with specific emphasis on its position as a global authority in BSE testing;
• identifing and clearing hurdles to regulatory recognition for the client’s products at both the federal and provincial levels;
• raising awareness of the company’s scientific staff as experts in the areas of TSEs (including BSE), and the company as possessing the world’s most sensitive BSE screening test(s);
• ensuring Bio-Rad’s product was ‘top of mind’ with key decision-makers, and
• creating a groundswell of demand for Bio-Rad’s testing products with those same decision-makers.

To provide relevant contexts for the goals outlined above, a key focus of every facet of PR and GR strategies was to raise awareness of European and other BSE screening strategies. These strict testing regimes were integral to successfully restoring consumer confidence and reopening international markets to beef originating from countries with BSE in their domestic herds.

It also allowed Optimum to focus on the client’s position as a trusted advisor to regional, national and international regulatory agencies and jurisdictions around the world. As such, Bio-Rad had a great deal to offer Canadians - including access to volumes of TSE research findings and BSE containment advice - access to which was offered to contacts within the scientific community and beef/cattle industry across Canada.

Optimum positioned Bio-Rad through a series of initiatives, including:

• the creation and wide distribution of an introductory strategy document, outlining Bio-Rad’s expertise and role in supporting such countries as the U.K., Germany and Japan as each managed successive BSE outbreaks;
• the initiation of relationships between the client and targeted contacts, through facilitating meetings and drafting correspondence with industry stakeholders across academic, bureaucratic, regulatory and cattle industry sectors;
• implementation of comprehensive media relations strategies, developed to introduce Bio-Rad spokespersons and scientific advisors to key reporters across Canada and to targeted publications in the U.S.;
• ongoing communication to a highly targeted audience through development and distribution of an online information vehicle (”BSEBulletin.com” hosted by Bio-Rad);
• identification of and liaison with prospective Canadian delegates to Bio-Rad’s annual international TSE Conference and Canadian delegate support on-site at successive Conferences in Europe;
• identification and recommendation of targeted sector Canadian events, sponsorship, and speaking opportunities for Bio-Rad executives and scientific experts.

Results

While the initial working contract between Bio-Rad and Optimum was specified to last six months, the relationship was so productive that the contract was extended for more than three years. Starting with virtually no profile in the area of BSE testing, Bio-Rad’s rapid-tests for TSEs have become federally validated and approved for Canadian use and Bio-Rad has been chosen as the screening partner of choice - and its testing products and equipment installed - in provincial laboratories from Alberta to Quebec. Though the success of the program meant the end of our working relationship, Optimum and Bio-Rad executives maintain ongoing contact, as we explore opportunities to replicate success with other of Bio-Rad’s host of testing products.

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