Lobbying sometimes will get a foul rap, conjuring photographs of backdoor offers corrupting politicians with cash. However over in Finland, a artistic company challenged these norms with an uncommon lobbying marketing campaign utilizing experiential advertising.
Not like many lobbing efforts that occur behind closed doorways, the marketing campaign for Finnish retail big S Group garnered nationwide media consideration and galvanized supporters and critics throughout the nation. It was created by United Imaginations, an company based final yr by three former TBWAHelsinki executives.
The context is that this: Finland’s pharmacy market is likely one of the strictest and monopolized within the European Union. Medicines, together with chilly medicines or painkillers, are solely allowed to be offered at privately-owned neighborhood pharmacies.
S-Group, Finland’s largest retail chain, is lobbying for a system akin to different European nations, the place medicines could possibly be offered in retail chains, supermarkets and through on-line pharmacies (whereas nonetheless beneath the supervision {of professional} pharmacists). The retailer mentioned in a press release that it “needs Finnish customers to profit from extra reasonably priced medicines, higher opening hours and new pharmacy providers.”
Utilizing experiential strategies
To problem the established order, S Group enlisted United Imaginations, which determined to carry this debate to the general public. The company constructed a mannequin pharmacy within the coronary heart of Finnish capital Helsinki.
Within the prototype pharmacy, folks can browse the cabinets and expertise first-hand a special approach of accessing medicines–thus drawing their very own conclusions about whether or not to alter the system.
“S Group needed to rethink what lobbying could possibly be in a contemporary society open to debate and new views,” mentioned Jyrki Poutanen, artistic director and founding member of United Imaginations. “No hiding behind gimmicky messages, no hush-hush about their goal. They needed to be utterly open about their position within the dialog.”
The marketing campaign took a flip when a critic observed a typo on a bundle of faux vitamin D, which used the inaccurate unit of micrograms as a substitute of milligrams. The error sparked a debate in Finnish media, with the opposition arguing that supermarkets had no proper to promote any sort of drugs.
However that mistake, which was then mounted, ended up bringing extra visibility to the marketing campaign. The mannequin pharmacy grew to become headline information in Finland and began a nationwide dialog about having a extra open and aggressive pharmacy market.
