For-profit/non-profit issue advocacy campaign

Strategic Alliances for Product Differentiation
As more surgeons frequently used biomedical lasers and other high-intensity, heat-generating devices during the early 1990s, the risk of operating room fires greatly increased. Although most surgical drapes and gowns were paper-based, Kimberly Clark Professional Health Care's were made of polypropylene and were significantly less flammable.

This situation represented an opportunity for the company to 1) gain market share, and 2) create goodwill among physicians and nurses by helping them reduce these fire risks.

The agency developed a multi-tactical strategic advocacy program that focused on leveraging the company's close relationship with the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) and some of its key members. Initiatives included lobbying programs with state legislators, presentations at AORN conferences and articles in the AORN Journal, direct mail to OR nurses, collaboration with influential groups such as Underwriters Laboratory and the National Fire Protection Association, educational videos and an extensive, issue-driven media relations program. Accomplishments included:

• Helping legislators introduce OR fire safety bills in 10 states.
  
• Gaining Underwriters Laboratories approval for Kimberly Clark surgical drapes.
  
• Generating more than 100 articles, columns, television broadcasts and news items relating to the topic of fire safety.
  
• Having 70 percent of OR nurses rate fire safety as "extremely important" in a Hospitals and Health Networks survey, enabling Kimberly Clark to boost sales by more than $50 million in three years.