How a partnership between UNICEF and Pampers delivered a tetanus vaccination programme for developing countries

In the UK, getting a tetanus booster is an unremarkable event, taken for granted by mothers and children across the country for decades. Since the 1950s, no one in the UK has had to worry about dying from tetanus but in other parts of the world, the story is very different.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, vaccination is anything but routine and tetanus kills thousands of babies and children every year. There is a lack of awareness about the disease, which results from bacteria in soil or manure getting into a wound. It is often contracted when umbilical cords are cut with dirty instruments or through traditional practices such as rubbing the cut with ashes or mud.

“Tetanus is a silent killer because people don’t really know much about it.” Mayaz Rahman, corporate relations manager at UNICEF UK, comments. “It’s a really horrible disease: babies get lock-jaw, they start reacting and convulsing to light and if a baby gets it at birth, their chances of survival are minimal.”

The tetanus vaccine is cheap and easy to administer to pregnant women, protecting both mother and baby from the disease. However, only 30 per cent of women in the Congo have access to health centres, which until recently was the only way to get the vaccine. This started to change in 2006, with the country’s first national campaign to eradicate tetanus, funded through a joint campaign by UNICEF and Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer of Pampers® nappies.

A simple equation

The premise for the campaign, which has just finished its second year, was that Procter & Gamble would pay for one tetanus vaccination per pack of Pampers sold in the UK. A multi-channel marketing campaign, aimed at young mothers, was run through national newspapers, the parenting press, TV adverts, direct mail and in high street stores and supermarkets.

The initial target was to provide six million vaccines but the response rate from consumers was enormous, with enough funding raised for 7.4 million vaccines in the first year and 15.8 million in the second year – equating to over 23 million vaccines for mothers and babies in 20 developing countries around the world.

“Young mothers want to help other people but they lead very busy lives,” Mayaz explains. “They can’t go off and do volunteering. They can’t give lots of money to charity because they’ve got children to care for. So we wanted to give them something simple and easy to do.”

“We wanted to make sure it was a simple message so that when they’re in the supermarket buying a product, they understand it straight away,” he continues. “The one pack equals one vaccine mechanism worked because each mother knew exactly what was happening every time they bought a pack of Pampers.”

Business benefits

The campaign was run in parenting publications such as Mother & Baby

Mother & Baby

For Procter & Gamble, the main benefit of the campaign was to demonstrate their commitment to babies and children, through their work with UNICEF. This was recognised by their customers, who felt more loyalty to the Pampers brand which in turn led to higher sales of the nappy packs.

“As a brand, we pride ourselves on our understanding of and our ability to care for babies’ development,” Jon Plant, Assistant Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble comments. “When we were looking at UNICEF as a potential partner, we realised that the charity’s goals of health, education and equality for all children were very closely aligned to the sort of things that we talk about as a brand.”

“We’re thrilled with the results that we’ve seen this year, which are far beyond our wildest expectations,” he continues. “Most importantly, we’ve provided millions of vaccines for mothers and babies around the world, saving many lives. From a business standpoint, we’ve also managed to deliver a record market value share for Pampers, peaking at over 60 per cent.”

For UNICEF UK, the benefits also went beyond the immediate goal of providing millions of vaccines. Procter & Gamble was able to spend more money on advertising than UNICEF could and the charity was able to get its message across in new ways. These included the opportunity to reach young mothers through branded promotions in high street stores such as Tesco and ASDA. “When you go into the baby aisle while the campaign is running, the shelf looks incredible with the UNICEF blue wave running all the way across it,” Jon says.

“We’re about to do a big direct marketing campaign, mailing around a million young mothers, which is a new audience for us,” Mayaz adds. “We’re going to make sure they’re aware of the partnership, but then we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to send them information about how they can support UNICEF.”

In order to deliver these business benefits for both organisations, it was essential that the charity understood the company’s needs and vice versa. “The UNICEF team have been brilliant,” Jon comments. “They’ve been very supportive of us and have helped us carry out two strong campaigns very fast. One of the best things has been the integration between the two teams, to the point where we were doing joint presentations to stakeholders, agencies and supermarkets.”

However, UNICEF doesn’t partner with just any company and there’s a detailed screening process that potential partners have to go through. “We look at what the company does, who the shareholders are and what it stands for,” Mayaz explains. “It also has to make sense to people – like Pampers caring about babies’ development and therefore working with UNICEF.”

Saving lives

A mother and baby at Centre Sante de Basse in Mahajunga, Madagascar, where tetanus vaccines are funded through the Pampers campaign

UNICEF UK/2006/Madagascar/Rebecca Hearfield

The Pampers campaign created a real win/win situation for UNICEF and Procter & Gamble, in which both organisations were able to achieve their business objectives. Ultimately, however, the biggest winners by far are the mothers and children in developing countries such as the Congo and Madagascar, whose lives were saved by the millions of vaccinations delivered through the campaign.

“I think the results speak for themselves,’ Jon says. “When I look at it and see how many vaccines we’ve delivered, to be able to say that with our customers we’ve helped make a difference to more than 23 million people’s lives, it’s just incredible.”

The author

Andy Brown is Senior Web Editor at UNICEF UK

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