“Winning Connections brought us the experience and expertise we needed to capture the voice of consumers, which made the critical difference in persuading legislators to change course on an important issue to our member companies."
—Andrew C. Fish, Senior Vice President, Legal & Government Affairs
A bill that would have required prescriptions for over the counter allergy and cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine was quietly making its way through the West Virginia State Legislature. The bill had strong backing among special interest groups and many in the State Capitol. West Virginia already has an effective stop-sale system in place that works. The bill would have made needed medicines much more expensive for consumers forcing West Virginians to visit their doctor every time they needed relief from a cold or allergies.
Winning Connections worked with the Consumer Healthcare Products Association to oppose the bill. We created a strategically targeted list of voters who were most likely to care about the issue, and also likely willing to make a phone call to defeat the bill. Then we developed a messaging strategy that maximized the capabilities of the phone medium to recruit people to make calls to their State Senator and Delegate in opposition to the bill. We focused our recruitment calls in key legislative districts to maximize their impact.
In the face of strong support for a prescription mandate by law enforcement, our patch-through calls from constituents helped stop the prescription bill from passing in the State Senate. It was reported in local media that "Senators who opposed the bill say they've heard from hundreds of constituents who are concerned about having to see a doctor to get cold medicine, which is now available over the counter." Senator David Nohe added that residents in his area let him know without a doubt they don't favor the plan.