Excellence in Corporate Communications - Internal Stakeholders

Summary of work

In June 2016, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) exchanged Sanofi’s animal health business (Merial) and Boehringer Ingelheim’s consumer healthcare (CHC) business. Critical to the success of this hugely significant deal would be the retention and integration of BI’s skilled CHC employees. Sanofi identified that if a large number of BI people refused the offer of a transfer it would compromise the performance of the business. Given that similar industry deals had resulted in long- term integration issues, a well-crafted communications campaign was needed to ensure success.

Evidence highlighted the importance of an innovative communications approach. With the support of the agency, the Sanofi CHC team planned a campaign centred on people; engaging employees across both companies in over 55 countries, providing experiential opportunities to get to know each other, share insights and generate excitement about the future. It ensured existing Sanofi CHC employees felt valued, new colleagues felt welcome, and people were informed and reassured throughout the transition, in order to maintain business continuity.

The campaign over-delivered on its key objective with only a very small percentage of the BI team refusing a transfer - a remarkable achievement given the differences in culture and the size of the deal.

Judges' comments

This entry really resonated with the judges; even so far as some who had been through a similar integration wished that they had had a campaign like this to ease the transition. They felt that the campaign tackled a very common problem with a unique approach and that the tactical mix was incredibly rich and the outcomes were compelling. They had reached a whole new level of creativity than most people ever would when considering internal communications.