CGT was formed in 2006 to discover and deliver healthcare products that address the unmet needs of large healthcare markets. The company sells stool tests for the early detection of colorectal cancer and in 2014 launched a commercial blood screening service.
Leo Creative was engaged by CGT to create a suite of presentation tools for a private capital raising.
The generic medicines industry is undergoing significant change. The introduction of a new category of medicines – biosimilars – was the catalyst for the GMiA to rename and rebrand to ensure that the industry association remained relevant to members and other stakeholders.
Leo Creative was engaged by the GMiA to undertake competitor research, facilitate workshops to define the brand and assess the need for a name change. Following the development of a long-list of names the organisation elected to change its name to the Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association.
Leo Creative designed the new brand identity, guidelines and assisted with the launch of the new brand with a new website and core stationery items.
A common barrier to treatment with some drugs can be administration. This is certainly the case for Actelion’s treatment for advanced PAH, which is administered intravenously via a cassette and pump. With this in mind, Actelion developed a number of patient support tools including demonstration kits (containing placebo) for patients to practice the reconstitution process with their clinic nurse.
This approach was also relevant for collangenase in the treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture. Demonstration kits have proven to be invaluable in helping surgeons become more comfortable with the injection procedure, when surgery was a more familiar treatment option.
Leo Creative was engaged on both projects to design and produce cost effective packaging solutions.
Note: Product brands and names have been removed from pack shots
Actelion is a global leader in the science and medicine of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension having launched the first endothelin receptor antagonist (ERA) bostentan, in 2001. Since then Actelion has development a portfolio of PAH treatments including macitentan and a generic epoprostenal with improved thermal stability.
When Actelion wanted to publish clinical case studies on bosentan, Leo Creative named and created PAH Clinic – a corporate (rather than product) branded, journal-like publication to reinforce Actelion’s leadership in PAH. The publication has proved to be one of Actelion’s most useful in-field resources – working across their PAH product portfolio and providing a vehicle for engaging with and promoting Key Opinion Leaders.
There are many brand agencies out there and most approach branding from the foundation of one or two core competencies. There are agencies that have a background in advertising, practitioners who come from a business consulting background, marketers, PR consultants, researchers, and designers with a background in corporate identity. All are equally valid and offer a perspective on the branding process.
We have seen a lot of approaches to branding that, in our opinion, are too complicated. Einstein said that “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Our brand model is simple. It provides a level of rigour whilst ensuring that the creative process is not inhibited.
Before looking at our brand model, we need to ask an important question – what is a brand? Put simply, a brand is a promise of value. Brands allow us to express two basic human needs: a sense of belonging and a desire to differentiate ourselves from those around us. Brands facilitate choice.
Fundamental to our belief about corporate branding is that brands are revealed not manufactured. Authenticity in brand building is incredibly important – we all know a fake brand when we see one.
Our first step, therefore in building strong brands is research. Depending on the project brief and budget, brand discovery can include:
Once a complete picture of the brand and its competitive environment has been completed, Leo Creative works with the client, through a workshop-based process to define the Brand’s DNA.
At the heart of Brand DNA is the brand promise or core idea. The brand promise is what drives a brand – an internal statement that captures the brand’s central organising thought. A brand promise should be sustainable over an extended period of time.
Further definition is provided through a set of distinctive brand attributes. Too often brand attributes (or values) are merely ‘corporate speak’ – values that one could rightly expect to find in any successful, sustainable business eg. innovation, integrity, teamwork etc. Clearly there is nothing unique or distinctive about these values – they are baseline values. Brand attributes can be both tangible or intangible and may reflect the personal or organisational aspects of the brand.
The brand expression phase is where brands are brought to life – how the brand looks, how it sounds and feels.
Brand Architecture
Many organisations own and manage multiple brands. The framework that describes how these brands relate to one another is called ‘brand architecture’. The architecture should be clear, easy to comprehend and consistent.
Brand Naming
Naming is arguably one of most challenging aspects of branding and name changes in particular are notoriously challenging. The trigger for a name change can be when the old name is badly tarnished, or the result of a merger or acquisition, a change of ownership, or a change in direction where the old name is no longer relevant.
Brand Icon
The prime identifier for almost all brands is the logo, symbol or icon. It is a distinctive mark that visually represents the core idea of the brand with impact, brevity and immediacy. The brand icon is the signpost for the brand.
Brand Identity
Brand identity is a critical component of brand expression, bringing together the key elements of the logo, colour palette, typography, imagery, shape, texture and layout to create visual brand story. Used consistently Brand Identity delivers a memorable visual feast that elicits an emotional connection.
Brand Theme
Unlike the brand promise, the brand theme is an external statement and is often referred to as a campaign theme or a tagline and can change in response to an evolving competitive environment.
Brand Language
Brand language defines how the brand speaks – is the language formal, conversational, technical, relaxed etc.
Brand Proposition/s
Unlike an FMCG brand where a single Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is king, corporate brands often require tailored propositions for each key stakeholder group eg. employees, customers, partners, suppliers, government, regulatory bodies, media, interest groups etc. These statements then become the foundation of a broader communications plan.
Brand Guidelines
Every successful brand operates under brand guidelines. They are designed to inform and motivate, and are essential in forming and reinforcing a strong internal brand culture. A comprehensive suite of information, the guidelines ensures a consistent execution of the brand by anyone who ‘touches’ the brand, including staff and third party suppliers.
As stated above, authenticity in branding is vital. In other words:
‘Living’ the brand is the responsibility of every employee and the brand should inform and influence all aspects of an organisation including:
For this reason ‘branding’ is often used as a change management tool.
Leo Creative worked with Actelion on the launch of collagenase – a non-surgical TGA approved treatment for Dupuytren’s contracture. Like most pharma branding, the creative was done overseas, so the task was to adapt global brand assets for the local Australia market.
A wide range of collateral was produced including mandatory items like product information and consumer medicine information, printed detail aid and e-detailer (Veeva iRep), physician and patient guides.
When Actelion was granted a second indication for collagenase clostridium histolyticum by the Therapeutic Goods Administration – for the treatment of Peyronie’s disease – Leo Creative was engaged to develop new campaign creative for the Australian market.
Most campaigns for prescription medicines are created overseas – either by North American or European agencies – and then developed locally to suit Australian markets. With the North American peyronie’s campaign based on baseball terminology with the copyline ‘When Peyronie’s disease throws you a curve’, new creative was required to better target Australian health care professionals.
Peyronie’s (pronounced “Pay-ROH-neez”) disease is the development of scar tissue, also known as Peyronie’s plaque, under the skin of the penis, causing it to curve when erect.
This was a challenging brief, requiring care to avoid visual associations with erectile dysfunction and a healthy dose of discretion.
Leo Creative developed brand guidelines including a suite of in-house and agency templates and was also engaged to deliver a complete set of launch materials including printed collateral, trade display artwork and eDetal aids.
Note: The product brand and name have been removed from all layouts
AbbVie approached Leo Creative with a specific problem. In a highly competitive environment and an abundance of existing and new research, how can we ensure our in-field team remains ‘on message’ and up to date. The solution was a secure, call-planning and training tool in the form of a web-site optimised for viewing on tablets. Essentially a database, entries were categorised by agent and topic, enabling the user to identify key messages together with supporting clinical evidence from linked papers. The site was built on a Content Management System (CMS) so that AbbVie’s medical department could managing the site in-house.
Leo Creative also named and branded the tool ‘HIVe’ with the potential for the brand to be extended across other on-line resources in the HIV space.
In 2010, US Treatment Guidelines identified lopinavir/ritonavir as the preferred protease inhibitor for the treatment of HIV-Infected women during pregnancy. The result was a change in direction for Abbott’s Australian marketing and sales team and Leo Creative was engaged to developed materials to communicate these influential guidelines.
The product’s existing campaign ‘look & feel’ was rejected, with the project brief requiring a visually distinctive approach to clearly identify a narrower patient group. Evocative black & white photography was used to communicate the physical and emotional journey of pregnancy for HIV-infected women.
When Leo Creative was asked to create a new enrolment prospectus, we knew photography would be critical in communicating school life. We teamed up with Barker’s photographer, Gerrit Fokkema, who we had worked with over the years, to craft some powerful images.
This centre spread captures the ‘wonder of learning’ in the science laboratory. Each page was shot individually with mobile studio lighting and then a composite image was created post-production by Leo Creative to tell the story of students discovering a love of science from the prep school, through to the junior, middle and senior schools.
