Life Science Marketing: Don’t Be A Clone!

Make it creative, engaging, and original — essential directives for developing any successful integrated marketing campaign. And, with companies becoming increasingly more receptive to the color-outside-the-lines approach, some truly fresh work can be found across the marcom landscape.

And then there are certain niche industries that still feel most comfortable with a realistic (and dare I say safe) look to their campaigns. Such is the case with the life sciences segment. The very things that make this a unique and fascinating niche are often lost in the sameness of promotions that tend to feature test tubes and scientists in lab coats.

Having serviced the life sciences segment for 20 years, we know how to create a winning initiative within this oft-resistant-to-change industry, and recently had the opportunity to do just that for Affymetrix/USB (part of ThermoFisher Scientific).

After a team of scientists greatly improved the speed of their flagship product, ExoSAP-IT, they turned to us and said, “Give us something new and fresh; we don’t want to look like everybody else.”

Aware that ExoSAP-IT offered superior time savings when compared to other PCR cleanup methods, we designed ExoSAP-IT Express with the illustrative “Express Train” launching an integrated campaign consisting of traditional, online, social, and event tactics. The key was a device-responsive landing page for converting prospects to leads by sharing highly technical data in an engaging way.

Product samples were offered, both as a means to capture prospect info and to allow scientists to experience the new five-minute product formulation. We incorporated social media, sending an ExoSAP-IT t-shirt to everyone who shared their product experiences via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Other tactics included eMarketing; conference show booth displays (including elevator doors wrapped in Express Train signage, a first for us!); U.S. and European print ads; and mobile and desktop banner ads.

By the campaign’s close, more than 300 qualified leads were generated for the global sales team. Because our client let us step outside of the clone box, we were able to differentiate their product amidst a sea of sameness, and generate measurable engagement with their audience.