The Challenge

Branding Science worked with one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to help improve patient- and site-centricity and relieve key pain points in clinical trials. Their goal was to create a roadmap for patient and site engagement initiatives that would ensure the voice of the customer was elevated and incorporated into the way in which the client develops medicines. To achieve this, they needed to change mindsets internally and improve ways of working for those involved in clinical development.

The Solution

The client had already carried out several workshops to map the clinical trial journey. Branding Science distilled the knowledge derived from these workshops and tested the findings in our own research.

A key focus of our research was to build a thorough understanding of the challenges faced by everyone involved in clinical trials. For that reason, we decided that individual interviews were the most appropriate approach. As a global project, the interviews had to accommodate four different disease areas, across six territories, and involve a balanced sample of three distinct groups of respondents – investigators, trial co-ordinators and patients. This provided a truly holistic view of the situation.

With over twenty years’ experience, we are experts in devising creative and innovative ways to communicate key insights, to maximise their business impact. For this project we needed to find a way to engage an 800-strong audience across the organisation. Our solution was to develop an interactive html website (named the Playbook) in lieu of a standard PowerPoint presentation. Taking a consultative approach, we worked closely with the client to structure this Playbook in such a way as to be consistent with their internal language and thinking.

As different territories have different access to solutions and initiatives, the client was keen to create something that encouraged solutions-focussed thinking. For this reason, the Playbook doesn’t dictate restrictive rules and guidelines. Instead, it offers advice, support and encourages people to think freely, giving them the tools to find the right solution for them, and helping support them in designing patient and site-centric clinical trials.

The Outcome

The Playbook has been embedded in the business as a tool to change mindsets and improve ways of working. It has elevated the voice of the customer and driven the desired change in culture and understanding of the patient experience.

Branding Science has been retained on an ongoing basis to continue to optimise the format of the Playbook, create videos to drive awareness, and showcase examples of successful initiatives that the use of the Playbook has led to.

The success of the project has also led to interest from other business units, keen to utilise the Playbook approach and methodology.

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