Diagnose:
Antibody Analytics is a contract research organisation (CRO) that provides complex immunology and primary cell services to drug developers. As much as the CoCo team would like to think we’d rock a lab coat and goggles, we’ve left the science to the experts to support Antibody Analytics’ communications strategy.
As you can imagine, between conducting experiments and running a fast-growth business, marketing activities, particularly Antibody Analytics’ employer brand, were often pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. CoCo has been providing support to Michahaila Downie, Director of Finance and People and Adele Hannigan, Marketing Director, to:
- Increase brand awareness
- Enhance Antibody Analytics’ employer brand
- Ensure employee engagement strategies are communicated effectively
- Manage, maintain, and grow its social media channels
The CRO workplace can be challenging to recruit into, it can appear less attractive than a role where you drive towards your own research goals, not to mention competing for candidates within the thriving CRO ecosphere in Scotland. Our key focus is to help Antibody Analytics stand out in a crowded marketplace and show that there’s much more to the organisation than meets the eye.
Design:
At CoCo we’re curious and don’t like to do things the boron way. After an initial research project, we pulled together a quarterly strategy targeted at existing and potential employees. What better way to understand a company’s culture than kicking off with a meet the team campaign? And what better way to speak to budding scientists than creating these team profiles in the form of lab reports… Yes, lab reports!
From lab reports to general social media maintenance, we’ve created several targeted campaigns to help Antibody Analytics stand out from the crowd. Here’s a few fan favourites:
The Pint-Sized Scientists
Say it after me, ‘awwwww’! To build on the fun and quirky side of Antibody Analytics’ brand, we proposed a pint-sized science series with support from mini scientists – Maya, Zara, Jax, and Iona. Taking inspiration from similar comedic skits, we suggested a series of short videos where a member of the Antibody team poses scientific questions to the pint-sized scientists… And the result was adorable.
We can’t take all the credit on this one, and it’s with thanks to the very talented Craig Simpson from Stellar Digital who made our ideas come to life with his videography skills.
Antibody Analytics Discovery Week
CoCo was fortunate to play a key strategic role when Antibody Analytics opened its state-of-the-art Discovery Centre facility in May 2022. Alongside Marketing Director, Adele, we supported the marketing activity around the opening of the centre which included engaging industry press and gaining traction online. Centring our efforts into a ring-fenced campaign, we created ‘Discovery Week’ – a celebration of discovery with Antibody Analytics, where we built anticipation to the opening of the centre and discovered something new about the organisation each day from launch.
National Apprenticeship Week 2022
In recent years, we’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to awareness days. At CoCo, we carefully consider these as opportunities to spotlight our client’s efforts – but only if it’s right and relevant. Merging staff experience with a recruitment-focused message, we developed a dedicated campaign alongside National Apprenticeship Week to spotlight Antibody Analytics’ dedication to supporting future talent and knowledge transfer. This gained plenty of traction across all channels while supporting employee engagement and recognising their hard work and dedication.
Over the past year, our role has evolved, and we keep a close ion Antibody Analytics’ social media channels, providing a monthly roster of engaging posts. Alongside our social media efforts, we produce regular, thought-provoking content for the organisations blog, primarily targeted at new recruits – have a nosey for yourself here.
Deliver:
Analytics and metrics are about as ‘sciency’ as it gets here at CoCo HQ. Of course, we can only understand how our ideas translate into impact by digging deep into engagement rates, follower growth and impressions.
Studying Antibody Analytics LinkedIn page across six months (Jan – Jun 2022) comparing with the previous six months (Jul 2021 – Dec 2021), we were met with some interesting results:
- Increased clicks from 2,386 to 17,168
- Doubled follower growth from 283 to 814
- Post reaction rate increased from 198 to 3,595
- Increased impressions from 22,660 to 192,437
- Increased unique page visitors from 690 to 3,293
Michahaila Downie, Director of People and Finance said:
“People are really getting to grips with who we are and recognise the Antibody Analytics brand more and more. Working with Collaborative Comms has been great fun. Their ability to turn a complex subject into something engaging, whether a funny pun or a creative video, is second to none. They’ve taken a genuine interest in understanding our challenges and translating these into actionable results. Although an external supplier, CoCo feels like an extension of our team. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!”
Antibody Analytics brand awareness has increased significantly from deploying marketing tactics centred around consistency and campaign-led outcomes, and we hope to see much more of the same in the following months. We still might not understand what an Exhausted T Cell Assay entails, but we’ve certainly had a blast supporting an innovative and forward-thinking organisation.
