PROJECT CLOSEUP: Lonza "Confidence" Campaign
I DID THIS B2B CAMPAIGN at O’Neil Griffin Bodi (Manchester, NH) on behalf of Lonza Biologics, a multinational firm that helped pharmaceutical companies introduce new drugs by manufacturing them in quantity for clinical trials.
The brief was simple: publicize Lonza’s unusually long 15-year track record, and position the company as a safe choice for drug makers who needed steady partners on the long journey to FDA approval. Account man Pat McGee had the very smart idea of redefining our category. Why not change the discussion from “contract manufacturing” to confidence manufacturing, since Lonza clients were staking billions for product R&D on every clinical trial?
With confidence as our watchword, I and creative director Elaine Krause tackled two tasks. We needed a high-impact print ad to draw inquiries from pharmaceutical journals, plus a packaging concept for the Lonza CD-ROM already in development.
The Campaign
Elaine liked a stock visual that was VERY different from anything in the staid industry books: a nervous swimmer leaping off a diving board into an endless sea, equipped with life preserver, snorkel and swim fins. That didn't exactly speak to confidence, so the headline took some thought. I suggested Think of Us as the Inner Tube.
Ad copy explained it this way:
Diving into a contract manufacturing relationship can be an intimidating decision. When you’re braving the unknown depths of biopharmaceutical manufacturing, what you really need is a confidence manufacturer.
Our offer was a CD detailing Lonza’s time-tested capabilities, complete with a virtual tour. (Everybody was doing virtual tours in those days, but pharmaceutical makers had good reason to verify world-class process facilities.) The question was, how to package that CD?
I had an easy answer. Put it in a laboratory Petri dish!
We then added a circular insert, headlined Confidence is in Our Culture. Distinctive, relevant and cheap, it allowed plenty of room for supporting quotes from Lonza’s best-known experts -- helping industry decision-makers accept Lonza as a partner they could feel confident about. | DC |