Work

Find the AAAnswers Coalition_Advocacy Initiative

More than one million people live with undiagnosed abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) that can rupture at any time. Our job: generate broad awareness of the disease to prompt at-risk individuals to seek screening.
 
It was critical that we succeed, as screening is the only real way to catch an AAA before it ruptures. AAA has no symptoms. Only 10-25 percent of people suffering an AAA rupture survive, and it’s the third-leading cause of death in men over 60

  • Create an initial spike in awareness and screening along with a grassroots movement to keep AAA top of mind with at-risk populations.
  • Create a surround-sound messaging environment by reaching those at risk through social and community networks.
  • Establish the Find the AAAnswers Coalition to reach AAA patients and the physicians who treat them.

The Find the AAAnswers Coalition's mission provides support and education—and sounds a powerful call to action. Coalition partners include the American College of Preventative Medicine, the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Society for Vascular Ultrasound, and Medtronic provides additional support. WCG helped create a consistent and sophisticated creative platform that included media and local market outreach, and a robust online and social media presence. Enlisting the support of pro football’s Joe Theismann, we gave the fight against AAA a familiar face. Joe’s father was screened for AAA and successfully treated in 2007.

In the first four weeks, the campaign generated national media coverage in U.S. News & World Report and on "Fox & Friends," "Wake Up with Al," and ABC Radio. We generated eight million media impressions—with consistent messaging across the board. Coalition partners and reporters reacted in an overwhelmingly positive way to the campaign. The campaign also produced more than 26,000 website page views and more than 790,000 online advertising impressions, thanks to strategic media placement.

Cepheid_Corporate Brand

Cepheid provides fully integrated molecular tests and testing platforms for clinical diagnostics, industrial and bio-threat applications. As Cepheid's agency of record, WCG handles all of the company’s creative service and communication needs.

Throughout 2008 and 2009, WCG worked with Cepheid to refine its brand positioning and campaigns. The goal: place more emphasis on the compassionate origins of Cepheid's product innovations. We developed a creative platform that successfully connected the company’s technology breakthroughs with the people these advancements will ultimately benefit.

AccessClosure_Product Brand

A rising medical device manufacturer in the vascular closure industry, AccessClosure needed a highly differentiated brand for its new closure product. Up against an active field of established players, AccessClosure’s brand had to command attention.

WCG developed the provocative Mynx branding to shake things up in the more traditional vascular closure industry. Mynx helped AccessClosure generate buzz, win mindshare, and gain a competitive edge.

Acclarent_Web Development

Acclarent is a medical device company focused on ear, nose and throat (ENT) treatment. When Acclarent needed a new website and patient portal featuring its Balloon Sinuplasty™ technology, the company called on WCG.

The new acclarent.com site reflects the sleek feel of Acclarent technology, yet is approachable thanks to patient-themed imagery. The patient portal, balloonsinuplasty.com, is a clean, user-friendly site that’s rich in information, yet easy to navigate. Both sites are essential to Acclarent’s physician marketing and direct-to-patient strategies.

Aerovance_Clinical Trial Brand

Preceding its international Phase IIB clinical study for an asthma treatment, Aerovance asked WCG to create a memorable brand identity that would help the company recruit trial participants.

WCG developed the AeroTrial brand and delivered a suite of recruitment and retention materials for global distribution. AeroTrial's airy visual appealed to various cultures and successfully engaged both patients and trial investigators.

Alsius_CoolGard Media Outreach

If not for the Alsius CoolGard device, NFL player Kevin Everett would likely have been permanently paralyzed when he experienced a game-related spinal injury. Invigorated by this high-profile success, WCG conducted media outreach without exploiting Everett or violating HIPAA. We worked in partnership with the treating hospital and developed a tempered informational approach, which led to Associated Press and Reuters stories and culminated in a Sports Illustrated cover story. The Sports Illustrated story included a detailed description of CoolGard and gained the praise of the Alsius CEO. He described the story as "the biggest PR event in Alsius' history...WCG handled it masterfully."

Cepheid_Annual Report Design

Cepheid provides fully integrated molecular tests and testing platforms for clinical diagnostics, industrial and bio-threat applications. The company tapped WCG to design its 2007 Annual Report.

WCG created an epic visual story to illustrate a major paradigm shift in the diagnostic market. We positioned Cepheid as the indisputable leader in on-demand molecular diagnostics, communicating to current and future investors that Cepheid is creating the future.

ev3_Corporate Brand

When ev3 wanted to evolve and strengthen its corporate brand, it turned to WCG. The company asked us to develop a refreshed brand platform that would better connect with the physicians and patients that ev3 serves.

WCG developed the LifeMoves campaign and a new corporate tagline: "ev3. Your endovascular company." ev3 has renewed its conversation with physicians by highlighting their common mission with this new brand platform. Now, ev3 is top of mind with physicians treating vascular diseases.

Genentech BioOncology_Strike Out Cancer

Biotechnology company Genentech sought to become the leader in oncology while establishing a meaningful connection with the patient community. To help Genentech's BioOncology division achieve these goals, WCG developed Strike Out Cancer. The program tapped into the national pastime of baseball to put a human face on BioOncology's cancer therapies and dedication to helping patients and their families. WCG engaged baseball players directly impacted by cancer, created a network of advocacy groups to conduct educational workshops, orchestrated a multi-city tour and conducted a national PR campaign—garnering more than 100 million media impressions.

Galderma_Acne Rumor Control

Galderma is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies focused exclusively on dermatologic products. The company hired WCG to develop and launch an integrated communications campaign to encourage teens with acne to seek prescription medication, such as Differin, from their doctors.

  • Dispel myths that acne will go away without treatment by telling teens that it is a genuine, long-term skin condition.
  • Making it cool to use Differin by tying in celebrities and pop culture to messaging.
  • Create a strong call to action that drives teens with acne to make a doctor's appointment to discuss treatment.
  • Leverage social networking tools and trends within the appropriate limits for a prescription product.

To put a well-known face on the campaign, WCG enlisted Differin user Lyndsey Rodrigues, host of MTV's "Total Request Live." Accentuating her celebrity status, WCG created a branded, reality-style online video that chronicled a day-in-the-life for Rodrigues. AcneRumorControl.com served as the campaign's hub, delivering educational and interactive tools. WCG set up interviews for Rodrigues and a dermatologist spokesperson with online teen magazines, beauty and skin blogs and other teen websites. We also launched a viral media blitz using a multimedia press release that included embedded links to the Rodrigues video and the interactive tools on AcneRumorControl.com.

The campaign earned 85 online postings and 10 placements in national online media, including Teen Vogue, YM Magazine, Elle Girl, Girls' Life, M-Teen and USA Today. Virtually all of the coverage incorporated the campaign's key messages, 99% linked to the campaign website, 96% mentioned Differin, and 83% embedded the branded video. There were 60,000 online views of the branded video on teen-oriented websites and blogs, and more than 10,000 unique visitors to AcneRumorControl.com during the first eight weeks of the campaign. The campaign's YouTube channel garnered 8,000 visitors, and the branded video campaign ads generated 11.7 million targeted audience impressions.

Peak Surgical_Corporate & Product Brands

PEAK™ Surgical is a venture capital-backed medical device company developing next-generation electrosurgical systems. PEAK asked WCG to crystallize PEAKS's brand positioning and look and feel, including its identity system, collateral and corporate website.

PEAK's corporate identity—a green lightning bolt contained in a circle—is a metaphorical representation of PEAK's radiofrequency technology. The image also signifies that the company is an advanced, energetic, game-changing player in the electrosurgical space.

Satiety_Product Brand Development

Satiety, Inc. is a medical device company developing technologies for a less-invasive treatment of obesity. WCG developed and rolled out the company's first product brand: The TOGA™ Procedure. The brand livened up the market space with its bold headlines and powerful sepia-toned imagery. It also reflected TOGA's transoral procedure with elements such as open-mouth imagery.

Boston Scientific_MADIT-CRT

Boston Scientific engaged WCG to position its study, MADIT-CRT, as the definitive trial proving that patients with mild-to-moderate heart disease can slow the progression of heart failure by using a cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) device. While the trial's outcomes had the makings of a big news item—the first major news to impact the implantable cardiac device industry in half a decade—competitors were also set to release their own trial data.

  • Engage and educate the media early and often so they understand CRT devices and the impact of the study, while mitigating cost concerns.
  • Obtain special approvals from ESC and NEJM to conduct outreach outside their normal media embargo window.
  • Educate key heart specialists and industry leaders about the data so they can comment in an informed way.

Two weeks before unveiling the trial outcomes, WCG pitched the story under embargo to one wire, one print and one broadcast outlet. The Principal Investigator (PI) was involved in major media interviews. We also educated advocacy groups to raise their awareness about the trial and CRT, jumpstarting conversations that we continued up to the announcement. WCG broke through the initial apathy of international affiliates, rallying them to generate coverage outside the United States. We held an in-depth media briefing at the American Heart Association, and one-on-one briefings at the American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society.

When Boston Scientific announced outcomes of the MADIT-CRT study, WCG helped to garner more than 150 million impressions. We secured more than 245 print, broadcast and online media placements; coverage from every major newswire, broadcast networks in key markets, and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. Twenty-two clinical trial sites in the U.S. drove coverage by local media, and affiliates helped us reach target outlets in Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. All coverage was balanced and on message, with little mention of the competition. The result: Boston Scientific received maximum value from its story.

XOMA_Corporate Brand

Embarking on an exciting new stage in its development, XOMA needed a corporate brand to clearly signal its evolution and unique value. WCG created an identity, look and feel that celebrated XOMA's pioneering spirit to set the company apart.

XOMA's new logo mark signifies many things: the path to new ideas, the onward and upward ambition of XOMA as a company and the inspiration of innovation. Most of all, the re-imagined XOMA brand reflects the limitless potential of XOMA's antibody therapeutics.