Top 10 Learnings for High-Growth Life Science Companies: Takeaways from Our PR Success
Melissa Musiker
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Reading time
July 10, 2024
December 17, 2021
Client Stories
Life Sciences
At Mission North, we’ve had the opportunity to be at the center of the life sciences renaissance through our work with companies leaving an outsized impact on the health and wellbeing of people, communities and the world. In 2021, we grew our life sciences business by more than 80 percent year-on-year by partnering with cutting-edge, disruptive companies transforming the future of biotech, healthcare, materials, agriculture and food.
We spearheaded the integrated communications efforts surrounding the rebranding of Memphis Meats to UPSIDE Foods and its commercialization process. We engaged new audiences on the technology enabling a moresustainable future for agriculture with microbes for Joyn Bio and on why we all need to worry about agricultural pandemics for Enko.
The FOMO Is Real: Everyone Wants Life Sciences PR Success, Here’s How to Achieve It!
The PR success we have achieved for our life science clients has led to some serious Mission North FOMO. We’ve distilled learnings from our work in 2021 into a Top 10 set of recommendations for high-growth life science companies who, in the words of the beloved movie ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ want what our clients are having:
Earned media is truly earned. Building media relationships is a marathon and not a sprint. Even with our media relationships, hiring an agency isn’t like flipping a switch. It doesn’t matter how ‘breakthrough’ your technology is, becoming a media darling requires investment in reporter education and relationship building. You also need to develop compelling, lay audience-friendly messaging, create a steady flow of timely news hooks, and develop a group of strong spokespeople.
Own your narrative. Whether interactive or static, blog posts or bylines, text or graphics, owned or shared—owned content is king. Investment in engaging, high-quality digital content can fill the earned media gaps, boost your SEO and give people something compelling to find when they look for you.
Paid is critical. In a world overflowing with information, content is like a tree falling in the forest and social algorithms don’t work in your favor, especially as you are building an audience. Paid advertising ensures that your audiences can find your content when and where they should be learning about you. This doesn’t have to be a huge, always-on investment but it should be used surgically to boost your most brilliant and engaging content at your most critical moments.
Size doesn’t matter, storytelling does. Small funding rounds or obscure partnerships can punch above their weight if they’re contextualized in the right way. By contrast, huge funding rounds or announcements in a vacuum may get coverage but won’t build reputation value if they don’t connect the dots and ladder up to a bigger story.
Prioritize PR at the executive level. When the media says ‘Jump,’ your execs should respond ‘How high’? We appreciate that everyone is super busy but being accessible, flexible and a reliable source of soundbites, without being a diva, means your voice is more likely to be heard and broadcast. Having a bench of spokespeople allows you to respond to a broader range of topics adapting to the needs of your audience.
Focus on your audiences. Understanding your audiences means delivering information to them when and where they need and seek it, not just where it's convenient for you. If top-tier outlets aren’t where your talent or B2B partners go for information, put vanity aside and meet them where they’re at.
Measure success in outcomes, not outputs; Stress quality over quantity. Focus on what you want your audiences to think, feel and do, and how you will know if you’ve been successful. Chances are it won’t be vanity metrics like impressions, reach and even advertising equivalents don’t always equate to moving the needle on business outcomes.
Ensure relevance with tangible human impact. The financial value of your tech is irrelevant if you can’t capture imaginations, hearts and minds. How are you creating social value in people’s daily lives? What real-world problem are you solving?
Ethics, values and diversity matter. In the war for relevance, talent and investor dollars, the ethos of how you run your business and how you are creating societal value is as important as your P&L. Companies that move beyond tokenization and embrace diversity at the C-suite, advisor and board of directors level are inherently more interesting to today’s audiences.
Be a thought leader, not a follower. There is no conversation without controversy. Being bold and provocative with a clear and unique point of view is the secret to securing live broadcast, top-tier speaking opportunities and high-profile byline placements.