Olympics are here!

The team in the London office is delighted to see the start of the Olympics.

The excitement was real when the torch passed our office, travelling along the Thames to the opening ceremony. And if you missed this historic moment, here it is, in a movie made by our sister company Living Brand Productions.

Gallop: A groundbreaking short film for MS

The Multiple Sclerosis Trust have shared their blog with Cathy John, a member of the online community Shift.ms.

Cathy introduces a new film she has been involved with to raise awareness about Multiple Sclerosis.

I found this film to be a great example of how films can be a great media to inform and motivate. They can create a long-lasting impact, by bringing a story to life and getting the message more strongly remembered.

By using metaphors and avoiding medical terms, the film engages the audience with the story. The relationship between the two characters, narrated along the diagnosis of MS gets viewers to identify with them. Most importantly, it sends a very powerful message - one of hope and encouragement.

The author: Axel Rousseau is brand scientist (SRE) at Branding-Science and has been working on international market research and consultancy since 2008.

EphMRA – one big social, or was social the big one for EphMRA?

EphMRA this year – a theme of the 360 degree future, with a strong and consistent message of improved customer engagement with ‘social media’ (apparently a now redundant term but that’s a topic for future discussion), as a means of both ensuring participation with and a route to sourcing research and insights. 

Speed, breadth, depth, FUN (who’d have thought participation in some quantitative form-filling research could be fun?).  It’s all there if we can harness the approach, ensure validity, manage compliance with ADEs and codes of conduct and are confident we can gain the insight we are seeking.

Is “traditional”, standard research dead? Absolutely not – but then none of us should be doing ‘standard research’.  We still need to be asking the right questions, to the right people in the right way – delivering insights that inform and impact upon real business decisions.  So it’s evolution not revolution.  We all have work to do to truly understand the ‘under the skin’ emotive drivers and motivations to behaviour – both patient and healthcare professional – but we shouldn’t ignore the opportunities presented by online developments that we can tap into. 

To know more on how Branding Science can help you join the dots (or docs in the pharma world) and both engage and gain insights through a more social and engaging approach to research, give us a call.   Whilst our Customer Councils TM, CompComs and similar co-creation tools have been doing this for years we can provide the means to harness an online approach to tackling those issues that would gain from a new approach.

The author: Simon Noble-Clarke is Managing Director at Branding Science. He previously held various positions in sales and market intelligence with some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies.