Strategy
HUTCHMED develops drugs for patients suffering from rare cancers. In early 2021, the company was preparing for its third listing on the Hong Kong exchange. For HUTCHMED to stand out from other Chinese biotech companies, they needed relevant and high-impact content that wouldn’t demonstrate financial achievement alone. The company needed to excite and engage a diverse mix of investors and industry leaders.
To create a tailored message for HUTCHMED’s third listing, we needed to understand our audience deeply - not simply who they were, but what interested them, who influenced them and how they consumed content. Our job was to identify and research existing and potential investors to create a set of personas from which the IPO messaging campaign could be built.
We collected C-Suite LinkedIn profiles who had engaged with HUTCHMED, Chinese biotech companies, and other multinational pharma companies to create a valuable database of industry contacts. After analysing the numerous data points from each profile, we identified common themes and categorised our audience based on roles and seniority. From more than 700 profiles, we developed six industry and investor personas. These personas gave HUTCHMED vital information to tailor their listing messaging. By understanding our audiences’ industry experience and knowledge, we could shape messaging around investors’ critical points of interest.
In June 2021, HUTCHMED was listed on the Hong Kong exchange. Their listing opened at US$537M and the company’s share prices jumped 53%.
GreenLight is listed at a US$1.2B valuation despite the headwinds and will be bringing its first product to market in the coming year.
Structuring highly technical information for sophisticated biotech investors for a NASDAQ listing
Problem: GreenLight Biosciences develops RNA solutions for some of the world’s existential problems: famine, disease and environment. They have a unique problem; their breakthroughs to previously insurmountable scientific problems were so novel, it was difficult to believe.
With the Theranos scandal unfolding daily on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and SPACs decidedly “on-the-nose”, the investor presentation not only had to diligently capture the facts, but present the science in a way that captivated sceptical minds.
Together with the GreenLight corporate affairs and science teams, we worked around the clock (literally) and combed through close to 1,000 pages, reviewing every single image, table and graph to make sure that the information was as clear as possible. If not, we built new visualisations of the data so that it was comprehensible with the least amount of cognitive load. On completion, a distillation of 56 slides was provided to investors and the SEC.
HUTCHMED’s Hong Kong listing opened at US$537M and saw a jump in share prices of 53%.
Attracting retail investors with an innovative scientific pipeline
Problem: HUTCHMED creates drugs for patients suffering from rare cancers, offering relief to those with few options to turn to. Their innovation team of scientists have developed groundbreaking drugs. But the average investor wants to invest in a company they understand, not distant, complex science.
With 10 in-house developed drug candidates, over 40 global clinical trials, and a company of 4,600 employees, we needed to present the company’s many achievements in an accessible video for their Hong Kong listing.
Working with HUTCHMED executives, we executed a brand film from start to finish. We developed a script with a clear structure that showcased the company’s impressive science but focused primarily on the dedicated team who makes it happen. We catalogued HUTCHMED’s library, made up of 20 years of footage, which we then utilised throughout the film. We also directed shoots across Hong Kong and China to showcase the capabilities of the executive team. We brought all these assets, including sleek animations from our in-house animator, together for a five-minute video that was published along with the company’s listing.
Within a week of season two launch, 7,000 NFTs were minted and The Sevens made US$471K.
Building an engrossing narrative for a Web3 company’s NFT drop
Problem: The Sevens was one of the biggest NFT projects ever upon their launch. However, an error in the minting process allowed one user to purchase 1,000 Sevens NFTs. The intended limit was one NFT per person. Despite the honest mistake, this destroyed trust in the brand and gave them the dreaded label of “rug-pull.”
However, The Sevens had no intention to take the money and run. They came to us to develop a long-term positioning for the brand that would help restore trust and promote their upcoming second season.
After surveying the Discord community and core team, we pinpointed the next stage for The Sevens; an anime-inspired entertainment universe. We would provide concrete value to the public with a compelling story that pulled on their heartstrings. With two months till the season launch, we analysed the brand’s 10K+ NFTs, established key story characters, developed a cinematic world, established an animation art style, and created an animated teaser trailer that featured all these components. This long-term brand direction is meant to repair perceptions about The Sevens, and establish more meaningful brand connections with NFT buyers.
