Merck

Curiosity meets curiosity

Shaping the future with Merck

As a living science and technology company, Merck is home to curious minds dedicated to advancing the human condition. Driven by curiosity and a 350-year history, the people at Merck are committed to instilling values of respect and responsibility in research and development.

Curious minds on both sides

We have been orchestrating Merck's brand core with creative and personal style since 2016. We let our curiosity run wild too—and as lead agency, we not only handled the most radical brand relaunch in the company's history, but also the 350th anniversary of the company's foundation and countless parallel events. We have always worked in multi-disciplinary teams in order to bring our curiosity to bear in a holistic way.

In five years of working together, so many great (and award winning) pieces of work have been created that arriving at a selection is incredibly difficult.

A new direction requires a new identification

In October 2015, Merck launched the most radical repositioning of its brand in the history of the company. The first goal was to ensure that all 50,000 employees in 66 countries understood and identified with the new positioning. They were to champion the brand as ambassadors.

Together with Merck, we developed a series of communication measures based on a three-stage process of change: Value. Connect. Identify.

The Brand Champion programme kicked off the initiative: 250 Brand Champions from around the world undertook brand training and e-learning to empower them to launch branding activities to communicate the new brand. "Brand Espressi", mini activities and goodies, communicated the brand values in a playful manner. The outcome: It was possible to engage 94% of the whole workforce in the shortest possible time.

The Virtual Reality Brand Dome allowed employees to further immerse themselves in the brand. Employees were able to experience the most important elements of the brand b playing three games. This made up the second phase of the change process.

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Video: „Virtual Reality Brand Dome“

Employees take on the role of brand ambassadors

The global "I'M Campaign" transformed 56 employees into confident brand ambassadors: "I’m not an assistant – I’m a manager manager". The posters could be seen all over the world, in various small formats as well as huge wall wraps. On social media, we live-streamed the posts for an entire day using the hashtag #vibrantm.

Thanks to this comprehensive employee campaign, employee referrals increased by 10 percent. And that was just the beginning...

Global Curiosity Initiative: "How curious are you?"

Communicating innovation is critical for a science and technology company. Since 2016, Merck has been focusing on "curiosity" as a theme in order to stand out from the competition. The campaign is targeted at the scientific community, potential customers and the general public and will run for several years.

All activities combine scientific rigour with the joy of discovery and experimentation: scientific studies in the form of animated infographics; self-tests that feel like a rollercoaster ride; online games; interactive campaign videos and animated films. Orchestrated across the company's owned, earned and paid channels. And often winning international awards.

The Curiosity Initiative was launched in Germany and China and was gradually rolled out globally. Subsequently, it was picked up by the trade press, including Horizont, W&V, and New Business, as well as pharma and technology media outlets such as Pharma Relations and health reminder.

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Gallery of Curiosity content images starting in 2016

An anniversary with a future

Merck then celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2018. We managed the project on an international level across multiple disciplines, once again breaking new and challenging ground for the agency and client.

Global campaign

The global campaign revealed what is can happen when curious minds from different industries come together to shape the future. The success of the Ode to the Future, Future Perspectives and Future Talk podcast series is evidenced by 2.5 million website sessions, with an average time spent on the website of five minutes, and more than 38 million video views. These figures demonstrate the success and curiosity generated among B2B target audiences.

CurioCity: Engagement platform

To bring the internal motto "One Merck" to life, we used targeted employer marketing to network the entire Merck workforce on the digital CurioCity platform and encourage them to exchange ideas. 53,000 employees, 66 locations, 8 languages. Over the course of three months, they exchanged more than 10,000 posts, while 25,000 images, memes and videos and 150,000 messages were exchanged.

Worldwide employee celebration

A 24-hour live-stream in CurioCity, broadcasting the celebrations from every continent, rounded off the anniversary. Our live marketing experts, supported by an integrated team of digital, design, film and communications experts, led the conception, development and implementation of the global employee celebration.

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24-hour live-stream of the company's 350th anniversary from CurioCity.

Curious about sustainability

In the course of our communications, we focused more and more on showing how research driven by curiosity can create a better world.

Worlds of curiosity

How a society of heightened curiosity can drive social and technological change was explored in the feature film Worlds of Curiosity. In this interactive animated film, visitors spend a day following the life of scientist Maria. At various points in the film, they can raise the level of curiosity in society—and experience how curiosity changes our lives. Visitors were also able to discover the social and technological innovations behind the 27 content hotspots.

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How a society of heightened curiosity can drive social and technological change was shown in the feature film Worlds of Curiosity.

microplastic.me

Our microplastic.me awareness campaign provided an overview of the production process for microplastics and the ways to avoid them. Because microplastics are everywhere: In the oceans. In our food. Inside us. The campaign film took visitors on a wild POV journey through the life of a microplastic particle. Visitors then took the world's first microplastic self-test on the campaign's interactive website.

Envisioning tomorrow

From attitude to action

At Merck, curiosity is the source of many of the driving forces behind human progress. For instance, the company is working on quantum computing, self-driving cars and artificial intelligence in medical manufacturing. Our job is to communicate the current state of Merck research worldwide. But in a way that is not only accessible to experts, but is also relevant to everyday life and is entertaining. To do this, we are constantly creating a myriad of materials for the social media channels and online platforms used in our core markets.

International focus

We were and are responsible for the international campaign strategy, creative and online platform implementation, creation of all creative assets and content, and distribution through earned and paid media. In addition, we have built up a strong influencer network of up to 60 key opinion leaders in 9 countries around the world.

Content is initially created in English by the brand team in Darmstadt, Germany. It is then adapted in cooperation with local agencies in the core markets (USA/Canada, UK, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Brazil, India) and for the German market.

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Curiosity has been the driving force behind Merck's growth for more than 350 years. For us it is the basis for every innovation.

Brigitte Alexander, Head of Brand und Live Communication