For too long, women’s basic healthcare needs have not been adequately addressed. Organon set out to change that when it spun off from Merck on June 3, 2021 – launching a company with a vision to create a better and healthier every day for every woman.
As the only and largest global women’s health company of its kind, Organon launched with a simple, yet powerful purpose: to be here for her health. This premise was built through a significant research-driven effort to ensure we understood how to better address women’s health needs, starting with listening to her.
After years of preparation, Organon launched more than a company, we launched a commitment. We needed to break the mold of the standard pharmaceutical company launch and introduce Organon in a way that would capture the hearts and minds of stakeholders, while also inspiring confidence in the business.
We dubbed launch day, Her Day, reflecting Organon’s focus on putting women at the center. Her Day featured a powerful series of activations, debuting with “The Wall of Voices” – a unique, eye-catching multimedia installation at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that brought diverse, global perspectives together to symbolize our commitment to listen and amplify women’s voices.
Objectives
- Build awareness of Organon and its commitment to be a different kind of pharmaceutical company – one that listens, learns and leads
- Create a meaningful, visible, global moment to mark Organon’s launch
- Inspire Organon employees to help drive forward its vision
Research/insights
Organon commissioned focus groups with HCPs, consumers and employees in four countries, including the U.S., and one-on-one interviews with policymakers, media influencers and institutional investors.
Our research uncovered that woman felt they were doing a lot of talking – but nobody was actually listening to or addressing their healthcare needs. We found widespread support for a company focused on women’s health.
Research showed there was a significant unmet need in women’s health, which underscored our opportunity to launch as the only and largest global women’s health company of its kind. Armed with data, we created a simple yet powerful tagline – “Here for her health” – and set out to build a distinctive content strategy that made Organon synonymous with women’s health.
Strategy
Our strategy focused on putting women at the center of every message and experience, prioritizing Organon’s commitment to listening and amplifying their voices.
With COVID-19 restrictions in place/limited opportunity for in-person events, we needed content that would excite/inspire our stakeholders through an integrated approach spanning paid/earned/shared/owned channels. The effort was grounded in the following strategic pillars, with the large-scale “Wall of Voices” installation serving as the symbolic centerpiece of Her Day:
- Highlight Organon’s business strategy and bring to life its vision for a better and healthier every day for every woman
- Create forums for women to share their voices, marking Organon’s commitment to listen
- Inspire meaningful social and digital connections and conversations through highly engaging, visual content
- Engage partners to amplify our mission and message
- Rally and energize our community of 9,500+ employees around the globe to drive our vision
Execution
A robust suite of assets and platforms told Organon’s story with messages, visuals and videos designed to maximize impact.
- Branding:
- Developed vision, mission, values centered on being a company that puts women at the core
- Created a distinctive visual identity featuring colorful illustrations and reflecting women of all ages and backgrounds
- Incorporated a microphone icon into all visuals and activations as a symbol of listening
- NYSE activations:
- “Wall of Voices”: a large-scale, audio-visual installation capturing Organon’s commitment to listen/learn/amplify women’s voices
- Hereforherhealth.com listening site, where women shared perspectives on areas most overlooked in women’s health
- Employee livestream event to enable employees to experience the NYSE event as though they were there
- Established social/digital footprint, launching Organon.com/LinkedIn/Instagram channels
- Encouraged women to share their perspectives about overlooked areas in women’s health on their platforms or Hereforherhealth.com.
- Partnership with The Female Lead: reached an audience already active in women-centered discussions
- Launch video that captured the spirit of Organon
- Sponsored content: banner ad in The Washington Post and its millennial-targeted newsletter The Lily, banner ads and long-form article in The New York Times
- Digital billboard: ‘megazilla’ digital animated billboard in Times Square to introduce Organon
- Earned: leveraged the “Wall of Voices” to engage media around Organon’s commitment, targeting financial/business and consumer media
- Market-to-market connectivity: provided markets with Her Day communications toolkits, including assets for local implementation
- Global celebrations: across the world: regional Town Halls, launch parties and welcome kits
The content and initiatives for the surround-sound Her Day program created an unprecedented movement in the healthcare industry, putting Organon on the map as the leading company dedicated to women’s health.
- Strategic use of social/digital/sponsored content extended the Her Day excitement to millions worldwide:
- New Instagram/LinkedIn channels grew >38,000 new followers at launch
- LinkedIn content resulted in 14x better performance than most companies
- The Washington Post’s The Lily banner driving to microsite generated 1,658,464 impressions, 1,590 clicks, 0.10% CTR
- The New York Times digital amplification ads generated 2.1 million+ views, converted 6,400+ clicks to The NYT article
- Received outpouring of support/praise from consumers/advocates as they took the virtual mic at hereforherhealth.com to share their perspective on overlooked areas of women’s health, with 5.5K+ page views and 580+ quotes, with thousands more flooding in over the following months.
- Post-Her Day, employees demonstrated they believe in mission/vision, and felt strong connection to Her Day regardless of location.
- DSMN8 - The Employee Influencer Platform ranked Organon employees the country’s 10th most active pharmaceuticals professionals on social -- climbing 243 places because employees actively shared content
- 78% of employees agreed the livestream event helped them feel connected to/excited about launch
- Celebrations were held around the world, with some markets noting nearly 100% employee participation
- Generated widespread, highly contextualized media coverage went beyond what’s typical for company spinoff news, including 500 stories across top-tier, business/investor, healthcare industry/consumer outlets. Seven Organon executives participated in interviews, resulting in executive quotes featured in nearly half of all coverage.
Video for Here for Her Health: Introducing Organon to the World