Last year, when newly merged pharmaceutical companies Ciba and Sandoz created a new company, Novartis, it decided to brand the company without mentioning one of the company's more than 1,500 well-known products -- including Ciba Vision, Ritalin, Sandimmune and Gerber.
Designed to encompass the three main divisions of the new company based in Basel, Switzerland -- healthcare, agribusiness, and nutrition -- the $45 million campaign was built around the theme, "New skills in the science of life." The tag is a play on the company's new name, which comes from the Latin term meaning "new skills."
"We wanted to show what the company really stands for. Its position is one of leadership," said John Blaney, global management supervisor at Ruder-Finn, which created the campaign. The London and New York office of Ruder-Finn created the campaign.
What made this campaign unique was that the company's well-known brand names were never mentioned in the advertisements and commercials created for the campaign.
"It would have been easy and obvious for us to use the brand names that already exist, but we needed to be different and unique so we started from ground zero," he said.
The campaign, which will continue through this year, consists of a series of ads to position Novartis as a pioneer in various areas. One ad, for example, asks: "Who's helping farmers produce better yields without depleting natural resources?"
Some of the ads feature a case study of how the company's developments and products are being used.
One ad shows a young couple, both organ transplant recipients who benefited from new medicine developed by Novartis, standing in front of the church where they plan to be married in March 1997.
The ads also include the company's new logo and the line, "formed by the merger of Ciba and Sandoz."
Print ads, that broke January 1997, ran in business-oriented publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Fortune, as well as medical publications including The British Medical Journal and The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The 15-and 30-second TV commercials ran on CNN, CNBC, BBC, Asian Business Network, and European Business Network. Ads also ran during in-flight news broadcasts.
In several countries, besides the U.S., an added layer of local newspapers and station ads were purchased after the global media plan had hit. Where necessary, the ads were altered to suit the local market.
"We understand that it is important for us to differentiate in each market because what works in France does not work in Germany," said Blaney.
Additionally, a Novartis Web site (http://www.novartis.com) offers detailed answers to the questions posed in the ads. The site also describes the company's new organizational structure and global reach as well as its products and research developments. The campaign also will be highlighted on Novartis' new Intranet system linking the company's 100,000 employees in 57 countries.
The ads were effective, as market research conducted after the first wave of advertisements show that brand recognition for Novartis has increased by 10 percent.
While the company would not divulge specific numbers, it did reveal that the response recognition rates were more than double of what they had expected.
After the first waves of ads that hit just after Christmas 1996, telephone polls were done in areas where the ads ran.
"While it is definitely more difficult to start from scratch -- that is what we needed to do," Blaney said. "Novartis is a new company that needed a new image."
"The intent is not to really sell products at all. We're absolutely intent on building recognition of the Novartis name and establishing brand identity," said Blaney.
That was considered especially important given the proliferation of mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the pharmaceuticals biz, where Novartis is the No. 2 player behind Merck.
The campaign targets "enablers" in finance, healthcare, agriculture, media, academia and government "who will help make Novartis successful in the future," Blaney said.
Achieving broad consumer impact was considered a secondary objective.
(Novartis, 41 61 327-2200; Ruder-Finn, 212/593-6400)