Medicines Discovery Catapult
A profile-raising campaign that positioned the MDC as accelerator of innovation in the drug discovery sector, leading to increased engagement with industry
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Positioning De La Rue as a global leader in currency and brand protection innovation
The brief
De La Rue is at the forefront of new developments in the design, production and security of the Cash Supply Chain, Product Authentication and Citizen Identities. Established over 200 years ago, the company has a long history of innovation, helping governments and commercial organisations to fight counterfeiting.
De La Rue wanted to increase awareness of their innovative services and products to existing and potential clients, and needed a communications agency to help them shape and deliver their key messages.
Our response
We started with a collaborative workshop to get to know the De La Rue team, discuss their objectives and explain how PR could help achieve them. We brainstormed content ideas, and identified the themes that would most interest their target audiences.
Within days of being contracted by De La Rue, the company announced disappointing annual results, which was soon followed by the resignation of the CEO and Chairman, as well as a programme of staff redundancies. This led to significant internal disruption and negative external commentary on the company, creating a difficult media landscape.
We knew they had great stories to tell, we just had to develop engaging content and a media strategy that managed a wide range of known and unknown risks, navigating the internal complexities with sensitivity.
Allegory very quickly developed a deep understanding of De La Rue and supported us, from the outset, through multiple challenges. They quickly built a strong communications strategy, and brought their expertise and ability to the fore when dealing with negative attention on multiple fronts, offline and online. At an exceptionally challenging time, Allegory enabled us to navigate internal transformations, so they could deliver laser-focussed external communications.
The outcome
Our work helped De La Rue gain international coverage on the first carbon neutral banknote; the design of new new £20 pound note and brand protection work as part of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. We also created videos and other visual content for De La Rue’s Twitter and Linkedin channels, which were among their most positively engaged with content. Our expertise was on hand to help them manage a range of online issues, from a malicious fake Twitter account to trolls posting from different continents, so they didn’t escalate or damage De La Rue’s reputation.
At a time of negative pressure on the company, 100% of the coverage we secured was positive, which helped to strengthen the position of De La Rue in the currency and brand protection sectors.
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