Excellence in Content Management/Curation

Summary of work

The transformational value of early science at AstraZeneca was arguably one of the world’s best kept secrets. AstraZeneca’s early science hub, the Innovative Medicines and Early Development (IMED) Biotech Unit, delivers groundbreaking work across research and development. But there is fierce competition for global leadership in early science and the organisation was outplayed by fierce competition in the industry race for leadership. Burson-Marsteller was tasked with developing a communications programme to create, manage and curate stand-out early science content across owned, shared and earned channels to establish a leadership position for AstraZeneca/IMED which educates key audiences, enhances its reputation in the market and encourages external collaboration and partnerships. Our high-impact approach succeeded in communicating the company’s commitment to ‘Follow the Science’ to discover and develop life-changing medicines and delivered outstanding results within just nine months, exceeding our objectives:

• 146% increase in engagement in digital content measured by unique page views and increased dwell time
• 171% increase in AltMetric Article Attention Score for high impact journal publications
• 16% increase in company followers on Twitter and LinkedIn, with an estimated audience reach of over 6 million
• Higher ranking of AstraZeneca’s share of voice in key science R&D categories against key competitors.

Judges' comments

We felt that this entry was extremely well written. It showed real understanding of how to move the content through to the appropriate audience at the right time to gain maximum results. A very methodical and well-executed entry.