MORE THAN 90 CLIENTS SUPPORTED THROUGH A MERGER, ACQUISITION, OR SIGNIFICANT GROWTH PHASE
Mergers, acquisitions, or fundraising periods are significant events for ownership, clients, and employees. Buyers and sellers alike must juggle everything from transaction due diligence and execution to finalization and integration.
Whether your company is seeking or making investments, acquiring, or being acquired, well executed messaging adds monetary value and ensures all parties move forward fully integrated. Our vast mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investments expertise means more for your business, just as it did for our clients.
THE CHALLENGE
Veranex was not made from an existing company acquiring another. Instead, an investment group and the leadership team combined four complementary solution providers, Ximedica, Quartesian, Experien Group, and Boston Healthcare Associates, in early 2021 to create Veranex, the first ever single-partner, concept-to-commercialization global service provider dedicated to the MedTech industry. Because of Veranex’s unique start, it faced two challenges: (1) there was no existing/operational company brand into which the companies would roll into, and (2) the four existing brands needed to integrate into a single, unified brand.
THE SOLUTION
With four companies coming together to make Veranex, they needed a completely new brand. SCORR worked with leadership to craft a brand-building strategy as unique as Veranex’s inception. This strategy included understanding the marketplace and crafting a solution to fill that need, necessitating thorough research on the market, the competition, and the legacy customer’s perception of the new company as well as research from Summit Partners (investors).
Taking inspiration from the four legacy company brands and guidance from research, SCORR developed a new Veranex brand to establish it as the most unique and differentiated business in MedTech development. The process started with the Big Idea, then moved to the logo, tagline, and eventually, the Veranex website.
The concept of “lemons and limes” was to show how MedTech is different, and more specifically how Veranex is different. The series of lemons shows how things have been done in the past by other providers, and how Veranex represents a fresh and new approach.
THE OUTCOME
The merging of these four companies was only the beginning for Veranex, as the company has continued to acquire and build its service line over the last year. Veranex is on its sixth acquisition in just 16 months with still more planned. The brand is growing stronger and continues to stand out, gaining more awareness and traction each month.
THE CHALLENGE
In October 2021, X-Chem, a provider of specialized DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology and drug discovery expertise, acquired two companies, Hungarian ComInnex to extend their expertise and services specifically in the medicinal chemistry drug discovery space, and U.K.-based Glamorous AI to establish them as an immediate global leader in DEL-powered artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. However, both acquisitions had expected close dates in the same week, creating challenges around messaging, timing, and cohesive communication.
THE SOLUTION
SCORR worked with X-Chem to develop strategic messaging that was not only unified for both acquisitions but also had slightly staggered timing, helping build the story of X-Chem’s evolution and punctuate it with their second acquisition of Glamourous AI. SCORR also created contingency plans in case the timing changed.
Both acquisitions were finalized and were announced in the last week of October 2021. They included:
- Public relations: News releases and editorial pitching
- Social media: Transition plan and placeholder graphics, organic posts from X-Chem and targets to raise awareness and drive followers to X-Chem, paid LinkedIn posts, and coordinated leadership posts from all companies
- Website: Blogs on X-Chem’s site, transitional name placeholders; transitioned all sites within three months
- Emails: Client, prospect, and employee emails from all companies
We want to transform the drug discovery process to bring drug hunters from the target-to-clinical candidate at unparalleled speed. These acquisitions and messaging further solidified X-Chem’s position as a leading provider of solutions in early-stage drug discovery.”
THE OUTCOME
- Media coverage: The acquisition announcements together earned coverage in 22 media outlets, along with an exclusive coverage in Drug Discovery World, published the week following the announcements.
- International: Global media mentions grew steadily from 60 to 352 in just 90 days.
- Share of voice: Compared to competitors, X-Chem’s SOV grew from 1% in the 90 days before the acquisitions to 7% in the 90 days post-acquisitions (No. 4 spot to No. 2).
- Referrals: 156 combined referral sessions, or traffic from another website.
- Website visits: Traffic increased up to 9x normal traffic and up to 10x normal traffic after each respective acquisition announcement.
