Oxford Brain Diagnostics

We were briefed to help the University of Oxford spin-out as it looked to scale its business. It needed help defining its purpose to the market, establishing exactly how to position itself to a wide variety of audiences. From investors for Series A funding, through to clinicians and the pharma industry as it looked to drive clinical acceptance of its product in the years to come. ​

We took a methodological, audience-centric approach, unpicking OBD’s place in the market to develop a mission statement, clear narrative and messaging which would enable it to communicate its longer-term ambitions around neurodegenerative conditions and brain health, beyond its starting point in Alzheimer’s research. The process included: ​

• Establishing and prioritising its key audiences in line with its 10-year growth plan ​
• In-depth competitive, market context and audience research to define where OBD’s clear air could be, and the messages that would resonate best with these audiences​
• 1:1 interviews with existing customers / partners, and the investor community, to understand their perceptions on OBD and where they believed it had the most potential​
• 1:1 interviews with all senior team members at OBD, and a group workshop to discuss initial purpose, positioning and key messages ​

Following this, we developed mission statements, core messaging and audience specific messages, which we worked on in iterations directly with the Co-Founder / CEO and COO. We tested these messages with customers and investors. The final messages were presented in a visual ‘message house’ leading with its overall mission ‘Rethinking Brain Health’, supported by core messages and audience specific messages across investor, pharma and clinician. ​

The new messaging has helped position the company for a substantial investment from a key customer to test its diagnostics tool in the live clinical contexts. It is currently being used to build proposals for Series A investment, and is defining the company’s entire approach to scaling in the months ahead.​