We Rebranded Messaginglab. Here's Why

You may have noticed a small change. A new logo in our email signatures.

If you've visited the Messaginglab site, you'll have seen an update.

Let me share why we made those changes.

The Covid-19 pandemic served as an accelerant for biotechnology. Twenty years of vaccine research paid off in multiple approved vaccines. The industry accelerated diagnostics discovery. New drugs were developed and approved. But, perhaps most importantly, the pandemic also ushered in a new era of open ecosystems and collaboration.

Biotech demonstrated it could step up to a major challenge. And I think many of us feel confident that the technologies that leverage biology can be used to solve big (BIG!) challenges very quickly.

The pandemic also showed us that many of our 18th Century institutions and 20th-century mindsets are unprepared for the exponential benefits and challenges ahead.

We saw - and continue to see - how the evolving media landscape creates a perception that storytelling is challenging. The fragmenting media landscape means attention spans have gotten shorter. But people are more desperate than ever for connection.

At Messaginglab, the conversations we've been having with CEOs and founders have become much more optimistic and reflect our own optimism. CEOs and founders understood that storytelling and communications are essential. They wanted to tell a better story to make a bigger impact.

We needed to be better at communicating our own offerings, the impact Messaginglab is making on other organizations, and the value we create together.

Why We Decided to Rebrand

Mid-2021, my friend and colleague Friko Starc of Chaco, a luxury branding agency, said, "I now understand how life science technologies are changing the world and see you and Messaginglab as force-multipliers. So it's time to rebrand."

To rebrand is never easy. I've helped companies create and refresh brands. It always takes longer than you think. Especially if you want it done right.

I knew our success and longevity lie in our ability to move and change quickly and reinvent constantly. And maybe, I had grown a bit comfortable with our brand and offerings. But Starc, as he often is, was on the money.

We looked at Messaginglab as a client and set about rebranding. To do so required determining what made us different, where we stood in the marketplace, and where we wanted to go. In looking at our client base, their successes, and growing reputations, we also knew we needed to get people's attention and even disrupt things a bit.

I knew that if were going to continue to serve the best life sciences companies, we would have to step up. I also knew I would need help to answer the same challenging questions that we ask clients.

For Messaginglab, rebranding came down to three things. We rebranded:

To better communicate our expanding offerings and the impact on our clients,
To address the multiple emerging ways to tell a story, and
To develop a bold brand that would cut through the noise.

As we approached the process, we had the opportunity to experience the research, strategy, design, and implementation processes that go into creating a new brand from scratch. An approach we take our clients through. We hired our friend Jonas Pacheco de Oliveira to lead the process.

Jonas and his team took our strategy and input. They designed a pallet and mood board that reflected our style (elegant, bold, confident, playful, punk, and biological) and the space we play in (the life sciences).

Messaginglab's story has changed a bit. Our offering now includes media relations. But at our core is the belief that strategy is story and story is strategy.

Jonas and his team pointed out that our previous logo and typography emphasized the LAB over messaging. Yet these days, we want to weigh story and lab equally. Especially when you consider that the lab that we create with you - whether virtual or real - harkens back to the Latin origins of the word: laboratorium, from Latin laborare 'to labor.'

So, you'll note the lab in the new logo is represented as a box representing the lab while emphasizing the message. Separately, you'll see iterations (evolutions, mutations) of the logo that speak to the fluidity of ideas.

The story, the lab, the ideas created there are never static. Personally, I think it is clever and works.

What makes a brand isn't the logo or the visual identity. It's the experiences and feelings built on consistent messaging and interactions. The visuals are the reminders of that experience - experiences you will carry with you after interacting with us. The brand represents us, but you live in our brand.

I hope you like it.

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