While I worked as Marketing Director for Synevo Bulgaria, together with a brave management team I set the challenging mission to create a unique voice for the company in the local medical Diagnostic Services (DS) market (aka Medical Laboratories market).
In Bulgaria, Synevo is a strong, innovative challenger, competing against several well-established local players.
As you could conclude from its online credentials (website, Linkedin, Facebook), the company’s focus is to deliver high-quality medical laboratory services, same as its sister companies, present in other 9 European countries:
- IMD laboratories in Germany
- Synevo Romania
- Synevo Poland
- Synevo Ukraine
- Synevo Belarus
- Synevo Moldova
- Synevo Turkey
- Synevo Georgia
- Beo-Lab in Serbia
The market share and brand awareness showed that the odds were mostly against, but internally and internationally, I knew the brand was very strong, and the strategy implemented by my manager in Sofia, Sebastian Rotariu was the right one.
With a market not focused on quality and user experience, the plan was to shake the market and launch a revolutionary idea (truly disruptive) in order to challenge the status quo both for patients and medical practitioners.
The Insight & Disruptive Idea for Consumers
For consumers, the core idea was empowering and enlightening:
“YOU CHOOSE WHERE TO TEST YOURSELF”.
The reason to believe (RTB) was there: in Eastern Europe patients are free to choose the medical laboratory by themselves, but very few of them are aware of it.
What followed was the most complex marketing campaign in Bulgarian DS market history, with different executions on multiple channels:
- OOH
- POSM
- INDOOR
- RADIO
- ONLINE
- SOCIAL MEDIA
- PPC
The campaign needed a strong key visual, disruptive in the category: the winning visual concept was the raised iconic fist.
But in our case we decided to replace the typical hammer with a blood vacutainer, the most common physical object in a laboratory (which almost every person knows).
The Insight & Core Message for Practitioners
For medical practitioners, however, the marketing strategy had to be different and compliant with local guidelines. Since in Eastern Europe relationships need to be clear in the medical field, the focus was set on transparency, QoS and trust-building.
Since my arrival, the website went through a series of transformations and hence it could play a role in The Manifesto campaign.
For this purpose, a special page on the site was created (here’s a snapshot with the website translated in English with Google Chrome):
Source: Manifesto page @ Synevo.bg
The key-visual had to be completely different, injecting more brand authority in its concept.
The core message chosen has been:
“LET’S HEAL THE RELATIONSHIP IN HEALTH CARE”.
The dramatisation was a dripping red stamp on a medical referral note, symbolizing a wound in the relationships between laboratories and practitioners.
The message to specialists from our GM, Sebastian Rotariu
The manifesto also had a personal side, and the key message was addressed to the specialists right from the top of our company, through the voice of the General Manager:
Results: Synevo Bulgaria 2019 “Manifesto” Marketing Campaign
Even after the end of this campaign, Synevo Bulgaria is keeping a continuously growing trend, improving its revenue and profitability.
Building this marketing campaign from scratch was a key-step in my international marketing career and I am proud and grateful to the wonderful team of Synevo Bulgaria that supported this bold idea from the very beginning.
