BioSpace Hotbed™ Campaigns Enhance Corporate Branding During a Recession; Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc., EquipNet, Inc. Provide Insight
Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc., and EquipNet, Inc. Provide InsightBy Suvarna Sheth, BioSpace.com
Emerging from recession, it's important for every employer to focus on aspects of their corporate brand – both internally and externally. The BioSpace Hotbed™ campaigns are an excellent way to build your company's corporate and employer brand across the different biotech clusters in the U.S. and Canada.
BioSpace produces 9 Hotbed Campaigns each year, illustrating different biotech hubs where industry professionals can learn more about the life science community from regional news, job opportunities, events, and much more.
“The regional Hotbed campaigns are known nationally as a branding tool for the industry,” says Jennifer Masel, Senior Account Executive at BioSpace. “Thousands of collateral pieces are distributed locally and nationally at many BioPharma functions throughout the course of the year to help enhance both corporate and employer branding,” she says.
As human resources tools become increasingly sophisticated, Masel says it's also imperative that branding be more concise amongst all facets of the organization.
Masel notes that the Hotbed campaigns are a great way to enhance corporate and employer branding in a concise way because companies are able to capitalize on the traffic that comes to BioSpace daily, as well as have a portion of their marketing and branding initiatives fulfilled for a full year.
Companies can also use Hotbeds to enhance employer branding, the strategy to appeal to desired current and future talent. The purpose is to make it easier for the employer to attract the qualified individual, or even more importantly to get the top talent it needs from a very competitive job market.
“Since one of the greatest challenges of employer branding during a recession is maximizing human resources tools with reduced budgets,” Masel notes, “participating in the Hotbed campaign is a cost-effective way of showing strength when uncertainty is in the air.”
“BioSpace Hotbed Maps are very innovative, creative and a great visual platform for those wanting to know more about the biotech community,” says Kelly Barry, Corporate Communications Specialist at Idenix Pharmaceuticals located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Barry says the campaign has given Idenix Pharmaceuticals increased visibility and has enhanced the profile of the company over the years. “The Hotbed Maps are great from both a public relations perspective and a job market perspective because they allow companies to become more visible to the biotech space, and they are a good human resources tool for the career-seeking population,” she comments. Barry says Idenix has been part of the Hotbed campaign for many years. “We value our participation very much!” she says.
Colleen Wilson, Manager of Human Resources at Infinity Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts likes the Hotbed maps also and says they are well recognized among the community.
“Being on the Genetown map means we are a member of the Boston area biotech community,” Wilson comments, “Everyone is on it, so we, of course, want to be on it too,” she says.
Wilson, who has been with Infinity Pharma for two years says in the time she has been with the company, she realizes that being a part of the Hotbed Campaign is a great way to unify the Boston area companies.
The human resources manager knows that people are familiar with the Hotbed maps and says while the company uses other tools for corporate and employer branding efforts, being on the Genetown map is still meaningful and helpful in recruiting.
EquipNet, a provider of proactive asset management services and solutions for large and small biotech corporations is a member of the Biotech Bay™, Biotech Beach™, and Genetown™ Hotbeds. Large framed poster maps of the Hotbeds adorn the walls outside Ben Potenza's office, the V.P of marketing.
“We do a lot of research before advertising and we make decisions based on site popularity and what people in the industry are doing,” Potenza says, “Certainly, BioSpace is one of the focal points on the web for people in the biotech industry and it’s been a very effective force for our company, we’ve received many, many leads from it,” he says.
Because EquipNet is in the business of helping companies manage their idle and surplus biotech equipment, Potenza says BioSpace helps the company reach many people in one place, “whether it’s for our events, news, or to get our services out there, we love being a part of that community,” he says.
EquipNet has even used the BioSpace’s accessories, such as its classic t-shirts as marketing tools itself. “We felt the Hotbed campaigns legitimized us so much that we gave out the BioSpace t-shirts we received in our own internal Twitter campaign at the BIO meeting last spring,” Potenza explains.
Potenza says because the companies on the Hotbed maps are the “big players” in biotech and pharma industries in those particular geographic areas, it’s the perfect place to brand your business.
“Being right there on the map with all the other big players does exactly what I want it to do, which is let everyone know we are a huge player in this space,” Potenza says, “it’s a great way to get our brand out there with all the other global-well-known brands, and that can only boost our brand awareness for sure,” he says.