KDM Communications

Where marketing bio begins

Posted by Jan Le Miere on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 — 0 comments

I’ve just got back from a few hectic few days visiting Sigma Life Science at its headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, which I’m glad to report is fully air conditioned. Anyone who’s ever visited the Midwestern United States in summer will know why this is important. But the trip wasn’t about experiencing the local weather.

Sigma-Aldrich is a name synonymous with the manufacture and supply chemicals, and there probably isn’t a scientist anywhere in the world that hasn’t at least heard of the Company. In contrast, the Company’s activities in the biological sector – under the name Sigma Life Science – are less well known, despite being a pioneer of several ground-breaking technologies. The kdm team, in conjunction with some of our Confrad colleagues, has been brought in to help change this.

To make sure we really understand Sigma Life Science, we spent two intensive days in immersion meetings with product managers and marketing executives from every part of the business. Despite the gruelling schedule, we were met with a great deal of enthusiasm, and are now ready to let everyone know where bio begins.

Science behind social media?

Posted by Paul Saville on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 — 0 comments

At the time of reading this blog you have probably already today logged on to at least one social networking site - either from the comfort of your home, work PC or via a mobile application device.

Indeed, the news this week that Facebook now has 500 million registered users hardly caused a stir, as it had been expected for a while, with daily use of such sites for many people as routine as cleaning their teeth or taking a shower . Still, it is a staggering statistic for a website that has yet to blow the candles out on its seventh birthday.

The BBC News website ran an interesting piece on The ups and downs of social networking, which looked at the trends in traffic for social networking sites across the globe. Though many countries were excluded from the list, it is interesting to see which sites are popular and where.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook topped most countries by at least double the amount of the second most used sites with the exception of Brazil and Germany. Yet, it was the rest of the list that made the most interesting reading, with wide ranging results, not least Twitter, where use is significantly different from country to country. What the report doesn’t show, however, is the use of social networking sites for business purpose. We know that many consumer-facing companies adopted social networking sites at an early stage, but B2B companies were much later to the party. One area that is of particular interest to the kdm team is that of social media use amongst life science and medical companies.

Kdm has already been instrumental in setting up social media strategies for companies in this arena, but quality research into the area is so far lacking. With this in mind, kdm will be conducting some extensive research to get an insight into the social media habits of life science and medical companies over the next couple of months to see if they are behind such techniques , and if not, why not. So watch this space! Until then, I leave you with an interesting article in USA Today, which profiles some physicians’ thoughts on the use of social media.

Personalized cancer medicine Symposium WIN’s over Paris!!

Posted by Sarah Khan on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 — 0 comments

Once again I’ve found myself in Paris, this time for the WIN Symposium in Personalized Cancer Medicine. kdm has been involved with WIN from its concept, helping Vladimir Lazar communicate and promote the WIN Symposium this year and last. Many of the world’s leading scientists, oncologists and technology providers united for this three day meeting, all with the common aim of achieving individualised treatment and early diagnosis of cancer, and so the WIN Consortium was formed. Engaging discussions on the future prospects of WIN carried on through the evening with the speakers, delegates and invited press, where together, we all enjoyed a fantastic gala dinner at the historic Parisian restaurant Le Fouquet’s on the Champs Elysées. WIN Symposium 2010 was an extremely successful event, which will be remembered by all involved. Yet, there is no time for reflection, as talk at kdm Towers has already turned to WIN Symposium 2011, with some exciting and innovative ideas up for discussion. So keep an eye out on our blog and Twitter feed for WIN updates in the next few weeks and months. Finally, congratulations to Sophie and Curtis who got married at the weekend and are currently on the other side of the globe enjoying their honeymoon.

Hot off the press......

Posted by Annabel on Fri, 2 Jul 2010 — 0 comments

It was great to see that, despite the heat, everyone had a spring in their step at Microscience 2010, at ExCel in London this week. Turnout for the conference and exhibition was strong, and I gained a valuable insight into the latest trends in microscopy through my discussions with delegates, journalists, exhibitors and event speakers. My highlight had to be talking through the details of the new Agar Scientific Catalogue, which is hot off the press. After managing the project from concept to completion, through design and layout, and writing and proof reading - it was great to be able to show off the final copy. Packed with over 430 pages of accessories and consumables for microscopy, kdm’s close working relationship with Agar Scientific proved a real success. Well done to all involved!

Recent wins!

Posted by Annabel on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 — 0 comments

I’m delighted to be able to share with you a few recent contract wins – we’ve just started working for Sunquest and Physik Instrumente (PI) on their UK public relations and have won the global PR account for Sigma Aldrich along with our partners based in the US, McKinney Chicago. We’ve also got a new campaign underway for our client, KNF Japan, making full use of our technical writing skills in Japanese, sadly no trips out to the far east though!