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Clinical Trial Branding to Boost Engagement and Enrollment: 10 Principles for Success
The importance of clinical trial branding
Clinical trial branding has gained importance in recent years due to its potential to boost a clinical trial’s success in various ways, such as enhancing awareness of the trial (amongst both patients and fellow researchers), improving patient engagement and recruitment, helping to convey the study’s goals and values clearly, and giving a coherent and consistent voice to study materials and communications, which can also enhance the engagement of site staff.[1]
The use of branding strategies – similar to those used in marketing of any other product or service – can help build awareness about the trial within the scientific community and amongst relevant stakeholders. By establishing a strong presence through a targeted marketing strategy launched across various communication channels, sponsors/investigators have the opportunity to increase citations of their clinical trial results and attract attention from other researchers and industry professionals.
Clinical trial branding also has the potential to overcome current challenges in clinical trial patient recruitment and enrollment. Effective clinical trial branding helps convey the goals of the study as well as the values underlying it, differentiates it from other similar trials, and makes it more attractive to potential participants as well as easier for them to remember. Adding a more modern and emotional spin on the tired old “license plate” style traditional trials names, like AA-1042-A93, helps patients feel interested in the trial and engaged with its success.
Well-thought-out branding helps ensure that study-related materials and content, including messaging, advertising, and outreach campaigns, is clear and consistent. Having a solid brand voice promotes better understanding among patients regarding the values of the study and its particular objectives, as well as about what is expected from them as participants in the study. Clear communication also helps participants manage their decision to participate and expectations in relation to risks and potential benefits associated with involvement in the trial.
Finally, clinical trial branding can also enhance engagement among site staff by promoting consistency and clarity surrounding the study’s goals and in its protocols. By creating a recognizable brand image for the trial, it becomes easier for site staff members to communicate its goals and objectives to potential participants as well as their colleagues. This clarity in communication improves overall efficiency in executing the trial.
How do you brand a clinical trial?
Branding a clinical trial is an increasingly common practice that serves many purposes, but in particular it represents an integral part of a well-designed patient recruitment and retention strategy. The clinical trial branding process usually involves coming up with an easily identifiable name – or commonly an acronym – as well as a logo and other visual/design elements, an engaging storyline, as well as clear and compelling communication materials that encapsulate the trial's values, goals, target participants, methods, and potential impacts.
Clinical trial branding is not something that can be done last-minute in order to address an emergency shortcoming in recruitment rates. Plan ahead, in every aspect of background research on your target patient group, clinical trial branding, and development of the outreach strategy. A rough estimate is to allow 2 to 3 months for the entire process, and remember that all study materials will need to pass IRB approval before enrollment can actually begin.
10 Principles for an effective clinical trial branding strategy
1. Understand your target population
To be able to develop an effective clinical trial branding strategy, a crucial first step is to take time to thoroughly understand the target population for your study. Beyond basic demographic information such as age range and location, it’s useful to get insights into aspects of their behavior, how they engage with healthcare providers and information on their condition, and what daily life looks like when living with the condition, including emotional factors. Some ideas include engaging with patient advocacy organizations (PAOs), patient groups on social media channels, patient registries, and clinics specializing in that condition to gain insights into the patients’ needs, preferences, and challenges. This information will lay the foundation for guiding the following steps in a way that resonates with the patients.
See our guides to patient insights and patient engagement for further ideas in this regard.
2. Incorporate concepts of patient centricity to maximize engagement
Patient centricity describes the increasingly prevalent philosophy of placing strong emphasis on understanding patients’ needs and preferences and designing trials with those in mind. When it comes to branding a clinical trial, this philosophy would translate to branding the trial in a way that clearly speaks to the needs of the target patient population. It would also suggest designing the trial to be accessible and comfortable for patients, minimizing the burden placed on them through aspects such as frequent in-person site visits or intensive procedures. You might design the trial brand in a way that resonates with needs related to their condition, such as new treatment or therapy options, or to elicit an emotional response that encourages engagement – however, be careful to explicitly avoid any suggestive or coercive language/names (see point 5). As an example, let’s say the majority of trials for condition XY have required intensive and burdensome study visits. The branding concept for your new fully remote trial for XY could call attention to the fact that this is the first study allowing participation from the comfort of home.
3. Establish the values and objectives of the trial & develop the brand voice to communicate them coherently
Part of the clinical trial branding process includes clearly identifying the objectives of the trial and the values underlying it (i.e., the values of the sponsor organization or research center). The brand voice can then be developed in a way that reflects the trial’s ethical standpoints, purpose, and its desired impact on patients' lives. Thorough consideration and acknowledgement of potential risks and benefits for patients is an important aspect of this, as honesty is crucial in establishing and maintaining trust between the patients and your study. A coherent and clear brand voice helps to convey these pillars of the study in a consistent way.
4. Clinical trial naming: Choose a clever name or acronym
Assigning a name to the trial deserves special attention, as the name is perhaps the aspect of the branding strategy that will have the most obvious impact. The name of the trial should be memorable, while capturing its essence concisely and also conveying something of meaning to participants. Often, the name might be an acronym or abbreviation of a longer title, in which case the same logic applies to the acronym itself. Lots of considerations come into play here, so choosing a name and/or acronym for the trial can be a challenging aspect of clinical trial branding. While coming up with options, keep legal and cultural aspects in mind as well – we discuss these in the next point.
5. Validate the proposed name
Validate all options for the trial name by checking for legal availability and any existing trademarks, ensuring it doesn’t have any negative or inappropriate connotations, and avoiding suggestive or coercive terms which could result in rejection by the IRB for ethical reasons. These factors should be checked for every jurisdiction in which the trial will operate. Since the name will likely be used for academic citations and legal documents such as patents and NDAs (particularly if results are favorable), it’s important that it does not overlap with any copyrights or trademarks. Suggestive or coercive language could include any terms that imply or guarantee specific outcomes, such as “Diabetes-CURE” or “REMISSION.” Offensive or negative connotations can be checked by involving a local stakeholder in each jurisdiction to ensure there are no meanings in the local language (either literal or slang) relating to the trial’s name or acronym in an inappropriate way.
6. Use SEO to inform the strategy and increase visibility
Optimize online visibility by implementing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques targeting keywords that are relevant to your trial's focus area, so that potential participants are more likely to come across information about the study when searching online. Search engines, particularly Google, have become one of the main tools for finding information. SEO can be used in two ways: first, to inform the clinical trial naming process by incorporating high-traffic keywords in the clinical area; second, after selecting the name, use related keywords in the design of study materials and content to align with common search intents and improve the visibility of your study.
Refer to our guide to google clinical trial advertising for more ideas.
7. Visual design: Clinical trial logo, color scheme, etc.
Once the name is established, you will want to round out the branded clinical trial strategy with a consistent visual identity. The visual identity can leverage obvious and subtle cues conveyed through aspects such as a logo, well-matched color scheme, font choices, etc. The aim of this is to help establish recognizability across different promotional materials used during recruitment campaigns, as well as to encourage prospective participants to feel engaged with the clinical trial and emotionally interested in its success.
Select graphics that are visually appealing, related to the objective of the study, and which resonate with the target audience - a picture of a cookie would not be an appropriate logo for a blood sugar control study!
8. Develop a coherent clinical trial advertising / marketing strategy
Now that the trial has been named and a visual identity is formulated, you will want to think about how your trial will be advertised or promoted. For this step we refer to the world of clinical trial advertising and marketing, which we have discussed thoroughly in our article “How-to Guide: Clinical Trial Marketing.”
A comprehensive diffusion and outreach strategy is a key part of recruitment, and will likely be launches across various channels such as social media platforms, search ads, a dedicated website/landing page for click-throughs on online ads, print materials such as research flyers or posters, press releases or publications, and outreach through physicians and medical facilities, amongst other possibilities.
9. Social media advertising
Social media platforms have become one of the primary avenues for clinical trial recruitment; in the US, 69% of adults were active on Facebook alone in 2021. Social media platforms can be used strategically to promote awareness of your clinical trial, engage with potential participants, and funnel patients through to the enrollment process. Content will need to be tailored to different platforms, each of which has its own ad types as well as restrictions for targeted ad campaigns, but the effort invested is highly likely to pay off in strong recruitment numbers. We have written extensively on this topic in the following two articles:
10. Ensure consistency in study materials, including regulatory submissions
Remember that everything related to the study must obtain IRB approval before it can be published. This includes promotional materials designed for all modalities, informed consent forms, and the study protocol itself. Thus, all aspects of the clinical trial branding and outreach strategy should be designed with ethical considerations and regulatory approval in mind. Maintain consistency in branding across all trial-related publications, promotional materials, informed consent forms, participant materials, and regulatory submissions. It’s important that the study’s name and title be used consistently, not only for coherence but also for regulatory aspects. Being coherent in this regard will prevent you from needing to make changes and wait for re-approval due to relatively minor aspects related to the branding aspects of the trial.
Conclusion
Clinical trial branding has become increasingly important as it contributes to building awareness around a trial, conveying its values and objectives, drawing attention from potential participants, increasing citations and reach within the scientific community and the pharmaceutical sector, and addressing challenges related to patient recruitment and enrollment. By following these 10 principles for effective clinical trial branding, you can support recruitment efforts by clearly communicating the study’s goals and encouraging participant engagement.