Moderna, with aid of TBWAChiatDay, is making mRNA science exciting & accessible

Alongside Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in the US and AstraZeneca and Sinovac globally, Moderna developed one of the leading vaccines to the virus. Its vaccine, like Pfizer’s, is mRNA-based, employing novel technology designed to prompt an immune response without the use of live virus components. These mRNA vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy in reducing severe Covid-19 outcomes and have become widely accepted due to their adaptability, allowing swift updates in response to emerging virus variants.

Moderna’s vaccine has been lauded for its innovative approach, clinical efficacy and adaptability to new variants, particularly with its recent release of updated boosters aimed at tackling the latest virus strains. Initially perceived as a biotech underdog, Moderna’s vaccine has catapulted it into a major player in pharmaceuticals. While Pfizer-BioNTech generally took the lead in early adoption, Moderna’s production capabilities and robust mRNA technology have positioned it as a key competitor, especially in markets focusing on boosting immunity against variants.

Now, the company wants consumers to gain a deeper understanding of the vast possibilities of mRNA technology. It’s not just vaccines – mRNA solutions could help address diseases “from the widespread to the extremely rare,” a voiceover explains in Moderna’s ‘Welcome to the mRNAge’ ad campaign launched last year. “It could even individualize how we approach cancer.”

The campaign, led by a colorful minute-and-a-half hero film, was created in partnership with TBWAChiatDay New York, the brand’s agency of record.

Together, the two organizations have been working to disseminate Moderna’s story and communicate the vast potential of mRNA-based approaches since 2021.

In a recent dialogue hosted by Marla Kaplowitz, CEO and president of the 4A’s, Kate Cronin, Moderna’s chief brand officer, was joined by TBWAChiatDay New York CEO Emily Wilcox, where the two delved into their partnership and approach to storytelling together.

Through campaigns like ‘Welcome to the mRNA Age’ and a Covid-19 awareness push launched in August, the two organizations are bridging science and storytelling to position mRNA as a cornerstone of future medicine.

Throughout the conversation, Cronin emphasized Moderna’s commitment to educating consumers about mRNA’s vast potential beyond Covid-19, aiming to demystify the science behind vaccines and potential cancer treatments.

This idea is at the heart of Moderna’s brand marketing philosophy. “We want to show up differently,” Cronin said. “We want to show up not as a pharma company – we’re a health tech company, and we’re a platform company. Similar to how Apple has an iOS system, we have an mRNA system, and everything is built off of our mRNA platform. When you are a different kind of a company, the creative – the look and feel – should show up differently.”

TBWA is tasked with creatively translating this idea into compelling narratives. Leveraging the messaging platform ‘This changes everything,’ the team is uncovering powerful ways to do so.

For example, the agency used the ‘This changes everything’ message to make more of Moderna’s long-standing partnership with the US Open last year when it launched a moving tribute to tennis legend Arthur Ashe, the first Black man to clinch the US Open title and a lifelong champion of health equity and social justice. The campaign, which shined a spotlight on Ashe’s story, not only raised brand awareness but also won accolades for its impactful storytelling.

Emerging tech and AI are also playing an increasingly crucial role in the creative process for both Moderna and TBWA. The brand, in collaboration with ChatGPT parent OpenAI, has developed over 750 custom GPTs, which the company uses across functions – from brainstorming to legal processing, sometimes even helping to decode viral mutations.

TBWA, meanwhile, leverages its own ‘Collective AI,’ a proprietary model built on decades of company insights, which assists the team in shaping synthetic audience profiles and developing and testing creative concepts with greater agility and relevance.

“At its very nucleus… the way it is thinking about ideas, and the way it’s thinking about creativity, is starting from a foundation of disruptive thinking. So it’s been really helpful to us as a bit of a sparring partner sometimes in our creative development,” Wilcox said.

Reflecting on their collaborative success, Cronin and Wilcox highlighted how a true brand-agency partnership allows bold ideas to flourish.

Cronin credits her understanding of agency partnerships, at least to some extent, to the fact that she spent much of her career working agency-side at Ogilvy and Ogilvy Health. “Understanding the client, understanding the needs of the company, is super important,” she said.

Wilcox and the TBWA team, meanwhile, are grateful to have gained Moderna’s trust in the task of communicating critical messages.

“With the complexity of the science… and the job to be done to translate a lot of information and a lot of heady things into real, approachable, humanity-driven concepts and storytelling, you could never do that without the upstream access and true partnership that Kate [Cronin] displays,” Wilcox said. “She really treats the agency as a partner. That’s a true requirement for great work, period. It’s even more so needed in this category.”

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