Storytelling for all: Drive meaning and engagement

Kris Fortner

Senior Leader, Product Development Communications

November 2, 2017

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What I’m Going to Cover

Personal introduction

Overview of Genentech and Roche

Our communication challenges

How we’re trying to solve them

Key Takeaways

Alamo

Global Product Development

Inman

Who am I?

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Roche Fast Facts

▪ Founded in 1896

▪ Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland

▪ More than 94,000 employees - in more than 100 countries

▪ In 2016, Roche Group invested over $9.9 billion in R&D

▪ World’s largest biotech company

▪ Top five global leader in pharmaceuticals 4

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▪ Founded in 1976

▪ Became a member of the Roche Group in March 2009

▪ Approximately 15,000 employees in the U.S.

▪ HQ for all Roche pharmaceutical operations in the U.S.

▪ ~40 medicines approved for serious or life-threatening diseases

▪ ~30 potential new medicines in development

Genentech Fast Facts

Our Communications Challenges

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Content doesn’t support communications strategy

Reactive, ad-hoc content

Technology platform enforces silos

Fragmented team

Responses:

Realign team Eliminate info silos Intro content strategy

Challenges in our Comms Organization

One problem…No channel strategy

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We need to separate the signal from the noise

We must separate signal from the noise

Second problem…No content strategy

Our content efforts were not guided

by a single, overarching, strategic

editorial mission or process

We have several ad hoc strategies that

have arisen as a result of organic

growth, but are lacking a cohesive

vision or structure.

1. A fragmented experience lacking

a guiding editorial mission

2. Content feels opportunistic

rather than audience-oriented

3. Primarily messaging to siloed

functions

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Proprietary & Confidental | NURUNMay 30, 2014| Content Publishing Strategy 11

Our solution to address both challenges

Develop editorial and channel strategies that elevate

our science, increase business literacy and engage our

broad employee base in Product Development and

across Roche globally

Our editorial journey

• A disconnected, fragmented platform

• Lacking a cohesive editorial mission

• Primarily messaging to siloedfunctions

• Leader and event driven communications

• Offering business updates

Past State

• Ecosystem of connected channels

• Guided by an overarching vision and editorial mission

• A dynamic content architecture —structured around audiences and types of stories rather than organizational silos or particular events

• Dedicated editorial team

• Scientific and people-centered storiesthat inform, inspire, and empower employees to work better

Future State

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Our Communications Approach

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PD News Transformation Strategy

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• Re-align the team to a “newsroom” content publishing model

• Utilize our 24 Functional Communicators as stringers

• Optimize employee channels & launch a mobile news app

• Accessible to entire Roche organization

• Invite participation from across the organization

• Drive steady cadence of news and stories to inform employees and support the business

We interviewed 20 key stakeholders at Roche to better understand their needs related to internal news.

This captured some of their desires and concerns and identified content, features and experiences to inform the design process

First, we heard from our key audiences

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There were three major requests

Breakdown silosEmployees are interested in hearing about news beyond their Function and across the organization at large

Compliment existing channelsThe app should compliment the other channels by consolidating some of the most important and relevant news

Deliver a user-friendly experienceThe app will need to align with people’s current expectations for consuming news – quick and on the go, through intuitive, guiding features

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PD News App – How it Works

• Single source of news & info for PD+

• Agenda set by editorial board

• Comms team organized as news bureau with managing editor

• Consolidates and collates PD news from every function, ensures message consistency, eliminates duplication

• Function communicators serve as beat reporters

PD News App Content Strategy

Four sources of stories/content

• Roche, Gene channels

• Regular business updates

• New, PD driven feature stories and narratives

• Syndicated content

Content types

• Short blogs

• Long-form written stories

• Infographics, Images

• Videos

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Drive adoption through ads, giveaways

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Gameify app promotions, e.g.

- Every app download is a chance to win.

- Weekly prize drawings drive app downloads.

PD News App – Progress to date

• App launched at July PD Global Town Hall

• Development team adding new features & improvements, e.g.:

• Improved stability

• Sharing within the app

• Connecting without VPN

• Filling content pipeline

• Over 110 article published since launch

• Over 1,500 users currently

• Average session 5:43

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Key Takeaways

• Create content that feels authentic, especially from leadership

• Tell stories that resonate across departments

• The app design and editorial processes should break down silos

• Clearly define the role of each channel

• Streamline the publishing process across all channels

• Orchestrate a thoughtful roll-out of the app to underscore its purpose

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Key Takeaways

• Tell stories, use protagonists and drama to engage

• Establish brand voice guidelines by channel

• Implement content marketing strategy

• Appoint a publishing team

• Set and maintain an editorial calendar

• Formalize publishing workflow, including story generation & editorial review

What’s next?

• Expand PDNews app user base and make platform primary news channel

• Fully staff our team to optimize communications and generate more content

• Expand content strategy to include more feature stories, in addition to news

• Leverage and expand executive activities to drive steady cadence of news

• Enable functional communicators to create content with tools, templates and guidelines to ensure consistency and effectiveness.

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Any questions?

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