Novella Clinical
The Challenge
Novella needed a unified brand and name to launch a specialized CRO in a crowded market where experience, capabilities, and speed are easy to claim and hard to own. Other hurdles included:
maintaining brand identity during acquisitions and organizational changes
communicating credibility and trust in a highly regulated life sciences industry
delivering consistent messaging across digital, print, and client-facing assets
Novella Clinical, a global contract research organization, underwent multiple mergers and was eventually integrated into IQVIA Biotech. Over years of partnership, our creative team ensured brand continuity, clarity, and credibility across all marketing and communications during transitions.
My Role
I was lead creative on the new brand’s identity and was integral in crafting the brand’s story for the lifetime of the brand. As the creative lead my role included:
leading brand and marketing design for a long-term client
guiding visual identity and design for campaigns and digital content across global markets
collaborating with leadership to create, and adapt, the brand during organizational change
Brand Identity
The logo, and surrounding brand elements, told the story of the company’s mission and values. Our team brought the employees of all three legacy companies along for the ride by sharing milestone progress via designed and cobranded emails. By the end of the transition, the Novella Clinical employees felt great ownership and pride in the new brand.
The Digital presence
Over time, two other business units came into the fold, Novella Clinical Resourcing and Novella Medical Device. We used the Novella Clinical brand to guide the creation of their identities. We eventually brought those two brands into a second generation website.
Events and Tradeshow experiences
We helped Novella grow the brand’s equity in the B2B event space. Our team supported event strategy, and I led creative for both the physical spaces and supporting sales and marketing communications leading up to, during and post events.
This booth is one example of many shapes, sizes and campaigns we imagined of many years.
Impact
The brand fueled sustained hyper-growth, scaling from $20M to nearly $250M in revenue in under seven years and establishing leadership in key therapeutic areas. When acquired by Quintiles, the Novella name was retained as a valuable market asset. Novella continued to grow and build equity for six more years until we relaunched it as IQVIA Biotech, a full-service CRO exclusively serving biotech.
The Takeaway
We rejected category noise and anchored the brand in the human impact of clinical research. A mission centered on customer-centricity came to life through a new name and identity: Novella.
Rooted in emergence and achievement, the brand created a cohesive platform that translated across every touchpoint and positioned the company for meaningful differentiation.