Genetron Brand Refresh


Genetron Health is a China-based cancer genomics startup, whose services cover the entire cancer lifecycle. Their primary product are genetic tests that allow cancer patients to understand which specific genetic mutation has caused tumor growth. In turn, this allows doctors to prescribe targeted drugs meant specifically for patient’s particular type of tumor. Besides genomic tests that help with post-diagnosis treatment, Genetron Health also offers test that allow for early stage cancer screening and post-treatment drug resistance and prognosis testing. While Genetron Health’s main market is China, they also have R&D center located in the United States.
As Genetron Health approached a critical growth juncture in mid 2018, it sought a new brand strategy and visual identity that would help it create differentiation and distinctiveness amongst a large number of competitors, as well as tell the story of its business ambitions.

Planning & Execution


Over 30 in-depth interviews and a robust competitor audit revealed 2 core insights:

1) The competitive landscape is a “sea of sameness” – brands position themselves mostly on who they are and what they offer, often using lofty, overly technical tonality

2) A wide knowledge gap exists; genetic testing has only recently been the subject of widespread adoption into Chinese clinical environments. Due to high costs and the relative newness of its adoption, both patients and doctors often lack the requisite knowledge of how genetic tests are used, how it helps, and even that it exists
With these two core insights in mind, we positioned Genetron Health as the “Protector of Life, Across the Cancer Cycle” – a distinctive positioning that communicates not only what Genetron Health does, but also how its stakeholders benefit. The new positioning gave Genetron Health an approachable, human tonality, facilitating smoother industry and patient education while still allowing the brand to retain a high degree of professionalism.
To bring the positioning to life, we also created a slogan – “Answers for Cancer” – and a messaging framework that bridged the gap between the positioning and execution through marketing communication.

Effectiveness / Results


Genetron Health’s existing visual identity was characterized by adherence to dominant industry codes – clinical colors, hard-edged fonts, and a graphic depicting a double helix, giving it little distinctiveness compared to competitor identities, whom also primarily use visual identities centered around a double helix graphic. With the “Protector” positioning in mind, we crafted a logo and animated key graphic inspired by the act of “decoding” – showing how Genetron Health protects life by providing “Answers for Cancer”.

3 distinctive colors were chosen – ocean blue, sea green, and golden yellow – with ocean blue representing professional wisdom, sea green representing human vitality, and golden yellow representing hope and warmth. The combination of these colors along with the “decoding graphic” allows Genetron Health’s evolved brand to not only stand out amongst competitors, many of whom use similar colors and a double helix graphic , but create distinct memorability with all audiences.


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The Campaign Asia-Pacific Team