Lightcast Discovery

Challenge

For a fledgling start-up, Lightcast was doing well. In two years, they had expanded to global markets, were backed by investors, and had secured multiple rounds of significant funding.

However, as a brand still in ‘stealth mode’ about their product, they had to develop an online presence that would draw talent without revealing the science behind their solutions.

As a brand design agency, our task was to develop an online presence and tone of voice for Lightcast that connected with the wider community. Although investors and the scientific community regarded the company highly, the internal culture was relatively unknown to most people, and thus most potential candidates.

Our branding services needed to provide a window into Lightcast and the wonderful company culture they had cultivated.

Research & Content Strategy

Lightcast, despite having over 60 employees had maintained the intimacy of the small company they had when they first launched in 2019. During early discussions with management, we discovered that this authenticity must be reflected in any future content.

We began by conducting in-depth interviews with Lightcast team members to better understand what made the biotech so special. One of our brand strategy services included creating a content strategy for Lightcast, so they could build brand awareness.

In this strategy we utilised our interview insights by outlining four values intrinsic to the Lightcast experience: collaborative working, a love of sharing knowledge, an environment for growth, and a team brought together by a shared mission.

These four values would become the pillars of any subsequent content our team created.

Verbal Brand Identity

We knew from the start that, despite pushing the boundaries of complex cell analysis, Lightcast’s social communication should be friendly, playful, and reflective of the people who work there.

As a result, we created a glossary of Lightcast-isms to help anyone watching understand the company’s culture. These included ‘Lightcast Lingo’ for posts that explain complex science in laymen’s terms, ‘Casting call’ for job promotion content, and ‘#lifeatlightcast’ for a universal Instagram and LinkedIn hashtag. These terms would extend a warm welcome to anyone outside of the company and connect them to Lightcast as a burgeoning biotech.

Visual Brand Identity

Several photo and video shoots were conducted to produce the most authentic visual representation of Lightcast; shot lists and storyboards were drawn out to ensure that during the shoots, we would visually showcase the four values that our team had developed for Lightcast.

Lightcast had a previously basic visual identity, so in our work with them we built upon this through stronger storytelling, animation and video applications that work for digital and social formats.

The visual identity we created for Lightcast’s social media used bright colours and softened edges to convey the company’s dual nature as a small and friendly yet forward-thinking, game-changing biotech.

Candidate experience support

In addition to our visual and verbal brand support, we assisted Lightcast in their employee experience, by providing them with branded merchandise for their team; this included creating consistent yet alternative logos and designs that would work for; water bottles, lanyards, notebooks, backpacks, etc.