Babson Diagnostics

The Story

Babson Diagnostics is redefining what it means to be a customer-first medical technology brand. Its original business model was built on a revolutionary method of drawing blood for diagnostic tests. Babson developed proprietary technology that requires only one-tenth the sample size of traditional venipuncture blood draws, then combined it with a retail model that envisioned a patient or customer entering their local pharmacy or grocery store—rather than a third-part lab—to get their blood drawn. Truly a disruptive model, Babson’s vision translates to much-improved experience that reduces the inconvenience of long wait times and the general unpleasantness of a traditional diagnostic blood test. That vision is still very much alive—Babson is undergoing clinical trials to prove its model’s viability—but the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity for the brand to pivot, and to apply its technology to do good in the immediate term. At the time, Babson was still a young and relatively unknown commodity in a massive medical technology market dominated by multibillion-dollar corporations. Adding to the complexity were the dozens of other market players pursuing emergency use authorization from the FDA for their assay technology. Ultimately, Babson needed a partner that could pivot their communications strategy to match the pivot in overall business strategy. Fortunately, they already had one.

In April 2020, Babson launched its COVID-19 serology testing, used to detect the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and determine if a person had the virus in the past. It made the tests available to Austin-area COVID-19 patients, frontline employees and researchers. In June 2020, Babson secured emergency use authorization from the FDA. In a subsequent Business Insider article resulting from Red Fan’s media relations efforts, Babson was listed as one of only eight companies out of more than 200 whose tests were 100 percent accurate.

In stealth mode for much of its early life, Babson enlisted Red Fan to:

1. develop the brand’s positioning and narrative from the ground up to support market entry and strategy shifts;
2. support its first website buildout; and
3. define and execute a news cadence and media relations strategy that included funding announcements, strategic partnerships with BectonDickinson and Dell Medical School, board expansion and, ultimately, the company’s strategic shift to support the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.