Sanofi is a world leader in innovative healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Its legacy is built on hundreds of acquisitions throughout its 50-year history. Today, it operates in 70 countries and has 86,000 employees.
As part of its ‘Play to Win’ strategy, the company launched ‘One Sanofi’ to unify these diverse brands into one solid corporate identity and establish a cohesive approach across the entire organisation. Sanofi introduced a new visual identity and purpose to reinforce this strategy.
Rebranding
Brand technology
Sanofi's challenge
The brand governance for many of Sanofi’s business units had primarily been independent from central brand management. Rebranding them required a new system to streamline brand activities.
The brand transformation was also extensive, covering a wide range of digital and physical touchpoints, including websites, applications, signage, fleet, workwear, and packaging for more than 14,000 SKUs. With thousands of brand users involved in the rollout, Sanofi also needed a systematic way of ensuring the new designs were used as intended.
The board’s goal to launch the new visual identity within months of approval further raised the pressure and complexity of the project.
The challenge, then, was to orchestrate the rollout across the organisation as seamlessly as possible and ensure the correct application of brand across every touchpoint — on budget, on time, and without disrupting any areas of operation.
Our solution
VIM Group conducted an Impact Analysis to give the Sanofi brand team a complete picture of the brand transformation and inform the planning and roadmap for implementation. The results of the Impact Analysis were especially crucial in helping the Sanofi brand team set up a realistic launch timeframe and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs).
Because of the historically decentralised nature of brand activities, establishing centralised control for the project was a critical first step in the rollout. For this, VIM Group set up a Project Management Office at Sanofi’s Paris headquarters. VIM Group project managers were also delegated to work closely with country and business unit heads to help track progress, resolve issues, and coordinate the process in their respective territories.
Implementing the brand portal was also pivotal in streamlining the rollout process. It served as the infallible source for the new brand guidelines and assets and the starting point for many implementation activities. Within ten days of going live, 33,000 brand users had access to the correct assets.
To ensure that all brand users had the information and the confidence to use all elements correctly, VIM and Sanofi’s creative agency partner FutureBrand co-created and managed a Helpdesk which provided advice and feedback on brand usage. It also served as design feedback loop, enabling the improvement of any elements which didn’t quite align with real-life brand touchpoint requirements and the creation of anything which was found to be missing.
For the rollout of large-scale brand touchpoints, VIM provided crucial technical and sourcing advice to the global implementation teams.
Chris Williams, (former) Head of Corporate Communications & Brand
The results
Sanofi’s new corporate brand was launched successfully in February 2022.
The brand portal continues to serve as the Sanofi brand’s single source of truth and remains an essential tool in fostering its new cohesive way of thinking. As of October 2024, it had 74,940 registered users and receives an average of 1,200 visitors daily. It is continuously being populated with newer content, including dynamic design templates.
The brand transformation work conducted on Sanofi’s digital landscape has resulted in, among many things, a new UX design system that supported the company’s shift to a more centralised brand management structure.
The queries received in the Helpdesk have been collated and used to further enrich Sanofi’s Brand Book. The management of the Helpdesk has since been handed over to the Sanofi brand team.
launch
new corporate brand
74,940
users brand portal
1,200
daily visitors portal
