Wellington Success Stories 

Wellington’s reputation, as a city attracting innovative businesses, seems befitting to Kainic Medical Communications as a Wellington start-up and winner of the 2013 NZ Innovators of the year award for Innovation in Marketing and Communications.

But the success has surprised company owner Blair Hesp. “It’s fantastic, but I didn’t even realise the full marketing potential of the campaign at the time,” says Blair. Kainic is a small company, yet scooped the prize from a shortlist of finalists that included the likes of the Bank of New Zealand. The campaign involved was quite modest, a $2,500 travel scholarship, sending a PhD student from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Otago to a major international scientific conference every year.

Blair had several aims with the campaign, including building an international brand and raising Kainic’s profile locally. He also wanted to get a feel of existing talent; students already training in medical science with the potential to work for Kainic in the future. Blair says he also felt passionate about helping a young person into the industry, while increasing international exposure for New Zealand medical science. 

“When I was a student nearing the end of my formal academic training, I suddenly realised there wasn’t much in the way of employment, even with a PhD,” Blair explains. “Often there are only limited job opportunities for new graduates within New Zealand’s small biotech industry.”

“Attending major European medical conferences really opened my eyes to the ecosystem that surrounds both academic and commercial medical science overseas. It was immensely inspiring; I was exposed to science on a truly global scale, which was well beyond what I had encountered when attending local or regional conferences in New Zealand.”

Blair studied at the University of Otago himself, so already had a relationship in place that helped get the Department on board with the scholarship idea. Kainic and Otago initially pushed it through internet channels, seeding the story and waiting for social media to kick in.

“It practically went viral. Students picked it up and then our competitors even began re-tweeting our tweets about the scholarship internationally under the hashtag #givingback. We were held up by the international medical communications community as an example of how the industry should be supporting grass-roots medical science.”

 Since then Blair has been approached about speaking engagements and had overseas colleagues and clients come up to him at medical conferences. “They tell me what a great thing the scholarship is and want to meet the recipients,” says Blair. 

Blair made the decision to base his company in Wellington because it ticked a number of work and lifestyle boxes. “Like other bigger cities, it’s well connected in terms of internet and phone, but where else can you get a comfortable affordable house where you can walk to the beach?”

There was also good support for innovative businesses here. Blair came into contact with a Business Growth Manager from Grow Wellington, who connected him with expert strategy consultants. “It has been really useful in helping me plan how to efficiently develop the business and avoid a few potential pitfalls along the path to growth.”

Originally from Christchurch, Blair followed a winding pathway to starting his own business. After completing a PhD in neuropharmacology at the University of Otago and a Diploma in Business via the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, he was initially employed as a patent executive at an intellectual property law firm upon graduation. Blair also served part-time in the Navy throughout his studies and while working in law, including a six-month, full-time sabbatical before pursuing an OE in the UK.

After experiencing the full impact of the global financial crisis on the UK job market, a lucky break brought him to the area of medical communications. “I got offered an interview for an editorial assistant role at a medical communications agency. At the time I could just afford the £13 for a train ticket to get to the interview.”

His interview was successful and within a year he was one of three medical writers overseeing the global medical communications account for a blockbuster cancer drug with global sales (excluding the US) of $4 billion per year (US), something that alludes to the demand from the pharmaceutical industry for professional medical writers to ensure the accurate, timely and balanced communication of important medical information.

More success followed after a move to London where Blair was brought in by a large multinational agency to troubleshoot a major communications campaign. Poor relationship management and a wayward communications strategy had seen a new cardiovascular drug off to a slower start slower than hoped for. Blair made changes around the internal education of his client’s staff and improved quality control procedures, which saw him rescue the account and foster a rock solid client-agency partnership.

However, despite international opportunities arising in the pharmaceutical industry, Blair and his wife increasingly desired a return home to New Zealand for the lifestyle and proximity to family. “I realised that I could have the best of both worlds – a high level job in the international pharmaceutical industry and all of the benefits of living in New Zealand.”

“Lifestyle is an indoors outdoors mix here, which is what I really missed in the United Kingdom.”
Once returning to Wellington, Blair set up in Island Bay and began to offer niche market medical communications services, including developing materials to be used in internal and external educational programmes for drug companies.

“Medical communications is about making sure that all interested stakeholders are properly and completely informed,” Blair explains. “This starts with the staff of drug companies, flowing through the treatment process from doctors to patients and onto families and communities.”

The international side of his business is 90% UK-based with two major medical communications agencies as clients. Blair is able to leverage the UK and New Zealand time zone difference by offering an overnight service that promises completed materials delivered to clients’ email inboxes before they arrive at work the following morning.

Blair is also developing markets in Hong Kong and Singapore, and keeps his knowledge up to speed by attending medical conferences in Europe, most recently the European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam; a commitment to excellence which hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“Feedback at conferences from industry people is they are surprised and impressed that I self-fund attendance. It’s great for networking too.”

Kainic’s New Zealand market is growing and developing in unexpected ways. Private equity investment companies regularly approach the company for impartial information as a way of scoping out market threats and practising due diligence. Blair is also considering work with government departments based in the capital.