In the summer of 2021, I took an internship as a Visual Storytelling intern at Novavax in the R&D communications department. My presence doubled the size of the department there was only two of us. A key part of this position was providing design and visualization support for the investor relations teams’ earnings call presentations. I had never heard of investor relations and I didn’t know that that investors in biotech companies have an interest in the scientific details of company’s manufacturing processes or clinical trials. Retrospectively that of course makes sense. I should have known where there is a need for scientific communication, there is also a need for medical illustration, scientific graphic design, and data visualization. In other words, I should have known there was a need for visual storytelling in investor relations.
Since discovering the application of medical illustration to investor relations, I have contributed, illustrations, charts, graphs etc. to earnings calls, pitch decks, onepagers, one page landing pages, etc. I started applying what I learned at Novavax at a smaller scale through collaborating with biotech startups and other small pharma. Startups also need to communicate with investors and often need onesheets, pitch decks, and basic one page websites to better communicate with their audiences.
Visual storytelling helps solve some common problems companies can face when communicating with their investors:
- Signals scientific credibility
- Speeds up investor comprehension
- Helps with investor and presenter retention
- Helps reduce risk in communication and increase sense of certainty
Visual storytelling helps streamline communication in turn building trust and strengthening relationships
For more thoughts about my process, working with me and my training subscribe below:
Emily Adams | MedComms for BioTech, and Healthcare 