Background

Genesis Healthcare is a leading biotech company, pioneering genetic research since 2004 and promoting preventive healthcare and wellness through genetic testing. Leveraging more than 16 years of genetic research and development, Genesis Healthcare empowers medical institutions and end-consumers alike to evolve towards personalized wellness and medicine. Over the years, more than 900,000 customers have trusted Genesis Healthcare to undertake genetic testing. Originated in Japan, Genesis Healthcare offers medical, corporate, and consumer services through a range of innovative services across the Asia Pacific region. GeneLife is the direct-to-consumer brand of Genesis Healthcare. Through its innovative strategy, the company has accelerated its presence and coverage across Asia, leveraging agile marketing and communications bridging science, content, design and technology to provide highly customized experiences to its consumers. In July 2020, Genesis Healthcare launched GeneLife Generations a new and unique ancestry test designed for the diversity and richness of Asian ethnicities and ancestral heritage.

Describe the creative idea

Through an interactive mobile application, GeneLife Generations brings users on a personal journey through time to discover what their DNA reveals about their ethnic mix and their lineage, providing unique experiences about possible migration routes from generations ago. This genetic composition analysis service comprehensively predicts the shared genetic composition of ancestors, complemented with rich content about each ethnicities, cultures, historical and fun facts for an inspiring and immersive mobile experience. Along with the genetic ancestral composition analysis, the report identifies origins and migration routes of both maternal and paternal lineages traced back to approximately 150,000 to 270,000 years ago. The migrations are displayed with an interactive display of journeys on maps on a smartphone, supported with a dynamic and simultaneous chronological timeline, including a range of fun and entertaining information. Design/UI/UX efforts are focused on providing a unique user experience through best usage of mobile app, maps and contents.

Describe the strategy

Ancestry and heritage discovery has passionated millions of people across the world, with multiple genetic tests offering a journey back in time to learn about one's ancestors and origins. While multiple players from the US and Europe are offering genetic tests to uncover origins, little is available to address the diversity and richness of the Asian ethnicities and ancestral heritage. Similarly, regional players only feature basic ethnicity information, without much depth or insights about uniqueness about Asian populations. Based on this insight, Genesis Healthcare focused its R&D and bioinformatic science to develop very rich content about Asian populations, revealing the diversity of Asian ethnicities and unveiling the various unique ethnic origins through detailed, engaging and rich contents and visuals. In addition, with Asian audiences being mobile savvy, Genesis Healthcare decided to provide the report and results to customers exclusively via the GeneLife mobile application and through a mobile first experience.

Describe the execution

Genesis Healthcare focused its R&D to develop very rich content about Asian populations, revealing the diversity of Asian ethnicities and unveiling the various unique ethnic origins through detailed, engaging and rich contents and visuals. These ethnic groups include Chinese Dai, Northern/Southern Han, Malay, Vietnamese Kinh, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Punjabi, Taiwanese, and more. In addition, GeneLife Generations reveals migrations from maternal and paternal ancestors with an interactive display of their journeys on maps on a smartphone, supported with a dynamic chronological timeline and a range of fun/entertaining information. GeneLife Generations provides a very customized experience to Asian populations through rich content combining genetic scientific research and historical information as well as a very interactive experience leveraging technology with the customizations of maps to display journeys/migrations of ancestors from Africa to Asia. The UI/UX being brought to a new level in comparison to global players in the category.

List the results

GeneLife Generations has been launched in July 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, first in Singapore and subsequently deployed across South East Asia. The mobile application is available in English, Chinese and Japanese on both iOS and Android platforms. To date and in less than 6 months, GeneLife Generations has become the second-best selling kits in Asia, representing more than 30% of kits sold. In addition to a great user experience, the richness of the content and variety of information available in the app and report have generated a wider range of opportunities to promote the new ancestry service through engaging and entertaining interactions with audiences, thus generating awareness and driving further interest. The “SmartLocal” featured a video in their series “Singaporeans Try” with some of their members undertaking ancestry DNA test in Singapore with more than 263,00 views to date and one of their top 2020 videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5Sh0heJ9E).