Others dared, why not you?

Imagine if Klarna had looked like a traditional bank. Blue logo, marble columns, men in suits. Would they have been so successful? Probably not.

So what made them successful?

They dared to stand out. They painted finance pink. They spoke with humour. They made payments human. Watch one of their early ads above and you’ll see the difference. Playful, distinctive, nothing like a bank. And people trusted them anyway, enough to hand over their salaries and savings.

Or take Volvo Trucks. They could have filmed another safe ad about horsepower, stability, or fuel efficiency. But instead they put Jean-Claude Van Damme on two reversing trucks and let him do the Epic Split. It was daring. It was human (in a Van Damme kind way). And it made Volvo’s technical point, stability and precision, unforgettable. Trust in the technology wasn’t lost. Quite the opposite, it was amplified.

Finance and trucking aren’t industries known for risk-taking. Yet both proved that standing out doesn’t kill credibility. It made them stronger.

So why can’t life science do the same?

The joke everyone knows

Open almost any life science website and you’ll see the opposite of bold: Three scientists in spotless lab coats pointing at a computer screen. Scroll down and there’s the obligatory double helix illustration. The headline? Innovation. Solutions. Accelerating something.

Every marketer in the industry knows it. It’s almost a running joke. Yet companies keep doing it. It feels credible. But it makes every brand look the same.

Why sameness survives

Sameness isn’t a design problem. It’s a culture problem.

Inside many organisations, “safe” means copying the market leader. Legal teams strip out anything that feels different. And fear of regulators, of colleagues, of not looking “scientific enough”, keeps everything sterile. As one manager at a large company once admitted: “It’s more important not to do the wrong thing than to try to do the right thing.”

That mindset guarantees mediocrity. Because safe is not safe. Safe is invisible.

Replace abstractions with stories

Here’s what breaking free looks like.

When Stardots, a Swedish deep tech company, needed to tell their story to investors, the easy route would have been the classic B2B formula: mechanism of action diagrams, charts, a safe headline about “innovating for the future.

Instead, their film focused entirely on people, patients, families, the human cost of Parkinson’s. No technical jargon. No sterile visuals. Just a simple, human story that hits harder than any pipette photo ever could (watch the film).

That’s the difference between abstraction and impact. One story about a person communicates more than a hundred claims about innovation.

Trust is not lost by being human

Companies fear that if they speak too plainly, or show the human side, they’ll lose credibility. But the opposite is even more true. Trust is built when people feel understood. Using complicated jargon doesn’t make you look more competent (yes Rockwell Retro Encabulator we’re thinking of you), instead being clear when communicating is proof of competence. Being human is not a risk, it’s the foundation of being believable.

If Klarna can be pink, if Volvo can put Van Damme on two trucks, if Stardots can lead with a human story rather than research pipelines, then life science brands can afford to step out of the lab coat.

How to stand out without losing trust

Standing out doesn’t mean being loud for the sake of it. It means being deliberate, having an idea.

• Cut the jargon. A clinical trial press release says “efficacy endpoints achieved.” A human story says “a patient can walk again.” Guess which one people remember.
• Tell real stories. Not “innovation,” but “fifteen years of research and a scientist who refused to give up.”
• Think in systems, not palettes. Swapping blue for orange won’t save you. Distinctiveness comes from a whole system working together: typography, imagery, symbols, motion. A strong system isn’t rigid, it’s flexible. It gives you a clear identity but also the freedom to evolve and respond to new opportunities without losing recognition.
• Stop building shopping lists. One banner, one webinar, one video, one post… that’s not a campaign, that’s a receipt. Without a creative idea tying it together, every piece vanishes as fast as it appears.
• Be human, not generic. Don’t show “a patient.” Show your patient. Don’t say “we accelerate science.” Say what you actually make possible.

Calling for the Challengers

Safe is not safe. Generic is not credible. And nobody remembers a coward.
Life science is bold in the lab. It should be bold in its branding too. It’s time to step out of the lab coat and find a voice people can actually hear.

Let’s create something luminous, together.