Brand FAQs - Integration
Stronger together. The new ICON.
Branding.
The ICON / PRA integration will be managed carefully and over time to ensure a smooth integration of the new organisation. Integration teams have been closely collaborating since the acquisition announcement. Integration teams are separate from our operational teams to ensure we maintain our focus on delivery.
A workstream on culture, communications, and change management has been working to ensure employees receive information as it becomes available, that both cultures are considered, and that decision-making is communicated in a transparent manner.
We want to hear your feedback and welcome your questions. We will answer them as we are able, keeping in mind that we are operating separately until close.
Following the recent video update by ICON CEO Steve Cutler on branding, the questions and answers outlined on this page provide further details on specific considerations.
As a reminder, the companies remain separate and independent until closing.
Branding FAQs
In his recent video update, Steve Cutler speaks to this question. In summary, following the acquisition announcement, a range of brand position options was considered. There was unanimous agreement amongst the joint Integration Steering Committee and ICON board that the company name would be ICON. Time and effort were then invested in a joint exploration on the creation of a revised version of the ICON logo. At the close of this effort, both the new Executive Leadership and Integration Steering Group unanimously agreed to retain the ICON logo as is. The final decision was informed by a number of considerations and inputs, including market impact, current brand positioning, time, and costs to execute.
Elements of the PRA brand identity are being incorporated into the ICON brand identity, e.g. addition of PRA pink to the colour palette and potential use of the PRA convergence mark as a visual element. In addition, new messaging, including our positioning as a leader in Healthcare Intelligence, will be incorporated into our brand campaigns.
Using a single brand sends a clear signal to the market that PRA and ICON are now one unified entity, and the new organisation is prepared to deliver the benefits of our combined resources
Yes. Some changes (mostly digital channels) will take effect from Day One. Other changes will take time to implement and switch over to the ICON logo. This transition process may take several months to fully complete.
The Culture and Change integration workstream team is working with the broader leadership teams to assess and align our combined cultures with our new strategies to refine and evolve our mission, vision, and core values.
Both websites will continue to co-exist for a period of time. However, from Day One, elements of prahs.com will redirect to iconplc.com. These include:
- Redirecting Press and Investor Relations pages to ICON
- Redirecting/Updating Executive Profiles
- Updating About Us page and subsequent sections to include relevant acquisition information
- Logo updates
- Aligning contact and web forms with ICONplc.com
- Visitors to prahs.com will be advised that the acquisition of PRA by ICON has completed and that parts of the site may redirect visitors to iconplc.com
Over the ensuing weeks and months, the combined marketing team will be updating webpages on iconplc.com to reflect the combined capabilities of the new organisation. All new marketing content will be published on iconplc.com. Eventually, when content migration is complete, the PRA website will be retired, and the prahs.com domain will be redirected to point to iconplc.com. Further guidance on that will be communicated at that time.
For a period, yes. There will be some branding changes applied as part of the Day One changes. The ICON and PRA marketing and corporate communications team are in active discussions on aligning processes for social media publishing and will share details on any changes as they become available. Eventually, the PRA social media accounts will be merged with the ICON social media accounts. If you don’t already, you may wish to follow ICON’s social media accounts for miscellaneous organisational and marketing updates. Links to these can be found in the footer of the ICON public website.
Yes. All PRA logo signage will be replaced by ICON logo signage, which will be updated in a phased manner. While some signage can be updated relatively quickly, others, such as large external signage attached to the side of a building, have additional complexity and considerations to update. A rebranding review will determine other branding changes to PRA buildings and office spaces.
All email signatures will include the ICON logo and follow ICON brand formatting for email signatures from Day One. Once PRA employees have been migrated to an @iconplc.com email address, email signatures can be updated to reflect the new email address. However, this is currently not planned to happen until early 2022 due to the complexities of email addresses being used for systems access authentication, amongst other things. Migration to @iconplc.com email addresses for all PRA staff is planned to be deployed to all staff at the same time (’big bang’) rather than a phased approach. Guidance specific to the formatting of email signatures is shown below at the end of this FAQ, together with an illustrative example. This information is also detailed within the ICON brand identity guidelines.
For a period of time following Day One, PRA staff should add the following statement to their email signatures:
PRA Health Sciences has been acquired by ICON plc, creating the world’s most advanced healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation.
There will be no changes to business cards on Day One. PRA staff are asked to refrain from requesting new business cards until they have been migrated to an @iconplc.com email address. The exception may be those in key client-facing roles (e.g., Business Development) who should contact their Facilities team directly to request new business cards.
Yes, however, exact timings will vary across offices. Current PRA ID badges will remain active on Day One until further notice from the facilities team.
Once the acquisition is complete in early July, PRA staff should update all electronic professional profiles to reflect their employment at ICON. It is also suggested to follow the ICON LinkedIn company page for miscellaneous organisational and marketing updates.
ICON MS Office templates have been updated to reflect the incorporation of PRA pink into the colour palette. These are being distributed across a range of channels. Within ICON, these are currently available from both the brand portal and embedded on staff computers within MS Office software. Within PRA, these are distributed via the Acquisition Information section of InsidePRA and will be available from Day One.
The ICON visual identity guidelines have been updated to incorporate PRA pink in the colour palette. Within ICON, these are distributed via the ICON brand portal, which all PRA BD and marketing staff have access to from Day One. Within PRA, these are also distributed via the Acquisition Information section of InsidePRA and will be available from Day One.
We are in a global, concentrated, highly competitive marketplace. We compete against other CROs with similar capabilities and similar global reach and therapeutic breadth. A strong Masterbrand creates clarity for customers on how we can help them and what they can expect when working with us. It amplifies our marketing and advertising spend in the market. To learn more about the ICON brand, a number of resources are available:
- External brand campaign webpage on our public site: www.iconplc.com/icon-and-you
In the short-term, PRA branded collateral will continue to be used, not just by PRA staff but also by ICON staff, to introduce the new capabilities that PRA brings to ICON clients. The ICON and PRA marketing and communications teams are reviewing the combined marketing and sales enablement collateral of both organisations and determining prioritisation criteria and schedule for updating webpages and the entire combined collateral portfolio. From Day One, all PRA marketing collateral will be available from the ICON brand portal providing all BD staff with access to the full portfolio of collateral and other materials, including an extensive library of photography, MS office templates, etc. Once all PRA staff are migrated to an @iconplc email account in early 2022, all PRA staff will be able to seamlessly access the ICON brand portal with single sign-on.
Following Day One, all conferences (whether virtual or even physical later in the year) will be branded ICON. You should contact a member of the marketing team for any queries for specific conferences.
From Day One, all employees should answer the phone as ‘ICON.’ Employees should also update their voicemail messages to remove references to PRA and reference ICON.
Yes. Communications including a press release, social media promotion, and email communications, are planned for PRA customers and other stakeholders, which will together raise awareness amongst clients of this change. An advertising campaign promoting the union of PRA and ICON is planned for later in the year.
The acquisition of PRA Health Sciences by ICON creates the world’s most advanced healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation. Combined, we will be a global leader in many of the market segments that we operate in. Together, we will offer exciting and meaningful careers, and as one, make a meaningful impact on the world of medicine.
Within the Integration Management framework, an HR workstream has been examining all aspects of HR integration, including aligning candidate messaging, recruitment processes (including internal transfers), and technology systems.
Unified language, messaging, and visuals will be developed for advertised roles and employment contracts to ensure a unified approach in the market.
New hires will be hired into ICON legal entities as soon as the transition to the ICON WorkDay HR system is complete.
ICON operates a Masterbrand strategy that supports greater market awareness and cross-selling of services within accounts. In line with the executive decision that the company name and brand will be ICON, all areas of PRA business will be adopting the ICON brand. However, further investigation and discussion on specific sub-brands (e.g., Symphony Health) are planned for post-Day One, with specific recommendations to be made at a future date.
No. Legal agreements are signed on behalf of a specific legal entity. It is common for large global organisations such as ours to have numerous legal entities. For example, we have country-specific legal entities, business units, and legal entities for legacy acquisitions, but we operate under a single global brand identity, which will be ICON on Day One.
There is no immediate impact on the PRA Corporation legal entities as a result of this brand transition. PRA legal entities will continue in existence as separate legal entities within the ICON group of companies and continue to hold all existing contracts (master agreements, work orders/task orders, vendor agreements, etc.), laboratory licenses, permits, and approvals in the legal entity name. Laboratory reports continue to be issued under the appropriate contracted legal entity name in accordance with existing laboratory licenses.
Over time, the number of ICON and PRA legal entities will reduce as we will have duplicate entities in the same countries. However, this is subject to separate consideration and timings by legal, and any future impacts will be communicated in a timely fashion.
Whilst integration discussions on RFI and RFP triage and decision processes will result in an aligned process within BD from Day One, these updated processes are not impacted by the brand change. Separate communications will be sent post-Day One within BD on these updated processes.
Enquiries related to ordering business cards or office-specific letterhead should be directed to your local facilities team. For all other enquiries related to branding, please contact a member of the marketing team of your current organisation (marketing@iconplc.com, BDMarketing-AllUsers@prahs.com).
Please direct any inquiries from journalists to Laurie Hurst (laurie.hurst@prahs.com) or David Green (david.green@iconplc.com) in the Marketing Department. Please direct any inquiries from investors, or analysts to Jonathan Curtain (jonathan.curtain@iconplc.com) in Investor Relations. Only authorised personnel may speak to the media, investors or analysts.
All email signatures should use the format shown and include the ICON logo positioned as specified.
The font style used is Arial, 10pt and the font colour is ICON Green (R:18 G:132 B:116).
The format of the email signature should not be altered, and Outlook stationery should not be used as an alternative.
Scanned signatures, photographs, or personal quotations are not permitted in email signatures.
As PRA staff will not be migrating to an @iconplc.com email address until early 2022, PRA email signatures will continue to use the @prahs.com email domain - but formatting should follow the above guidelines. Additionally, for a short period of time, PRA staff can elect to use a short URL that would direct clients to the section of the ICON website with communications related to the acquisition, as shown below.