Merck & Co. is chasing the finish line with its eye on one prize: a world without cancer.
That’s the foundation of the company’s new corporate brand campaign, “From Our Pipeline to the Finish Line,” which recently debuted on its oncology-specific webpage and through in-person activations at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid last month.
“We envision a future where more patients live longer and can move beyond cancer,” Merck says on the website. “That’s the finish line we’re working toward.”
The company doesn’t mince words. One in five people will develop cancer in their lifetime, and the disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide, Merck points out on the webpage. The site also lays out the company's oncology research priorities, pipeline and goal of delivering more than 10 cancer medicines by 2030.
Seeing the branding play out in Madrid was “really special,” Merck’s associate vice president of global communications, Courtney Ronaldo, said in an interview. According to Ronaldo, Merck’s pipeline is at “an inflection point right now,” with “one of the largest and most diverse pipelines in company history.”
To showcase the pipeline and highlight the “researchers and patients behind the research,” Ronaldo said, the company featured a series of videos on its website highlighting both patients and senior leaders.
In one video, four-time lung cancer survivor and patient advocate Terri Ann shares her journey through multiple cancer diagnoses and offers hope to patients by highlighting advancements in lung cancer care over the past decade, which have “changed everything.” For Terri Ann, the finish line she envisions is a day when lung cancer becomes a chronic disease “that we can all live with,” she said in the video.
In another “Finish Line” video, Marjorie Green, M.D., Merck's senior vice president and head of oncology global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, shares her hopes for the future. As Green speaks to the camera in a research lab setting, her voiceover plays over footage of patients, doctors and researchers wearing Merck lab coats, highlighting the company's role in advancing cancer care.
“There are multiple challenges in oncology,” Green acknowledges. “But I also look at them as opportunities.”
Green also discusses Merck’s research priorities, using specific but accessible language to describe her vision for a future of cancer care centered on personalized therapies based on the genetics of a patient’s tumor. Like Terri Ann, she wishes for a future in which people “don’t view cancer as a death sentence, but as another condition that can be controlled and treated just like any other disease that’s out there.”
The campaign's hero video brings together the patient and company perspectives in a fast-paced, action-filled 60 seconds.
“Cancer is life interrupted,” a gruff voiceover says. “Plans put on hold. Life measured in appointments, scans, and treatment decisions. Every day a race against uncertainty. At Merck, we’re in a race to outsmart cancer.”
His words are accompanied by quick flashes of oncology imagery, including brain scans and wheels racing across a hospital floor. The emotionally intense footage then shifts to brighter scenes inside Merck's labs, featuring automated equipment, focused researchers and microscopic cancer visualizations.
“Behind every data point is a patient waiting for better options,” the voiceover says, as Terri Ann briefly appears on-screen. Scenes of happier moments, including a patient ringing a hospital bell, hugging family members and celebrating birthdays, provide a stark contrast to the grimmer opening footage. “From our pipeline to the finish line, Merck is here.”
In making the video, Merck "wanted to make sure it was really upbeat and really conveyed the momentum and the advances that we've had in oncology,” Ronaldo explained.
The “Finish Line” theme extends to social media, including a video featuring Eliav Barr, M.D., Merck Research Laboratories' head of global clinical development and chief medical officer, posted on his LinkedIn account. In the video, Barr discusses what “From Our Pipeline to the Finish Line” means to him, echoing language from the website, including “our research has rewritten medical textbooks.”
While the other videos conclude with the Merck logo, Barr's video features the MSD logo, reflecting the company's global identity. Merck operates under the MSD name outside the U.S. and Canada.
The company plans to continue expanding the digital rollout and may extend the campaign to other therapeutic areas in 2027, Ronaldo said. As an umbrella campaign, the initiative can help ensure a “consistent presence” for Merck across therapeutic areas and “show our leadership and research across the board,” she added.
“We’ve been around for a very long time, and R&D is really the cornerstone of what we pride ourselves in at the company,” Ronaldo said. “We do invest heavily in R&D as a company, and we really take pride in that kind of approach and that kind of being our reputation, putting a lot of scientific rigor around our pipeline,” she said.
Given that R&D focus, the “pipeline to finish line” phrasing felt like a “unique space for Merck to own,” Ronaldo explained. “It’s a really authentic campaign for our company and where we’re at right now.”
In Madrid, ESMO was packed with headline-making developments, including an unexpected leak that prompted Merck and Moderna to release highly anticipated phase 3 cancer vaccine results ahead of schedule.
Even if Merck wasn't top of mind for conference attendees upon arrival, its campaign was hard to miss. Digital signage greeted travelers at the airport, while the company's advertising presence extended to buses and billboards throughout Madrid, as well as the conference itself, Ronaldo said.
“We’re speaking from a place of leadership and not necessarily like a brand objective or brand name,” she said, noting that the umbrella campaign could appear at future medical conferences.
Merck's oncology portfolio has long been defined by megablockbuster Keytruda, which generated $31.7 billion in sales alongside Keytruda Qlex last year, accounting for more than half of the company's annual pharmaceutical revenue.
With Keytruda's loss of exclusivity approaching, Merck has been investing heavily in its pipeline to drive future growth. CFO Caroline Litchfield described 2027 as “another year of investment” during the company's recent third-quarter earnings call.
CEO Rob Davis has also pointed to the “broadest and widest pipeline we’ve had in years,” outlining opportunities for future growth that could generate more than $70 billion in annual revenue by the mid-2030s.