Reimagining brand leadership in diabetes care: How embecta is turning a century of trust into momentum in Southeast Asia

This post is sponsored by embecta.

Southeast Asia’s healthcare landscape is evolving rapidly. Rising diabetes prevalence, fragmented markets, and competition from low-cost and private-label players are reshaping the environment.

Of the 79.4 million people living with diabetes in the region, only 55.3% are diagnosed. Insulin remains the clinical standard of care for Type 1 diabetes and for advanced Type 2 diabetes, yet only 8.1% receive insulin treatment. The gap between clinical need and real-world treatment underscores persistent challenges in awareness, access, and care delivery.

Against this backdrop, embecta faced a rare branding challenge: establishing itself as a standalone organisation while its products in-market still carried its legacy BD branding. The question wasn’t whether to refresh the brand: it was how to protect trust while building a future-facing identity in highly regulated and trust-dependent environments.

To do it, embecta turned a century of credibility into a forward-looking platform – one designed not as a moment of celebration, but as a multi-year system for brand building, partnership growth, and community impact.

What began as a centennial platform has since evolved into a transformation engine – aligning teams, scaling education, and strengthening trust across Southeast Asia.

Turning a milestone into a movement

Marking a century of leadership became less a commemoration and more a catalyst. embecta reframed its centennial as the starting line for a multi-year transformation – one that continues as the organisation builds standalone brand equity, deepens partnerships, and expands support for the diabetes community across Southeast Asia.

The platform – “100 years of commitment to the diabetes community" – was designed to simultaneously:

• Honour embecta’s trusted heritage.
• Reintroduce the brand as a modern force in diabetes care.
• Inspire the diabetes community and ecosystem to believe in its future as an independent organisation.
• Elevate support and education for the diabetes community.

Anchored in the brand promise – 'Advance Every Day, Together' – the campaign created a unifying narrative for internal teams and external stakeholders: honouring the past, while signalling embecta’s direction for the future.

Leveraging legacy as a differentiator

In markets where private-label and low-cost competitors are gaining ground, embecta leaned into its century-long heritage as a strategic asset. Its proven track record in insulin injection technology, education, and quality became a powerful point of differentiation, reinforcing confidence among healthcare professionals, retail partners, and people living with diabetes.

By linking BD-branded products to embecta’s ongoing leadership, the campaign reassured stakeholders of continuity while signalling a bold new chapter. Legacy, when reframed strategically, became a growth lever rather than a constraint.

Designed for scale, tailored for local realities

Southeast Asia’s diversity required a campaign model that could scale while remaining locally relevant. Infrastructure, market maturity, and access levels vary significantly across countries.

embecta adopted a modular campaign architecture: regional teams provided strategic guardrails, core messaging frameworks, and shared assets, while country teams tailored execution to local realities. This ensured a strong regional brand consistency while enabling relevance and impact in each market – a balance many regional marketing leaders strive to achieve.

An omnichannel activation for greater reach

The campaign deployed a coordinated mix of physical and digital touchpoints, including community events, healthcare professional education, retail visibility, digital outreach, and social storytelling.

From hospital-based education programmes to diabetes charity runs and community health screenings, embecta ensured a presence across the full engagement continuum. Educational content was localised and delivered via blended digital channels, video-on-demand, webinars, and in-person workshops – enabling scalable reach while maintaining a personal connection.

The focus was on orchestration rather than channel proliferation, ensuring every touchpoint played a clear role in the stakeholder journey.

Team-centric collaboration at the core

A deep cross-functional collaboration powered the campaign. embecta Southeast Asia acted as the central orchestrator, while in-country commercial and marketing teams led localisation and execution. Medical affairs, legal, ethics and compliance, and operations teams were engaged throughout to ensure a seamless delivery and regulatory alignment.

Authentic stories formed the emotional core of the campaign. People living with diabetes, pharmacists, caregivers, and employees brought the brand to life. From a Malaysian pharmacy owner gaining new appreciation for their impact after hearing the story of a person living with diabetes to a Singaporean feeling empowered through a community screening, these moments humanised the brand and strengthened trust and connection.

Outcomes and impact

The campaign delivered measurable business and brand results:

Revenue growth

• +13.0% net revenue growth in Southeast Asia, compared to market growth of +2.4%.
• Incremental revenue achieved through strengthened brand equity and customer relationships.

Stakeholder engagement

• 4,000 healthcare professionals trained via emERGE webinars and workshops, exceeding targets.
• Localised, CME-accredited programmes positioned embecta as a leader in diabetes education.
• Engaged over 5,000 healthcare professionals across 572 workshops.

People with diabetes and community impact

• 1,200-plus hours of community service (target: 100), including 65 hours with Diabetes Singapore.
• Onboarded 1,300-plus people with diabetes via digital outreach in the Philippines.
• Hosted 1,500 participants at the Diabetes Run (versus 1,000 target).

Crucially, the platform helped build momentum beyond a single milestone – translating heritage into sustained engagement and measurable impact.

Lessons for regional brand leaders

embecta’s experience demonstrates that legacy can be a powerful asset when reframed through a future-focused lens. By combining heritage with purpose, and governance with agility, transformation moments can accelerate rather than dilute brand equity.

In Southeast Asia’s complex markets, success increasingly depends on a brand’s ability to operate as both a strategic leader and a trusted partner. For embecta, the next chapter is being shaped not just by what it has built over the past 100 years, but by how it continues to advance everyday life for people living with diabetes, together.