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Q&A with Robert Rose, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at The Content Advisory

MEDIA 7 | August 19, 2019

Robert Rose, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of The Content Advisory has worked with more than 500 companies, including 15 of the Fortune 100 and provided marketing advice and counsel for global brands such as Facebook, Capital One, Dell, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, etc.

Robert is also an early-stage investor and advisor to a number of technology startups, apart from being a featured keynote speaker and workshop teacher at technology and marketing events around the world.

MEDIA 7: If we were talking a year from now celebrating what a great 12 months it’s been for you in this role, what would you have achieved?
ROBERT ROSE: We’re on a path to double the size of our business in the next 12 months. We’ve been quite blessed to work with some of the greatest brands on the planet, to help them sort out their content operations and strategy. So, a great year from us is continuing to work with more and more, and different, types of enterprises – while we increase our capacity to deliver the smartest content strategy and education.

M7: In what way is The Content Advisory transforming marketing practices and accelerating the strategic content marketing shift?
RR: Given our experience, and the number of companies we’ve worked with over the last 7 years, we’ve got a unique perspective on what works in content marketing.  We’ve watched as Content Marketing has gone from this “nice-to-have” addition to demand generation and SEO, to a must-have, strategic function for adding overall value to the business. In other words, we’ve watched content marketing go from marketing tactic, to business strategy. The frameworks (which is really the output of our unique perspective) for setting a foundational operation model for content, along with how to create the teams, the governance and the measurement strategies are what set us apart for our clients’ success.


"Content Marketing has gone from this “nice-to-have” addition to demand generation and SEO, to a must-have, strategic function for adding overall value to the business."

M7: With more than 8 years of content marketing experience, what is the paradigm shift you see in content marketing practices today?
RR: The biggest shift we see is how content is becoming a strategic business operation, in much the same way as accounting, legal, or R&D. “Content” used to be the thing that was everybody’s job, and nobody’s strategy. Today, because content is such a core output of any business, it has to be treated with the same strategic rigor as any other function in the business. As I’ve said before, we all perform levels of “accounting” in our business. We fill out expense sheets, turn in profit and loss reports, utilize budgets, etc… But we don’t do these things in just any way we like. We conform to a centralized approach to the function of accounting.  The same is true in content.  The companies that are succeeding with content have shifted their approach to the practice to make it a strategic function in the business.

M7: How does strategic consulting help businesses in building passionate, trustworthy audiences for their brands?
RR: Well it doesn’t to be honest. It’s very easy to get caught into the classic consulting trap of some kind of “magic button”. As we’re the first to say, we’re not here to tell your story – we’re just here to help you tell it a little better.  Our goal is to help marketing leaders understand the steps – the road map – to building these valuable audiences.  It will be up to them and their team to continually apply what we can instill to engage them, and keep them loyal over time.


"Great customer experiences, continually deliver value to consumers. At the heart of each of those experiences is content – it is what drives every experience."

M7: In what way does the strategic use of content create better customer experiences for any enterprise?
RR: The main value I would use is the word “trust��. Great customer experiences, continually deliver value to consumers. The first time I meet a customer I deliver a little bit of value. The second time, I deliver a little more value. The third time, a little more value.  Eventually, I’m delivering enough value through the experience that the customer wants to pay for what comes next and – if designed well – that next experience is the product/service I have in the market place. 
But at the heart of each of those experiences is content – it is what drives every experience. So, we must have a connected, central, and holistic manner of managing our communication within those experiences.  This is why a content strategy is so important.

M7: As a content strategy expert, what is the advice that you would like to give to present marketers for delivering effective content-driven experiences?
RR: Focus on the experience, not the asset.  No matter where you are on your journey, stop producing assets – and start producing a “center of gravity” of content.  You might call it a resource center, or a hub, or a blog, or a magazine, or an event, or whatever.  But stop producing random assets that are used only as bait for random marketing campaigns, and start producing content against an editorial theme that will connect together across a platform that builds an audience.  Now, that doesn’t mean that the assets that you create can’t be used to support random campaigns – but in order to produce multiple lines of value, the content must start working harder – and when you have a platform, the next piece you create will work harder for you because the previous one (that is connected in some way) exists.


"Focus on the experience, not the asset.  No matter where you are on your journey, stop producing assets – and start producing a “center of gravity” of content."

M7: When did you start working and what was it?
RR: I started working in marketing in the mid 1990s in the television industry.  I worked for Showtime Networks in their marketing department.

ABOUT THE CONTENT ADVISORY

Content is everything the business creates in order to communicate. In today’s world, the way we communicate is the only thing that separates us from the next: The next click, the next competitor, the next answer. But mastering content is not simply a creative, business process, or technological challenge. It is both emotional and logical. It is a cultural transformation. It is a fundamental shift in the way we create, collaborate, and collect insight on every communication.

TCA – The Content Advisory is a consulting and training company; blending the art and science of intelligent content to help today’s modern business communication’s strategy.

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Four New Sets of Pre-Clinical Data Further Expands the Evidence Supporting Abelacimab

Anthos Therapeutics | July 14, 2022

Anthos Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing innovative therapies for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, announced that four new research updates were presented on abelacimab during the Venous Thromboembolism poster session at the ongoing International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2022 Congress in London, UK. "Coagulation is a complex multilayered process and the potential benefits of inhibiting Factor XI are becoming increasingly clear. These preclinical studies add important information characterizing the pharmacodynamic effects of abelacimab and further extend our understanding of the biological effects of Factor XI inhibition. With a growing body of evidence from ongoing studies both in the clinic and the lab, and a recent FDA Fast Track designation granted for abelacimab in thrombosis associated with cancer, we are becoming increasingly confident about the potential of our novel dual-acting Factor XI/XIa inhibitor may offer in the future as a treatment advance." Dan Bloomfield, Chief Medical Officer at Anthos Therapeutics PB0927 - Abelacimab does not influence the effects of two commonly used antiplatelet agents in vitro This study investigated the effects of clinically relevant doses of abelacimab on the inhibition of platelet aggregation by commonly used antiplatelet agents, aspirin and ticagrelor, in vitro. It demonstrated that abelacimab did not affect the level of antiplatelet inhibition achieved either by aspirin or ticagrelor confirming that abelacimab will not interfere with the benefits of these antiplatelet agents. PB0925 - Abelacimab has no effect on platelet aggregation induced by TRAP-6 and collagen FXI has been identified as a ligand to platelet receptors ApoER2 and GPIbα on the surface of stimulated platelets. This study demonstrated that abelacimab did not interfere with normal platelet aggregation following stimulation with collagen or thrombin receptor activating peptide-6 (TRAP-6) and compared with vehicle and active control (abciximab, anti-GP2b3a) suggesting that the binding of FXI to the platelet surface has no effect on primary hemostasis. PB0548 - Abelacimab, a Factor XI/XIa Antibody Inhibits Clotting in Hemodialysis Circuits Ex Vivo This study compared the effect of a combination of abelacimab and enoxaparin with enoxaparin alone, in an ex vivo model of hemodialysis that is aggressive due to the frequent re-circulation of blood and a lack of endothelial cells. Inhibition of FXI/FXIa by abelacimab combined with enoxaparin (but not enoxaparin alone) reduced and prevented device malfunction. This provides support for testing abelacimab in patients on hemodialysis. While patients with severe factor XI (FXI) deficiency rarely have spontaneous bleeding, low doses of recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) have been used and are effective in managing bleeding should it occur. This study was designed to evaluate whether low concentrations of rFVIIa could revert the changes in abelacimab-induced coagulation parameters as measured by rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) in whole blood in vitro assays from healthy individuals. As expected and similar to what has been observed in patients with Factor XI deficiency, these data suggest that low doses of rFVIIa can be used to manage bleeding in Factor XI inhibited patients being treated with abelacimab. About Anthos Therapeutics Anthos Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of genetically and pharmacologically validated innovative therapies to advance care for people living with cardiovascular and metabolic (CVM) diseases. Anthos Therapeutics aims to combine the agility of a biotech with the rigor of a large pharmaceutical company. Anthos Therapeutics was launched by Blackstone Life Sciences in 2019. About Abelacimab Abelacimab is a novel, highly selective, fully human monoclonal antibody designed to induce effective hemostasis-sparing anticoagulation through Factor XI inhibition. Abelacimab targets the active domain of Factor XI, demonstrating dual inhibitory activity against both Factor XI and its activated form, Factor XIa. Abelacimab can be administered intravenously (IV) to achieve rapid inhibition of Factor XI activity and then used subcutaneously (SC) monthly to maintain nearly complete inhibition in a chronic setting. In a PK/PD study, abelacimab administered IV provided profound suppression of Factor XI within one hour after the start of therapy and maintained near maximal inhibition for up to 30 days. 1,2 In a Phase 2 study whose results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2021, a single intravenous dose of abelacimab after knee surgery reduced the rate of venous thromboembolism by 80%, measured 10 days after surgery, compared to enoxaparin.

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Synthego Launches Engineered Cell Libraries to Validate Targets with Speed and Accelerate Drug Discovery

SYNTHEGO | August 03, 2022

Synthego, the genome engineering company, announced the launch of Engineered Cell Libraries, a novel offering that further enables access to CRISPR by providing arrayed CRISPR-edited cells for direct use in functional screening assays. The innovative solution leverages Synthego’s Eclipse™ Platform. This high-throughput cell engineering platform delivers cell-based models for disease research by providing highly predictable CRISPR-engineered cells at scale through the integration of engineering, bioinformatics, and proprietary science. Synthego’s Engineered Cell Libraries provide unparalleled speed, scalability, and efficiency to accelerate the drug discovery process by enabling a faster path between experimental design and execution. As the newest addition to Synthego's Engineered Cells product line, the offering is a custom arrayed library of multi-guide™ knockout cell pools (immortalized or iPSC) delivered ready-made to researchers, efficiently enabling them to bypass the need for equipment and reagent sourcing, transfection, generation of an extensive CRISPR library, and hiring and training of staff. This allows researchers to overcome common hurdles associated with CRISPR-based target discovery and focus specifically on the science. “Arrayed screening approaches are more sensitive, compatible with a broader assortment of downstream assays, and can yield data that is more readily interpretable than the more commonly used pooled approach but are underutilized due to lack of infrastructure and limited bandwidth. With Engineered Cell Libraries, Synthego continues to provide transformative solutions for accelerated drug discovery which ultimately can bring a wider range of therapeutics to market faster.” Travis Maures, Synthego’s Chief Technology Officer With Engineered Cell Libraries, scientists specify the human or mouse cell type (Immortalized or iPSC available at launch) and gene targets they desire to knockout to generate a custom “Knockout Cell Library.” The cells are then edited on Synthego’s Eclipse Platform, which handles guide design, cell line optimization, editing through transfection, and assessment of editing efficiencies, so cells are ready to screen upon arrival. Engineered Cell Libraries on the Eclipse Platform additionally benefit customers with Scalability and flexibility - Engineered Cell Libraries allow researchers to maximize their screening power and identify more targets earlier in the screening process. Predictability and transparency - Synthego’s multi-guide™ technology achieves reliably high knockout efficiencies so researchers can confidently proceed with their screens. Cell engineering expertise and support - Synthego uses its expertise to bring automation innovation that provides greater consistency in outcomes and scalability. Synthego’s Eclipse Platform and Engineered Cell Libraries enable a wide range of applications in research and development across various disease areas and research disciplines such as oncology and neurology. Engineered Cell Libraries were employed in a recent study that used genetic screening to identify host factors that either facilitate or inhibit infection by SARS-CoV-2 and that could potentially be targeted with existing drugs that have been approved for other indications. “We were able to quickly combine our proteomic expertise with Synthego's genome engineering capabilities in a matter of weeks,” said Nevan J. Krogan, Director, Quantitative Biosciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco. “Normally, work such as this would take many years. We were able to quickly pinpoint which human genes are important for infection, and that allowed us to jump to which ones if we were able to drug them, could have a positive pharmacological effect on SARS-CoV-2 infection. That whole pipeline allowed us to identify several potential drug candidates, several of which we're still looking at.” Ultimately, Synthego’s goal is to enable scientists to spend less time thinking about method development and more time running their functional assays. The addition of Engineered Cell Libraries is driving impact in biopharma research and development. ABOUT SYNTHEGO Synthego was founded to revolutionize genome engineering technology, helping translate genomics into the clinic and ultimately making engineered biological therapies accessible to all patients. The company leverages machine learning, automation, and gene editing to build platforms for science at scale. With its foundations in engineering disciplines, the company’s platforms vertically integrate proprietary hardware, software, bioinformatics, chemistries, and molecular biology to advance both basic research and therapeutic development programs. With its technologies cited in more than a thousand peer-reviewed publications and utilized by thousands of commercial and academic researchers and therapeutic drug developers, Synthego is at the forefront of innovation enabling the next generation of medicines by delivering genome editing at an unprecedented scale.

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