How J&J united six medical technology brands under the Johnson & Johnson name

The healthcare company used Axios HQ to unite six businesses — and keep staff in sync.

The challenge: In 2023, Johnson & Johnson split off its consumer health business to sharpen its focus on pharmaceuticals and medical technology. This operational change required unifying six MedTech businesses — Ethicon, DePuy Synthes, Biosense Webster, Abiomed, Shockwave Medical, and CERENOVUS — under the Johnson & Johnson name. 

This was an emotional change for customers, a business change for stakeholders, and an operational change for employees. Johnson & Johnson was looking for a way to guide that change with their 70,000 MedTech employees — undeniably rooted in communication — while preserving trust and limiting distractions for every audience. It had to help:

• ​​Build MedTech identity: Build a stronger association for Johnson & Johnson as a medtech leader by transitioning legacy brands from their separate identities to a cohesive presence under one J&J MedTech banner. 

At the same time, the J&J MedTech communications team was also looking to modernize their overall employee communications strategy. They needed a solution that would: 

• Streamline messaging: Reduce information overload from multiple newsletters and ad hoc communications from the sector level. 

• Simplify their writing style: Make complex topics more engaging and easier to understand.

• Modernize delivery: Tailor storytelling and communication style for their diverse audiences while simplifying the technology and processes it took to deliver them.

The solution: The team partnered with Axios HQ to create “Now @MedTech,” a single-source-of-truth newsletter for staff communications. This channel was established in late 2023 and was a critical channel throughout the brand transition for delivering consistent updates and resources as a part of a comprehensive change management strategy. Additionally, the team hosted Smart Brevity writing and editing workshops to help enhance the clarity and effectiveness of their communications.                         

How it worked: Axios HQ conducted Smart Brevity training sessions across communications teams to empower key collaborators to communicate even more effectively, simply, and clearly. Axios HQ also provided ongoing content guidance, Smart Brevity style feedback, and hands-on editing support to make each edition of Now @MedTech and other communications as clear and impactful as possible. 

This channel and process, established before the brand transition, significantly improved communications across all levels during the change — from global all-employee updates to individual business messages. For example, while emails sent from the Worldwide Chairman of MedTech and other medtech leaders effectively conveyed the vision for the rebrand, Now @MedTech gave visibility to change timelines and stories about reasons to believe, while the team used a complementary brand transition hub on their intranet to effectively address questions and share resources in a straightforward manner, facilitating smoother execution and mobilization of change.  

📊 Key comms and business results:

• 100% participation across business units in the rebranding program, showing strong engagement and commitment to the transition. 
• Minimal questions received from employees, showing clarity and comprehensiveness of communications is reflected in a low volume of inquiries overall.
• Communicators were empowered to confidently tailor messages, equipping them to address specific employee needs and implications for their areas of the business. 

💭 Sarah Dezendorf, Director of MedTech Employee Communications:

• “Axios HQ enhanced our employee communications strategy across J&J MedTech by helping us minimize the volume of communication that was going out to all employees. We no longer send standalone emails for anything other than a timely CEO communication or a nudge to take critical action. Everything else goes into our ‘Now@MedTech’ newsletter at the center. This shift has not only reduced information overload but has also made our messaging and storytelling more consistent and effective. Nowhere was this better seen than with our recent brand transition communications.”

💭 Travis Scott, Director of MedTech Brand Operations:

• “Axios HQ is a big piece of the communications puzzle. It allowed us to make this brand transition with our employees internally and make sure that that was smooth and successful. Because the newsletter and smart brevity style of writing was already established, we had a recognizable and easily understood framework and language for sharing important updates, which ultimately helped our employees stay more engaged through ongoing changes and brand milestones.”

What’s next: "The support we get from the Axios HQ team is incredibly valuable to us, especially the editorial guidance. It has helped us learn, grow, and really level-up our writing skills — and then share that with our colleagues,” Sarah says. “We’re excited to explore some more in-depth Axios HQ editing opportunities for our team in 2025.”

J&J earned Axios HQ's 2025 Best-in-Class award for Change Management Comms. See our other award winners:

• 2025 Best-in-Class All Staff
• 2025 Best-in-Class Employee Comms Team of the Year
• 2025 Best-in-Class Community Engagement
• 2025 Best-in-Class Culture Creator
• 2025 Smart Brevity Champion