Over a quarter of the world’s full text scientific articles available in one scientific research database: ScienceDirect. The ScienceDirect College Edition provides colleges with affordable access to dedicated subject packages in the physical, social and health sciences. Faculty and students can get access to a vast collection of high-quality journal articles online, complemented by authoritative reference works.
The company had recently reviewed its existing licensing model, which had subsequently led to an expansion of the information available on ScienceDirect College Edition. It was decided that a campaign should be developed to promote this and that would pick up on Elsevier’s (a ScienceDirect College edition product known for being expensive, and therefore not a popular option for librarians with tight budgets) bad image and promote the high-value content to faculty and students as users of the product.
Separating fact from fiction
College education is a pseudo-scientific education. The students learn how scientifically correct work is done, but are not expected to contribute to the body of knowledge of their field. One of the objectives is to teach students how to differentiate between ‘real’, verified information and sources lacking credibility. The campaign theme, ‘Fact or fiction?’ picks up on a daily mantra that students hear at school from their teachers and librarians. General statements about the benefits of additional scientific information were used. The creative included a headline and imagery for a typical illustrative style of schoolbooks, in order to refer to the educational objectives of colleges and build a counterweight to the scientific image that ScienceDirect has.
The creative was applied to:
- Print and online ads
- Posters
- Mug/giveaway
- HTML and text emails
Emails played a vital role in the campaign as they were meant to give the final call to action and convert awareness into purchase by translating the ‘general’ campaign into how it would be relevant for the single customer.
The emails were sent after the market was exposed to the rest of the marketing campaign to achieve maximum impact. Based on experience with the target groups it was decided to not overstyle the emails or visibly make them part of the advertising campaign: Anything that is obviously advertising isn’t read and often deleted immediately.
In order to make the mailing as relevant as possible for the recipient, several levels of segmentation/personalisation was created:
1. Recipient segmentation: Recipients were segmented by geography, user or purchaser, prospect or customer (sub-segmented into types of customer).
2. Language versions: Emails were sent to the Americas and all of Europe (including Israel), so we created English, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German and French language versions.
3. Content personalisation: One HTML template that fitted all content and a list that contained all content was created.
Results
The measurable results (in this case open and click-through rates in the HTML email) were:
- Emails delivered 97 per cent
- Emails opened 52 per cent
- Email clicks 21 per cent
In direct response to the campaign, the client received three renewals and two new contracts for the ScienceDirect College Edition, representing a significant financial gain for the client and a substantial return on their investment.
