Situation:
Patient-recruitment firm Praxis wanted to continue a tradition it had begun several years ago of creating a unique mailer for customers and prospects in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. The strategy had succeeded in differentiating Praxis from its competition, according to David Buck, president and creative director at marketing communications agency Crowley Webb & Associates.
At the same time, Praxis needed to emphasize the benefits of its services, which include recruiting patients to participate in clinical trials. “[It] came to us to create an identity and to establish the brand as a major player in the market against some of its bigger competitors,” Buck says.
Approach:
Four shrink-wrapped, vintage-style record album covers were developed depicting a fictional rock band called The Researchers, describing how Praxis helped them make it big. The covers also listed song titles relating to the business, such as “My My My (Got a Big R.O.I.).” Inside was a large business card shaped like a record. The albums were sent out
in a four-wave mailing between March 2006 and March 2007 to the same 5,000 names, including 500 decision-makers at large and midsize firms.
“We wanted to keep a constant presence throughout the year,” Buck says.
Additionally, two e-mail blasts were sent featuring a documentary-like video of The Researchers which explained that the recipients too could be “clinical research rock stars” by using Praxis’ services.
“We took the creative delivery pretty far and ran with it,” Buck adds. He believes that “for people in the business, it was really something fresh.”
Results:
Praxis received RFPs from six new pharmaceutical companies and increased its Web site traffic by 22%. The Web site received over 6,000 unique visitors over the course of the campaign.
“When you go around to offices and see the records hanging on the wall, you know the message is getting across,” Buck says.
Crowley Webb is currently in production for a 2008 campaign with Praxis.
-Mary Hurn
Regent University
Online school earns high marks
Situation: Regent University, which was founded by Pat Robertson as a center for Christian thought, needed a cost-effective way to meet aggressive enrollment growth goals for its online undergraduate degree program. Working with interactive marketing agency Tocquigny, Regent launched a campaign last spring that included database marketing, search engine marketing, rich media ads and new messaging around the theme of connecting with your dreams.
Results: In six months, the number of online undergraduate recruits rose by 250% and applications by 30%. At the same time, the cost per acquisition dropped 75%. Regent will continue working with Tocquigny in 2008 at a higher budget level.
-Chantal Todé
Miva Direct
Toolbar is no turkey
Approach: Miva Direct Inc. wanted to take advantage of the holiday season to maximize conversions on a new recipe search toolbar available from Alot.com. Widemile helped Miva strengthen the connection between SEM and landing pages by testing seasonal imagery on its landing pages. In total, 1,024 combinations were tested using 16 page variations.
Results: The recipe toolbar experienced a nearly 30% conversion rate and Web traffic rose more than 200%.
–Nathan Golia
Privateview
Paul Mouer, VP, group creative director, Hawkeye
The Researchers campaign is a fun and clever campaign that must have really stood out in the mail. Praxis took advantage of the small quantity and created mailings that people look forward to receiving and will most likely save. Regent University did a nice job of carrying a consistent look and feel across multiple components. However, I feel the “your dreams” concept gets lost in the mirage of different messages going on in the horizontal banner ad. MIVA Direct deserves kudos for being so thorough in its recipe image testing. It seems logical that turkey recipes would pull best around the holidays, but the proof is in the testing and now it knows for sure.
