Launched in 1869 to bring ‘scientific work and discovery to a wider and more general recognition’, Nature is still one of the world’s leading life science publications – both on and off line. As well as being a major scientific title, it also takes a scientific approach to its own marketing. With a truly global readership – and potential readership – the magazine wanted to know more about how its different audiences – from leading
academics to industry leaders in fields like bio-technology – read the magazine and
reacted to its online content.
Dan Penny, Head of Business Development, at Nature Publishing Group, was keen to research not only how existing subscribers interacted with the title, but also how people who had never come across Nature before reacted to it and its content.
Says Penny, “Because it is cross-disciplinary, the print version of the magazine tends to have high levels of readership among both junior scientists, who are just starting out in their careers and may not yet have fixed upon a core discipline, and well established senior scientists who have an interest in keeping abreast of wider scientific
developments. But what about those in the middle? What needs do they have, and how can we best meet them, both now and in the future? This and questions around the way in which on and off line content work together, were matters we were keen to explore with a wide cross section of people, from life scientists to business leaders.”
The answer was to recruit a reader panel. Clearly data on subscribers was already to hand, but how could Nature find those individuals in industry, science and business who were not subscribers, but who might have an interest in joining the panel? That’s when they turned to Mardev.
Using Mardev’s international database of academics and leading business people, Nature was quickly able to draw up a selected contact list of likely panel members, and then contact them and sign them up. Says Penny, “An essential 15 to 20 per cent of the reader panel was recruited thanks to Mardev – and they now provide a vital insight into how the publication is read, and how we can build the title, including its online content, to bring in new readers and open up new opportunities.”
Dan Penny
Head of Business Development - Nature Publishing Group
Navigator implements customer management programmes for many different Clients offering a complete service, therefore by nature we are a company that has the highest requirement of detail and information has to be completely accurate and correct.
Having worked on projects for a variety of businesses, Joanna finds the professional attention and absolute commitment to providing above and beyond what other data providers deliver a refreshing change. Working with Mardev has been a great experience. From the outset they aim to add value and deliver as near to a brief as possible but beyond this, if information is not readily available, there is an honest approach and different opportunities are presented.
I would much rather work closely with a company that works speedily to deliver and assist than those that often do not listen or provide inadequate levels of service and ultimately the wrong data brief.
Results speak for themselves, of the past four projects delivered for outbound calling there was a marked 50% increase in decision makers being spoken to from 2 per hour at finance director level to 4 per hour; resulting in an increase in opportunities uncovered. This is absolutely attributable to the accuracy in contacts provided decreasing the time spent working through the different
gate-keepers.
I would not hesitate to recommend Mardev as a provider of excellent contact information, with a friendly professional approach.
Joanna Philips
Sales Director – NavigatorCustomer Management
Originally founded in New York City in 1961, Frost & Sullivan has grown to become one of the world’s leading growth consulting and corporate training organisations. Dedicated to ‘helping world-class companies to increase productivity and performance through their people’, Frost & Sullivan opened its London training division in 1972 and today runs more than 130 public training courses each year in the UK alone, plus in-company training together with events for analysts and high level ‘executive summits’.
To help it promote and advertise those 130 plus courses, the company uses Mardev and its 5 million strong DecisionMaker database to help it generate the best leads for each. These leads can come from almost any sector or background, as the courses range from personal development and management skills to areas such as sales and marketing and project management. It’s important therefore to match the right course with the most appropriate individual – which is where Mardev’s data expertise comes in.
Says Dinesh Saggar, Global Marketing Manager at Frost & Sullivan, “We use a mixture of mailings and email campaigns to advertise each training programme. Every one of the 130 will have its own unique promotion, but we have also developed our own internal database to enable us to target selected ‘bundles’ of courses, then use DecisionMaker to identify the best individuals to mail or email, as appropriate.
Dinesh Saggar
Global Marketing Manager |
