Project Syndicate
- + Marketing audits and evaluations
- + Target audience research and segmentation
- + Marketing strategy & planning
- + Social media strategies, implementation and management
Challenge
Project Syndicate is a not-for-profit media syndication agency that offers opinion pieces written by world leaders on topical global issues. Their revenue was in decline due to the changing media landscape, so they wanted to shift to a reader-supported digital revenue stream. However, having never behaved as a reader destination nor charged readers for content, significant changes to the external perception were required.
The client’s goal was to achieve long-term financial stability with a KPI of 20,000 reader subscriptions at $5 a month within the first two years of launch. We expanded on this goal to create SMART objectives for the project: (1) create awareness as a reader destination, increasing unique website visits by 300% over two years measured through analytics (2) build awareness of their mission, increasing understanding to 75% within two years measured through quarterly reader surveys.
Through interviews and workshops, we developed a deep understanding of Project Syndicate’s two main audiences and market. The insights from this research informed a quantitative study with over 1,500 readers. Through market mapping, user mapping and competitor analysis, we benchmarked them against the competition. Desk research gave us insights into people’s news consumption behaviours.
Solution
It was clear from the research that Project Syndicate had an incredible product, differentiating purpose and enviable impact. However, they weren’t connecting with their typical readers. Our insights about their reader’s needs and news consumption behaviours were invaluable in creating the proposition: ‘beyond the news’. This capitalised on Project Syndicate’s unique depth of analysis, which helped individuals make sense of the world around them.
A new B2C brand ‘PS’ was created to become the reader destination and support a new revenue strategy including donations, premium content and experiences. A distinctive new identity was created by to differentiate them in the market. Bold typographic treatments place the emphasis on the content – the reason why their readers value them. We took an agile approach to implementation using A/B testing on digital platforms to test, learn and iterate. This approach allows us to rapidly refine communications, ensuring that the content resonates with readers before production.
The success of the project will be measured through regular reader surveys and website analytics. Early results are positive and a trial across a donation campaign, which promotes PS’s mission, resulted in a significant increase in awareness of the mission from 30% to 46%.
Increase in awareness of the mission amount target audience.