Internet Advertising Competition  

Entry: Monthly Product Updates

Product or Service Offered: BD Biosciences - Pharmingen

Audience: Business to Business

Industry Category: Biotechnology

Medium: Online Newsletter Campaign

Award: Best Biotechnology Online Newsletter Campaign, Web Marketing Association’s 2005 Internet Advertising Competition

Team: Dara Grantham-Wright, Jon Baize, Julie DeBacker, Teri Ann Helfrich, Oresta Fedun

Audience and goal of advertisement/campaign:

BD Biosciences - Pharmingen commercializes dozens of new products each month that are included in the online catalog on their website.  In an effort to service customers more effectively, BD Biosciences - Pharmingen wanted to push the information out to their clients in an automated fashion rather than relying upon clients to visit the website each month. 

Monthly e-mail blasts were developed that are distributed to the BD Biosciences - Pharmingen mailing list about the new products that were developed during the previous month.  The e-mail provides a list of the new products and links to the full product details on the BD Biosciences website.  Additional functionality to compare selected products is also offered.

In order to continue to grow the subscription base to the Monthly Product Updates, a subscription form was added to the BD Biosciences - Pharmingen website.  “Refer a Colleague” functionality was also included in the e-mail so that subscribers can forward a copy of the most recent Product Update forwarded to a colleague or friend.  The referral is then prompted to register to continue to receive the Monthly Product Updates.

The Monthly Product Updates has a subscription base of over 15,000 active e-mail addresses.  Distributing this monthly e-mail enables BD Biosciences - Pharmingen to disseminate information more quickly to their customer base as well as increase awareness of new product developments. 

E-Newsletter: The e-newsletter includes a listing of new products (with links to product detail) as well as a feature story/product.

Landing Pages: The links in the e-mail open product pages on the BD Biosciences - Pharmingen online catalog.

Registration Form: The information required by registrants was kept to a minimum to encourage people to sign-up for Product Updates. The registration form is highlighted on the BD Biosciences - Pharmingen homepage to encourage visitors to sign-up for the e-newsletter. A link is included in the e-newsletter for recipients who were "referred by a colleague/friend" so that they can sign-up to continue to receive Product Updates.

Opt-Out Form: A link to "unsubscribe" is included in all of the e-newsletters, providing recipients the opportunity to unsubscribe from future editions.

Refer a Friend / Colleague: A "send to a friend/colleague" page enables recipients to forward a copy of the original e-mail, along with a personalized message, to a colleague or friend, inviting them to subscribe to Product Updates.