The Problem
Thermo Scientific wanted to sell more Mr. Frosty cryogenic storage containers, but the competition made it a challenge for Thermo Scientific to get its message to the audience its cryogenic storage containers are built for.
The Solution
Partner with Collaborating Company and Thermo Scientific to deliver an omnichannel co-op marketing campaign that gives Thermo Scientific exclusive access to Daigger Scientific’s audience and customer relationships.
The Outcome
During the campaign, the pageviews of Thermo Scientific’s Mr. Frosty cryogenic storage containers increased by 209%, with comparable increases to other stats too: a reduced bounce rate, dramatically increased time-on-page, and an explosive number of unique page views.
Introduction
He’s a jolly, happy soul, but he takes prefixes very seriously. It’s Mr. Frosty to you.
Thermo Scientific’s excellent original branding of their Mr. Frosty Nalgene Cryogenic Storage containers made our creative team’s job a blast. They put together the image of our classic winter friend, Frosty the Snowman, hanging out on scenic rolling hills of snow. Oh, and his body is made with a cryogenic storage container, instructions right on the container and all.
These cryogenic storage containers make lab professionals’ daily work smoother, faster, and more convenient. They can bypass the tedium of carefully packaging up samples in makeshift or complicated containers by letting Mr. Frosty store and freeze their samples for them.
How freaking cool is he?
So, we used Mr. Frosty’s cool name and intuitive product design to brighten up the inboxes of lab professionals who were likely accustomed to cryogenic storage containers called “cryogenic storage containers,” and not Thermo Scientific’s fancy Mr. Frosty.
Getting instruments that made a positive impact on their passion, profession, and profit was always at the forefront of our collaborative approach. So, to really get the message out there about Mr. Frosty, we took an omnichannel approach.
The omnichannel:
- The Homepage
- The Pop-Ups
- The Email
- The Social Posts
- The Search Results
- The Blog Post
- The Category Leaderboard Banner
- The End (and The Beginning)
The Homepage
During the two weeks of the email campaign promoting Thermo Scientific’s Nalgene "Mr. Frosty" Freezing Containers, we replaced Daigger’s homepage banner with our eye-catching visual of Mr. Frosty - a friendly and lab conscientious neighborhood snowman who helps you store your samples easily, perfectly preserving them without too much effort from your end.
Why does the homepage even matter?
It’s the first thing they see when they arrive at Daigger’s front door. In an actual home, maybe it’d be a dramatic Turkish carpet sprawling across the floor. Maybe a deer’s head on the wall. Maybe a lifesize statue of Elvis. Whatever tickles your fancy. For Daigger, we knew that Mr. Frosty’s name combined with our visuals were a timely and fun addition to Daigger’s homepage given the holiday season.
The size of the homepage banner gave our creative team the perfect amount of space to give the audience a more up-close-and-personal look at Mr. Frosty. They get to see his helpful twig arms, his carefully matched toque and scarf, and his test tube nose atop a cryogenic storage container body complete with easy-to-follow instructions.
The Pop-ups
The omnichannel approach is the precipice of getting your message heard loud and clear. This meant sharing it with every Daigger customer, even if cryogenic storage containers were not what they came looking for.
To do this, we set up pop-ups on every relevant and semi-relevant page. A small image using the design of the overall campaign slides in at the bottom of these related pages. The image contained a compelling message. In this case, we juxtaposed the professional quality of the instrument with the approachable price point. This meant Daigger’'s message got in front of an additional 232 customers during the campaign.
Pop-ups are a conversion optimization tool that:
- Encourage customers who are almost ready to buy to take a lower commitment action and move toward a sale
- Help businesses grow their email lists with engaged contacts
- Generate leads to provide sales reps with a solid starting point for their outreach
- Increase revenue so companies can laugh straight to the bank
… by showing personalized messages based on a website visitor’s behavior.
In simpler terms, pop-ups help companies make connections that matter. All it has to do is show the right messages to the right people. We decided that Mr. Frosty would bring fun if it will be placed on any page on Daigger’s website related to storage containers, period.
The Email
An email was written, designed, and sent out to Daigger's audience of about 40,000 people and saw a total open rate of 13.7% (5409 users), and a click rate of 2.1% (823 users).
Whether you’re trying to reach prospects, leads, or current customers, email marketing is an opportunity to speak to your customers directly. To be friendly. Personable. Human.
One of the greatest strengths of this email was the social proof tucked in before the email closes. We found a real-life testimonial from a Mr. Frosty user that demonstrated how the product improved their lab life via cryogenic storage solutions by Thermo Scientific.
The social proof also brought some warmth to our cool message. Connecting recipients of our email to a real-life person’s experience in using Mr. Frosty.
We also had a ton of fun with the subject line, knowing we’d send this email out in the winter and close to the holiday season, resulting in a high open rate of 13.7%.
Email marketing also gives you more space to say what you need to say, or in this case, show what you need to show. In the case of Mr. Frosty, our creative team got to highlight the design of Thermo Scientific’s amazing Mr. Frosty product. Showing Daigger’s audience how easy it is to use Mr. Frosty freezing containers with a simple image conveys more than words could.
The Social Posts
We designed and posted social posts on Daigger’s LinkedIn and Facebook accounts to promote the campaign to their social followers.
What’s the main purpose of social posts anyway? We believe it's to help the right audiences see more of a brand or even a specific product. We know that social posts are just a gentle way to remind audiences that when they need lab equipment or cryogenic storage containers that’ll knock their socks off, we’ve got their back.
The Search Results
We highlighted Mr. Frosty in the search results too. Have you ever searched for something, and wondered why the number one option comes up as number one on a website? Strategically placing products in a specific order is totally a thing. We ordered the results in a way that would make Thermo Scientific’s Mr. Frosty’s cryogenic storage containers stand out from all of the other storage containers in all the land.
We also used the search results as an opportunity to show off our iced-out visuals again. That’s the thing about good branding - visuals are not just nice images to look at with fun words to read. If a Daigger customer saw our Mr. Frosty graphics in an email earlier in the week and didn’t act on it, they’re now reminded of how cool they thought it was the first time they saw it, likely prompting real action.
Boom - you’ve already built rapport with someone who may not even buy a cryogenic storage container today. But when they need one tomorrow, Daigger will be at the top of their mind.
Good visuals aren’t just about showing how great a product or a company is. They’re also a way of saying:
Hey, your cool job deserves cool tools.
People care about what you do, day-in-day-out, enough to visualize it this beautifully.
Your profession and the work you do is a reflection of this visual - a work of art.
The consistency of these visuals is good because it sparks recognition, and vice versa.
The Blog Post
Our editorial team wrote “Can you replace a controlled rate freezer with Mr Frosty cell freezing containers?,” a comprehensive crash course on how Mr. Frosty containers can simplify lab freezing and storage processes. It’s comprehensive. It answers all the important questions. And it’s fun.
The goal of the blog post was to be educational. We wanted users to learn about cryogenic storage containers while also demonstrating what makes Thermo Scientific’s Mr. Frosty option unique.
Creating a blog post also helps us capture search results for all types of users, purchasers or not to increase the overall search value of the page, which all links back to the Mr. Frosty product page. By extension, we increase the value of the Mr. Frosty storage container page so more users end up on the page over the medium and long term.
The blog post also set the perfect stage for interlinking. What’s interlinking? It’s when a page - any page - connects to another page using a URL. You can think of it like a spider web, slowly webbed together using various links.
What does it accomplish? The more links a page receives, the more significant it appears to search engines. That means when laboratory managers search for cryogenic storage containers on Google - boom! Mr. Frosty.
To maximize the chances of being seen and heard by the right audiences, we packed the content with keywords that cryogenic storage container users would punch into Google, otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The Category Leaderboard Banner
Here’s the story in a chestnut shell: a leaderboard banner is a horizontal banner across the top of a webpage. Imagine a billboard along the highway. When website visitors first land on a webpage, the leaderboard banner is the first representation of a brand they usually see. Fill that space with something great, or lose your shot at captivating your audience.
Depending on browser settings, not everyone sees pop-up messages. Boo! But we kept our cool about it and emphasized our branding on the main category page for cryogenic storage containers with our iced-out version of a digital billboard, making customers who may not even be interested in cryogenic storage containers want to pull over and check Mr. Frosty out.
Summary
During the campaign, 4,827 Daigger customers engaged with Daigger’s Mr. Frosty emails.
280 customers engaged with the pop-ups.
And the pageviews of the Mr. Frosty product page soared by 209%.
And Thermo Scientific sold a substantial amount of Mr. Frosty cryogenic storage containers to Daigger’s audience.
And to achieve all this, we didn’t revolutionize or change Thermo Scientific’s product in any way, nor did we disrupt the natural habitat of Daigger’s site. We simply highlighted what made Mr. Frosty cryogenic storage containers special. Then we grew the magic with art. With words. With the elements of surprise that inspire lab professionals to invest in their tools, to invest in their work, and to invest in themselves.