Case study: For recruitment there's only one science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, is the world’s largest non-profit scientific organization, dedicated to advancing science and serving society. They asked for our help to produce Media Kits targeting recruitment and product advertisers, as well as to strengthen their ScienceCareers brand.

Location

United States

Sector

Life Science

Service

Branding & communications

Background

The American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, is the world’s largest non-profit scientific organization. AAAS is dedicated to advancing science and serving society. Their journal, Science, was founded by Thomas Edison 130 years ago and is arguably the world’s most important scientific publication. With over 700,000 members receiving it in print weekly, and 3.5 million gaining access online, it is certainly the most read.

The brief

AAAS asked for our help to produce Media Kits targeting recruitment and product advertisers, as well as to strengthen their ScienceCareers brand. Science as a name could not be trademarked so competitors were infringing on Science’s valuable brand equity, taking advantage of their well-earned reputation. Online offerings using similar brand names, urls and appearances were making it difficult for job seekers and employers to know if they were on the ScienceCareers website – the world’s largest career site for scientists.

The solution

We interviewed key stakeholders, and combined our findings with external research provided by the AAAS. This enabled our team to create an appropriate strategy. With an integrated communications and advertising campaign focusing on the roots of the organization, its premier reputation and reinforcing its heritage, we would help reposition and elevate the Science brand.

With so many members receiving Science on a weekly basis we used the cover, as the most recognizable brand asset, to represent the brand. We also replaced the ScienceCareers logo with separate elements of the Science logo and Careers, to stop confusion about the true Science. To gain maximum impact, we also used a positioning tag line - There’s only one Science - to unify all communications. Our work encompassed brand ID, advertising campaigns, media kits, electronic direct mail (EDM) and videos.