R&D - CASE STUDY

Springer Nature is one of the world’s leading publishing companies. They produce books, journals and digital products for science, technology, medicine, and the humanities. They offer a range of solutions that help companies accelerate their research and development. We were asked to develop an animation to show scientists, librarians and key decision makers how Springer Nature's R&D products and services can help them drive innovation in their organisations.

We started the project by hosting a workshop with sales, marketing and product team members from across Springer Nature. This helped us to gain a much clearer picture of who the target audience were, what kind of challenges they faced and which key messages would connect with them most effectively.

Following the workshop, we put together a creative proposal which set the direction for the script and visual approach. We built the story around a single central message: In order for their researchers to succeed in a competitive research landscape, it is crucial that organisations give them access to the latest, high-quality knowledge.

It was important for the video to be able to communicate with people from a broad range of industries and roles. We chose to use a simple, abstract graphic approach so that the core concept would be at the foreground. The style took cues from existing brand imagery so it would complement other materials. We depicted researchers as teams of coloured spheres racing towards a goal. To reach their objective before their competitors they needed to overcome a range of tricky obstacles. At the start of the video we follow a team of spheres that loses its way and is beaten by more efficient, nimbler teams.

We then introduce Springer Nature's R&D offering. It is represented by glowing icons, with dynamic lines that flow into the spheres and supercharge them with cutting-edge knowledge. Imbued with this new intelligence, the spheres are able to find solutions to the challenges that were not previously obvious. This competitive edge allows them to speed towards success and win the R&D race.

The result is a concise marketing video that clearly explains how partnering with Springer Nature can give organisations a critical edge in R&D. The client team loved the finished animation. It can currently be viewed on the Springer Nature R&D web site.