CURIOSITY HUB

TitleCURIOSITY HUB
BrandMERCK
Product/Service#CATCHCURIOUS INITIATIVE
Category B02. Microsite
Entrant FORK UNSTABLE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Idea Creation FORK UNSTABLE MEDIA Hamburg, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Paul Taggart, Roman Hilmer Fork Unstable Media & fischerAppelt Creative Direction
Paul Taggart, Roman Hilmer, Markus Gropper Fork Unstable Media & fischerAppelt Concept
René Zimmermann Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Art Direction
René Zimmermann, Nika Maack, Paula Pop Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Designer
René Zimmermann, Tilo Göbel Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Illustrator
René Zimmermann, Tilo Göbel, Michael Fuchs Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Animation
Anika Bury, Stefanie Voß, Carl-Jochen Reinhardt, Max Kuhn Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Project Manager
Dr. Angela Harre Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Media Planning
Lennart Wegner Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Strategy
Catherine Hoffmann, Fabian von Appen Fork Unstable Media & fischerAppelt Influencer Relations
Eileen Piskorz, Lu Sophie Sommer Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt PR Manager
Maurice Hoffmann, Markus Gropper Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt UX Designer
Matt Harrop Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Design Supervision
Paul Taggart, Roman Hilmer, Markus Gropper Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Texter
Olaf Twesten, Leonard Techel, Bastian Nuss Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Programming
Siegfried Förster, Uwe Holland Fork Unstable Media, fischerAppelt Technical Project Manager

The Campaign

“If science is so exciting, why must it look so dull?”. Reaffirming this key insight from the brand’s corporate identity, the Curiosity Hub transformed the findings of Merck’s curiosity report into a series of vibrant experiences, digital interactions, and scientific editorial content. The site induces curiosity via features, communication and visuals, which raise questions, incite inquisitiveness and whet appetites for more. Combining these key campaign elements, the Curiosity Hub helped to infect audiences and spread the #catchcurious message.

Creative Execution

The site uses a vibrant visual language to whet the appetite of curious visitors. A self-test takes users on a vivid 3D journey to generate personal curiosity profiles. Plus, curiosity expert Dr. Carl Naughton invites users to crack the “Curiosity Code” as part of a mysterious interactive film. Articles, films, infographics, and interviews with leading curiosity experts complete the responsive, multilingual site. Content developed for the site was optimized for Merck’s intranet and social media channels. This allowed the brand to quickly activate both internal and external influencer networks to maximize reach across relevant business channels. From concept to initial launch, in both English and German language, the Curiosity Hub required a 5-month development phase. The platform was launched in five additional languages (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese) by the end of 2016. Since its launch, the site has been updated regularly with new articles, interviews, and interactive content.

The engaging mixture of scientific data and interactive digital experiences paid off. In its first five months, the Curiosity Hub amassed 3.2 million page views from 1.6 million unique B2B visitors. Self-test participants spent an average 4.5 minutes interacting with the vibrant, 3D feature – helping to generate over 50,000 curiosity profiles. Much of the hub’s success can be attributed to its associated media strategy, which helped spread the message globally via 400m ad impressions 19.5m video views 5.56m likes, comments and shares 42.2m users reached via influencer content Extremely efficient €0.52 average cost per click The hub (and the overlying #catchcurious campaign) has helped raise Merck’s profile markedly among science and technology audiences. Its combination of interactions and experiences make curiosity both inspirational and aspirational.

Breakthroughs (in science and technology) begin with curiosity. With this insight, our strategic goal focused on the creation of a discovery-driven platform to really stir the curiosity of visitors, making their interaction with the overlying campaign both rewarding and entertaining. Harnessing the power of an inspirational and, at times, provocative campaign narrative, we aimed to empower and activate B2B audiences, which included Merck clients, innovation and academic partners. Forge long-term cooperations with a global network of respected science and technology opinion leaders to amplify the campaign message and drive relevant audiences to the site. Achieve a global industry benchmark via a digital-first approach, favoring online and social advertising over traditional media. Achieve maximum efficiency via the creation of self-sufficient content flanked by additional media spends.