C&EN BrandLab and Grace have partnered on an ongoing program since 2018 to advance some of Grace’s business goals. Increasing brand awareness for both the Grace brand and their product LUDOX® colloidal silica, as well as reinforcing the message of Grace’s commitment and offer of expertise to its customers have been ongoing goals. Grace’s team also wanted to highlight new functionalities and uncommon applications for colloidal silica to show how the company champions scientific discovery. Increasing and nurturing their customer pipeline has been an ongoing goal for Grace, so creating and repurposing content in multiple formats to pique the curiosity of customers was an attractive route for lead generation.

A brand awareness survey was deployed to C&EN’s readers prior to the program launch, to help benchmark perceptions for both Grace and LUDOX®. After the completion of the 2018 & 2019 campaigns, a second survey was launched to gauge whether perceptions had changed as a result of the program. Overall brand awareness both of Grace (+21%) and LUDOX®(+5%) increased, as well as purchases of aqueous colloidal silica from Grace (+11%).

C&EN BrandLab executed a multifaceted program that combined custom native content, advertising, and lead generation. A custom contest, which was promoted through digital and print ads, helped Grace engage with chemists across various academic and industry sectors. Two ebooks introduced the fundamental chemistry and applications of colloidal silica through the voice of Grace’s customers and demonstrated the versatility of colloidal silica.

A three-part “Super Silica” native advertising series walked readers through the historical, modern, and future applications of colloidal silica within the pages of C&EN.

To help improve Grace SEO and discoverability of the custom content, C&EN BrandLab designed and developed a custom microsite “The World of Colloidal Silica” to host all C&EN-produced LUDOX® content.

The “Super Silica” series took home the bronze award in the category Advertising Campaign (Other) at the 2020 Association Media & Publishing’s EXCEL awards.

Over the first two years of the program, C&EN BrandLab worked to understand awareness both of W.R. Grace & Co. and of LUDOX® colloidal silica. In doing so, we uncovered new and interesting applications of colloidal silica. We developed a campaign to re-introduce LUDOX® colloidal silica to the world as a Grace product as well as boost the Grace brand, while showcasing some of the diverse applications. The campaign ran in ACS Publications, C&EN, RSC Journals, and Chemistry World. It also featured a direct response call to action to collaborate with Grace. As part of this campaign, two custom interactive infographics were created to highlight applications of colloidal silica, as well as the different properties that make colloidal silica unique. The infographics contained call to action points for the user, directing them to Grace content specific to each application or property.

The multifaceted program spanning 2018-2022 generated impressive results. Grace’s brand was given a boost at both the brand and product levels, which also lead to an increase in sales. Content created over the years contributed to brand awareness, lead generation, and lead nurturing – keeping potential customers engaged throughout the entire sales funnel.