Reigniting Growth After the Pandemic Slowed Demand
New Scientist is a trusted source for anyone curious about how the universe works. After the pandemic, demand slowed and brand impressions declined, and the publisher needed a three-year plan to grow subscribers again.
With Alli, PMG shifted from offer-led ads to a content-led, full-funnel approach that introduced people to New Scientist's journalism before asking them to subscribe. Six new channels, including YouTube, Meta, and Apple Search Ads, were added, with investment moving toward what curious audiences engaged with most.
The strategy reached 5 million new users, doubled newsletter sign-ups, and increased subscriptions 77% year over year.
New Scientist is a trusted brand for anyone curious about how the universe works, offering expert content, live events, conferences, and immersive tours. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic, economic challenges negatively impacted their digital demand and overall performance. While we were capturing and converting customers through brand search, brand impressions were declining. Our mission was to develop and launch a new three-year digital strategy to reignite demand, foster deeper audience engagement, and secure consistent year-on-year growth in their subscriber base.
Leading with Content-led Storytelling
To achieve these goals, we needed to shift our approach to customer engagement, rethinking both campaign strategies and creative elements. Moving away from offer-led, conversion-focused messaging, we adopted a full-funnel, customer-centric approach that showcased what New Scientist does best: its content. We hypothesized that by engaging users with New Scientist's rich content offerings before driving toward subscription, we would attract a higher-quality audience and increase long-term customer loyalty.
Our strategy was built around four key pillars to ensure a seamless journey for potential subscribers. First, we focused on connecting with broad, high-reach audiences by delivering quality video content across platforms like Meta and YouTube. Second, we aimed to engage these audiences by promoting special features, expert newsletters, and app downloads to encourage registration. Third, we sought to convert these engaged users into subscribers, using targeted campaigns to highlight the value of a New Scientist subscription. Finally, we emphasized retaining customers by nurturing them post-conversion, driving higher lifetime value, and encouraging advocacy.
Every stage, from discovery to retention, depended on knowing who New Scientist's next readers were, so the team built that picture in Alli, PMG's operating system. Alli Audience Planner built personas of curious, science-minded people who weren't yet subscribers, showing which channels drew them in, so the plan could introduce New Scientist's journalism before asking anyone to subscribe.
New Channels and Smarter Targeting Drove Deeper Engagement
We expanded New Scientist's marketing approach to embrace full-funnel strategies, integrating six new channels and using machine learning to refine performance in real time. This allowed us to make the most of New Scientist's first-party data to drive meaningful results at scale. In the first year, we prioritized several key activation channels:
We utilized YouTube to deliver high-quality video content to a large audience, showcasing the brand's expertise. On Meta, we implemented a full-funnel subscription-driving strategy, with targeted campaigns designed to generate engagement and lead conversions, such as newsletter sign-ups. Apple Search Ads promoted app installs and encouraged content consumption, while our search strategy incorporated new tactics like Performance Max and Dynamic Search Ads, to drive traffic to relevant, topical articles.
Alli tracked YouTube, Meta, Apple Search, and every other activated channel together, so the team could see how the content-led approach performed at each stage of the funnel. Ask Alli handled planners' questions in plain English, and investment moved toward the moments and channels where curious audiences engaged most.
New Scientist Grew Reach, Loyalty, and Long-Term Subscriber Value
5MM New Users 74% Above In-Stream View Rate Benchmark 77% Increase in Subscriptions
By centering our strategy on New Scientist's premium content, we successfully attracted both new and lapsed audiences. In just three months, we reached nearly 5 million new users through our media mix. On Meta, we engaged 1.7 million users with targeted awareness campaigns, while on YouTube, we delivered 2.2 million impressions with a 59% in-stream view rate, 74% higher than the industry benchmark.
In terms of engagement, we tripled our forecast for registrations, onboarding thousands of new users who exchanged their information for access to content. Newsletter subscriptions doubled, securing a new audience for New Scientist's free weekly content, positioning them for future conversion.
On the conversion front, we achieved a 77% year-over-year increase in subscriptions, doubled overall impressions, and grew brand impressions by 60%. Retention efforts also paid off, with a take-through rate exceeding targets by 6 percentage points for digital packages, confirming the high quality of the audiences we engaged.
Alli Brand Equity tied brand and business signals together in real time, giving the team continuous visibility into how the content-led strategy was moving both audience quality and subscription outcomes across every channel. Given these strong early results, we have revised our projections upward for subscription growth through the remainder of the year, positioning the strategy for continued success.
"The PMG team was invaluable in helping New Scientist redefine our digital marketing strategy. The results are a testament to the knowledge they impart and the passion and drive they have to support our needs."
James Nicholson, Head of Campaign Marketing, New Scientist
The PMG team was invaluable in helping New Scientist redefine our digital marketing strategy. The results are a testament to the knowledge they impart and the passion and drive they have to support our needs.
