Best of CASE District III Award
 

Institution: Duke University

Title of entry: Bookmark NC Series: Celebrating Health, Literacy and Arts

About this entry: The Duke Health Engagement Team worked with Excalibur Direct Marketing in Spring 2022 to gain a better understanding of our Duke Health Annual Giving donor motivations and interests through data insights to meet our donor engagement marketing objectives.

Our digital and print marketing objectives include: Engaging community across the NC Triangle; promoting brand awareness; and increasing impact and visibility for Duke Health and philanthropy, as well as NC Triangle-based artists, community presence and community partnerships.

Excalibur Direct Marketing cross-referenced donor information with lifestyle details from third-party data sources for Duke Health Annual Giving donors during the last five fiscal years.
The data revealed the following:
1) “Books Reading” ranked in the Top 5 of lifestyle interests for our Annual Giving donors.
2) 88% of our Duke Health Fund Annual Giving donors live within 30 miles of Durham.

These data insights sparked an innovative marketing campaign: “Bookmark NC Series: Celebrating Health, Literacy and Arts”. This free, limited-edition printed bookmark series, featuring artwork by NC Triangle-based artists, met our marketing objectives, engaged donor interests, and increased brand visibility.

We distributed the series in person to 200+ places across the NC Triangle; partnered with Durham Library Fest; and included the series as a premium in our Spring mailer to Duke Health Fund donors. Analyzing data from QR codes, a Qualtrics survey found that 81% of respondents were interested in learning more about ways to make NC a healthier community and 88% of respondents were non-Duke donors; both big wins in reaching our objectives.