Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge

Raising the bar for online legal research

Introducing J.D.s to AI

Thomson Reuters has been the leader in online legal research for decades, arming legal professionals with the information and insights they need to succeed. The company pulled even further ahead in 2019 with the addition of advanced artificial intelligence to its flagship Westlaw Edge service. The new feature, named Quick Check, wasn’t just an upgrade — it advanced legal research to a whole new level, and Thomson Reuters needed a strong digital campaign to drive awareness and adoption.

Thomson Reuters engaged SCHERMER to develop a demand-gen program in the U.S. targeting small and mid-sized law firms to drive adoption of Westlaw Edge. The program needed to communicate the benefits of Quick Check and build awareness of the new feature among the target audiences, while evolving the existing look of the successful Westlaw Edge marketing campaign to better differentiate the product from the competition.

A new level of confidence for legal professionals

We studied previous campaign insights and existing audience research, conducted SME interviews, met with internal channel owners and spoke with both existing buyers and prospects.

Our interviews told us that the audience rarely felt 100% confident that their legal research turned up everything they needed to make a strong case. Now, with Quick Check, they could be more confident than ever that they weren’t missing key rulings and insights. The difference it made to legal professionals was so significant that it inspired a dynamic, distinctive and versatile launch campaign declaring, “Legal research will never be the same.”

The campaign drew from the existing look and feel of Westlaw Edge marketing, a simple and futuristic concept that we pushed further to develop a visual language unique to the legal industry. We employed the powerfully precise shape of the hexagon as a key design element, suggesting both the power of AI and the idea of connecting many points of data into a cohesive legal case. Along with photography depicting legal professionals ready to embrace the future, this visual element formed the basis of the Westlaw Edge design language moving forward.

Teaming up with Thomson Reuters

The initial SCHERMER assignment was to establish the new campaign creative concept for the announcement of Quick Check, along with a recommended media flight plan. Upon approval, the concept was taken in-house at Thomson Reuters for execution.

The Thomson Reuters internal team used the approved creative concept as a foundation and springboard into developing new assets, including paid social ads, banner ads, videos, infographics, campaign landing page, as well as high-value content such as articles and white papers. The partnership worked seamlessly and showed how SCHERMER can work with internal client teams to produce exceptional work together.

Optimizing our strategy to surpass the goal

The Westlaw Edge Quick Check campaign officially launched in mid-July 2019 with an aggressive Marketing Qualified Lead goal. One month after launch, though the campaign was well-received in the marketplace, the leads were not projecting to hit the goal – so SCHERMER went to work. With campaign optimization recommendations including an updated targeting strategy and content and spend optimizations, we kicked the campaign into high gear and significantly outperformed the original MQL goal.

Not only did we exceed our traffic and lead goals for the campaign effort, but the leads generated from our campaign resulted in real pipeline value and deals won – giving us a boost we needed for a successful year.

Melissa Howe
Director, Campaign Planning

The verdict is in – an unqualified success

This program far exceeded the goal of Marketing Qualified Leads that was set forth. In fact, within the Thomson Reuters Legal business unit, this was one of their most successful campaigns of 2019.

By November, we exceeded our aggressive traffic goals by 133%, and our even more aggressive Qualified Lead goals by 15%. These leads translated to 17% of the go-to-market sales in H2 2019 – which was a substantial portion of the year’s success for Thomson Reuters.

Pointing the way to what’s next

The evolution to the campaign, from strategy to execution, gave Westlaw Edge a new way to stand out in the marketplace. And our messaging, channel, and platform optimizations produced impactful results faster than anticipated. Our work with Thomson Reuters had a significant impact on their business and gave them a solid framework to build from moving forward.