Marketing Magic Turns Lackluster Event into Record-Breaking Success
Contents
The Story of "Spooky Science Saturday"
The Problem: Attendance Was Ghoulish
How We "Took It to the Next Level"
About the pilot marketing program
Scaring up a marketing plan
Digging up the resources
Lessons Learned
Arts organizations all over the country are struggling with a common issue–how to sustain and even build audiences. Many of them rely to a great extent on attendance income to support their organizations. This becomes an especially critical issue for the smaller arts organizations who don’t have a dedicated or experienced marketing staff. The following case story tells of one museum’s experience building marketing capacity on a shoestring. They attended a local training for nonprofits in marketing, and took the lessons from that training very seriously. The result? Read the story...
The Story of "Spooky Science Saturday"
By Michelle Frank,* president of Experience Counts, a search, executive transition services, and project management firm located in Battle Creek, Michigan.
The Problem: Attendance Was Ghoulish
The Kingman Museum's annual membership drive event just wasn't cutting it. Only 60 people had attended the natural history museum's last Halloween “Spooktacular” event.
Then, along came the opportunity to participate in a pilot capacity-building program called "Take It to the Next Level, Marketing Your Nonprofit." Museum CEO Sara Ann Briggs signed up. Using the marketing approach from this program, attendance at the 2007 membership event – retitled Spooky Science Saturday: Where Frankenstein Meets Einsten – was 1,087! The museum had a steady stream of visitors from the time the doors opened. Participants did science experiments, participated in demonstrations, and ate theme-related food. All around, the event was "frighteningly" successful.
I worked with Sara Ann on this project. Fieldstone Alliance asked me to tell the story of this remarkable transformation and summarize what we learned.
How We "Took It to the Next Level"
About the pilot marketing program
The NonProfit Alliance (NPA) in Battle Creek conducted an interest assessment with area nonprofits and found that many wanted to ratchet up their marketing skills.
NPA hired Fieldstone Alliance to develop a Core Competency Training Series with national marketing expert and author Gary J. Stern. The series began with a full-day “Demystifying Marketing for Nonprofits” workshop followed by an eight-week pilot program with five participating organizations. The pilot program provided in-depth coaching, online learning, and a concluding seminar tailored to the groups’ interests and needs. Here were the main elements:
- To enhance local capacity-building support, each participating nonprofit was matched with a local consultant with marketing skills, who in turn was coached by Gary.
- A kick-off orientation conference call was held in which the local nonprofit/coach teams confirmed the focus of their organization’s marketing project and were introduced to an online classroom.
- Four online discussion forums were facilitated by Gary with accompanying assignments on: Designing Marketing Research, Nonprofit Branding, Aligning the Marketing Mix, and Creating a Targeted Communications Plan.
- Individual feedback was posted online for assignments, ongoing “spot coaching” was provided by local consultants, and a one-hour individual coaching phone call with Gary was available.
- A full-day workshop led by Gary concluded the series with project presentations, exploration of the Board’s role in marketing, and specific marketing topics requested by participants during the course.
- The final step was a presentation to participants’ boards to help integrate new learning into organizational policy and practice.
From June 2007 through October 2007, I joined the online classroom and periodically assisted with marketing research, developing a marketing plan, creating communications tools, and connecting Kingman Museum to appropriate local resources.
Scaring up a marketing plan
Setting goals
In remaking the museum's former “Spooktacular” event, our goals were to:
- Attract 300 ethnically, racially, economically, and geographically diverse visitors within a four-hour event period
- Increase the number of partnerships and cross-marketing opportunities with other community groups to attract new audiences to this fun, family-friendly, interactive environment.
Each goal had a detailed action plan for how we were going to accomplish them. We also had goals in mind for volunteer engagement and ultimately membership recruitment, but our main focus in the marketing pilot project was event attendance.
We retooled the event as an “edu-taining,” quality program that would 1) showcase the physical sciences; 2) encourage future participation by community residents, businesses, educational groups, and nonprofit organizations in Kingman Museum programs as members, volunteers, sponsors, or donors; and 3) serve as a template for future museum special events.
Determining our approach
We came up with a variety of marketing methods and messages. These were evaluated against a marketing matrix.
We decided that our primary approach would be to market through deliberate, personal visits and phone calls to their circles of influence by Kingman Museum board, staff, volunteers, and members.
Our first step was to get these "sales reps" informed and excited. We engaged volunteers as Goblin Getters (team captains) to invite target audiences to the event as Frankenstein’s or Einstein’s Assistants. Sara Ann worked to attract sponsors through in-person visits, letters, and recognition incentives.
To back up the personal contact approach, a variety of general marketing outreach was also used such as posters, flyers, announcements, web site links, E-blasts, calendar postings, radio announcements and interviews, signage, print ads, and press releases. Numerous business, educational and nonprofit communities, and media resources were our outlets.
Digging up the resources
The event featured a variety of fun decorations, activities, and food. There were touchy feely boxes, a cool science exhibit (liquid nitrogen), a grossology exhibit (body fluids), a slime making activity, carnivorous plant feedings, and pumpkin punch with dry ice mist rising from it.
Support time
Collectively, staff and volunteers supported this event with a total of over 600 hours in planning and implementation. (Their involvement had the added benefit of strengthening their relationship with the Kingman Museum.)
Fifty volunteers helped as cookie bakers, presenters, gift bag assemblers, and general helpers. In addition, three artists designed, constructed, and installed a sophisticated, spooky Frankenstein’s Castle (volunteer time for this effort alone was over 360 hours).
Sara Ann, the museum staff, and I spent about thirty hours combined developing key messages and outlining and implementing the marketing plan. Sara Ann’s staff spent an additional five hours helping with direct marketing.
Expenses
The out-of-pocket expenses ran about $2,200 (radio and print ads were approximately $1,500 and printing and supplies cost $700). Other items were donated, underwritten, or borrowed. Next year the goal is to be fully underwritten by sponsors.
My consulting services were provided to the museum pro bono, as my participation included a stipend covered directly by the NonProfit Alliance through the capacity-building pilot.
Lessons Learned
Needless to say, we learned a lot from this process, much of which isn't earth-shattering. What really made our results stronger than the previous year was working our plan consistently and creatively.
Branding
1. Brand everything, so it is instantly recognizable as yours and furthers your cause.
2. Create a captivating theme and stick to it.
3. Agree on goals and how you will measure them.
4. Make the marketing partnerships and alliances solid, accountable, and mutually helpful.
Planning
5. Make the calendar or project timeline up front. Make someone accountable for moving it to the top of people’s minds on a regular basis. Keep everything “bite-sized.” That way everyone enjoys their morsel and wants more; you don’t burn them out.
6. Be pleasantly persistent with everyone in planning and implementing, and soliciting sponsorships. Even though people are busy, they usually want to participate, so make it easy for them. Use their time well, either as volunteers or participants.
7. Use technology. It’s fast and inexpensive, and the timing and distribution can be controlled on your end. Make sure you follow legal requirements, don’t spam, and take the time to get acquainted with what Web 2.0 (MySpace et al) can do for you.
Outreach and networking
8. Brainstorm and create a matrix of groups and individuals that may have even remote interest in what is happening – you might be happily surprised by their response. Have existing friends reach out to potential participants, volunteers, or sponsors, so that there is no such thing as a “cold” call, e-mail, or visit. Engage people and organizations to share their contacts and relationships. It’s good to have the “movers and shakers.” But it’s equally great to involve everyone that might have interest and know ten more people that might like to participate too.
9. Suggest to invitees that they bring others. If they “bring their own,” it adds to their enjoyment. Give them something physical to invite others with – an e-mail, a ticket, a coupon, a postcard.
10. Capture and use the contact data – we used a drawing for a free membership to the museum as a door prize to help capture addresses and follow-up with mailings.
11. Give participants something to go home with – a visible, interactive conversation piece or plaything that introduces the organization and event to others and invites them back.
After the event
12. Deliberately invite attendees, volunteers, and sponsors back at least three more times that year.
13. Verbally ask people to become members. If you don’t ASK, it may not happen.
14. Plan the next one! Start early. By the way, please join us at the Kingman Museum on Sat. Oct 25, 2008 for: Spooky Science Saturday…Cats and Bats and Spiders, Oh My!
Yes, it took a major effort to pull off this event. But in the end, it was worth it. Not only did we have the highest ever single day attendance at the museum, we solidified relationships with volunteers and other supporters, and raised the awareness of the museum thus laying the groundwork for future fundraising efforts.
Epilogue: Lessons abound in this story. Michelle highlighted some that are specific to building marketing savvy in nonprofit organizations. There are others that suggest what design features are needed to make training really stick. One-shot, one-day or shorter training programs are unlikely to really build capacity without focused preparation and follow-up support. Notice the features in this training series that build real commitment to changing practice.
Where to Learn More
Taking It To the Next Level marketing program
Gary J. Stern, President, Stern Consulting International
207-871-0774
gary@sterninternational.com
Spooky Science Saturday
Sara Ann Briggs, CEO, Kingman Museum
269-965-5117
sbriggs@kingmanmuseum.org
NonProfit Alliance
www.nonprofitalliance.org
Fieldstone Alliance
Fieldstone Alliance consulting staff developed the Core Competency Training Series for the NonProfit Alliance. The goal was to build the capacity of not only area nonprofits, but also locals consultants. That way, when the project was over area nonprofits would have a skilled set of consultants to work with and continue their learning. If you'd like to know more about our consulting services, please contact Sandy Jacobsen at 651.556.4510 or sjacobsen@FieldstoneAlliance.org.
Tools Used in the Program
Marketing Workbook Volume I: Develop the Plan by Gary J. Stern, published by Fieldstone Alliance
Marketing Workbook Volume II: Mobilize People for Marketing Success by Gary J. Stern, published by Fieldstone Alliance
Champions with a Cause: The Nonprofit Board Member’s Role in Marketing by Gary J. Stern, published by First Nonprofit Educational Foundation. To receive a complimentary copy, email Trish Shanahan at PShanahan@firstnonprofit.com
*Michelle Frank may be reached for comments or questions at expcounts@comcast.net
February 20, 2008
Copyright Fieldstone Alliance. For reprint permission, click here.