Natural Science Center of Greensboro

Campaign Overview

Prepared for Live Oak CommunicationsMay 2011

Overview of Campaign

Goal To improve the overall image and perception of the Natural Science

Center of Greensboro to the public by creating a promotional video and public service announcement, and re-designing the museum’s website and brochure.

To inform the public and current members of the museum about upcoming exhibits and attractions coming to the museum this summer

Strategies Create a 1 minute and 30 second promotional video, which highlights

the “three attractions in one destination” that the Natural Science Center of Greensboro has to offer, as well the exhibits that will be featured at the museum beginning this June. This video is intended to be published on NSCG’ website.

Create a 30 second public service announcement to be published on local television networks, and that is general enough to be used for a variety of purposes

Re-design the museum’s brochure to feature a brighter, more nature-like theme, and introduce the public to the museum’s upcoming exhibits and attractions

Re-design the museum’s website to incorporate a similar theme as the brochure, and to make it easier to navigate

Campaign Materials

Video

Promotional VideoTo publicize the museum’s image as an educational, enjoyable, family-friendly museum, NSCG asked the account team to create a 1:30 promotional video highlighting its main and upcoming attractions. The video, which will be published on the NSCG website, includes footage of the center’s three main attractions (the hands-on science museum and dinosaur gallery, The Animal Discovery Zoological Park and full-dome Omnisphere Theater), as well as still images of the three upcoming exhibits (HealthQuest, Extreme Weather Gallery and Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition). A young female voice and upbeat music were also used to supplement the footage and convey an upbeat and welcoming tone. The video is set up so that the second section, which features upcoming exhibits, can be easily updated after those exhibits open.

PSANSCG also requested that the account team create a 30-second public service announcement to complement the promotional video. The PSA also focused on the “three attractions in one destination” appeal of the museum, but gave a brief and less detailed overview of those attractions than the promotional video. Similar footage was used in both videos to create a cohesive feel for all filmed materials. The PSA does not feature the upcoming attractions because the client would like for it to be able to used for a variety of purposes without having to be updated as much. The PSA will air on local television networks beginning this summer.

PrintBrochure Re-DesignThe Natural Science Center of Greensboro asked Live Oak to take the information that was in their current brochure, expound upon it and come up with an original design that they can use for the upcoming years. The client specifically asked us to make the brochure as aesthetically pleasing as possible, incorporating a variety of photos and graphics, and keeping the amount of text as minimal as possible.

The content of the new is organized in a way to inform visitors of NSCG’s new attractions, renovations and exhibitions coming June 2011, while also highlighting the exhibits and educational opportunities that they already have to offer to the

public. The front of the new six-fold brochure features the same photo of the museum’s infamous meerkat that was featured on their old brochure. The first inside flap features information about the hands-on science museum and dinosaur gallery, the second flap details information about the Animal Discovery Zoological Park, and the third inside flap talks about the full-dome Omnisphere Theatre, and a list of shows that visitors can see. The fourth flap discusses opportunities for school groups, and introduces the new SciQuarium exhibit, which will be opening in June 2011. The inside of the updated brochure features a green, nature-esque color scheme, easy to read bullet points of the center’s features, and large eye-catching photographs of some of museum’s attractions and animals from the Zoological Park.

Online

Website Re-Design

As comparable to the brochure re-design, the Natural Science Center of Greensboro’s website has been updated to be more user-friendly and promote their current and new attractions. Overall, three website design templates were presented to the client with the final choice serving as a template, as NSCG has contracted out a third-party company to design the website. Nevertheless, the website design that Live Oak came up with will be heavily taken into consideration when this company prepares the final website for NSCG. With the clean and modern design, visitors can easily identify the “three attractions in one destination,” navigate through the website with drop-down menus, and access links to social media sites. Also, the promotional video that was produced for the client this semester will be featured on the new website, upon completion.

Results

The Natural Science Center of Greensboro has not yet launched its new website design or printed the re-designed brochures, so we are currently unable to measure the success of these two projects. Additionally, the promotional video will not be published until the website is complete, and the PSA will not begin airing until this summer. Nevertheless, we recommended that the client create a Youtube

account so that these two videos can be shown to the public, and their success can be measured through the number of views that they receive, the comments that users post on them.

Summary of Campaign

Over the past four months, the account and creative teams worked closely to produce four main projects for the Natural Science Center of Greensboro: a 1 minute and 30 second promotional video, a 30-second public service announcement, three re-designed website templates, and a re-designed brochure. The primary purpose of each of these projects was to increase public knowledge of what the museum has to offer to people of all ages, and to inform this same audience of the new attractions that will be coming to the museum beginning this June.

The first project that the team worked on was the promotional video, because the much of the footage from this video was used for the public service announcement. The video features lively, upbeat music and a young a female voice, to welcome parents, teachers, young adults and senior citizens to the museum. The theme of the video is that the museum has “three attractions in one destination” – a hands-on science museum, an Animal Discovery Zoological Park, and a full-dome Omnisphere Theatre, which features 3-D shows daily. At the end of the video, viewers are told that there are three new attractions coming to the museum this summer – Health Quest, the Extreme Weather Gallery, and Titanic: The Artifacts Exhibition.

The next project that the team worked on was the 30-second PSA. Almost all of the footage incorporated in this video was also featured in the promotional video; this was done on purpose so that viewers can create an automatic connection between the two. Additionally, the end of the PSA directs viewers to the Natural Science Center of Greensboro website for more information, which will soon feature the promotional video on its homepage. The PSA utilizes similar upbeat music, and the same voice from the promotional video, again, so viewers are reminded of what the promotional video presented. The client asked for the PSA to only be around 25 seconds long, so that when it is aired on local television networks, there are a few seconds for whoever is sponsoring the commercial to say so.

Throughout the semester, the creative team worked diligently on coming up with three website homepage templates that the client may use in the near future. The Natural Science Center of Greensboro hired a third-party website design company to create a new website for them, but asked for Live Oak to submit ideas that could potentially be used by this company when they redesign the website. The purpose of this re-design was to increase viewership by making it easier to navigate. The proposed designs by the creative team all incorporate the “three attractions in one destination” theme, similar to the website and promotional video, and allow space for the promotional video to be published.

The last project that the team worked on this semester was re-designing the brochure. The museum’s current brochure offers a wealth of information, but the client asked for Live Oak to synthesize this information in a briefer, more cohesive way, and to come up with an original and unique design that the museum can use for quite a long time. They did not have anything in particular in mind, and the creative team came up with a green, nature-like color scheme, featuring bulleted facts about what each of the three attractions has to offer, and large, cut-out photos from these exhibitions, as well as animals from the Zoological Park. The Natural Science Center of Greensboro will be in charge of printing and distributing these new brochures. The brochure and the website feature similar fonts and colors, so once again, the image of the Natural Science Center of Greensboro is very cohesive and memorable because similar patterns are incorporated into various outlets.

Ultimately, these four projects have helped the Natural Science Center of Greensboro to establish and solidify its image to the public, and will hopefully lead to increased membership and enthusiasm from residents in the Greensboro area and nearby neighborhoods.

Suggestions for upcoming semesters

Because the team focused on traditional media strategies this semester, NSCG could benefit from an increased focus on social media in the future. This would give the center more opportunities to connect with its existing client base, as well as connect with different audiences, such as college students and younger parents. Recommended tactics include:

Improve presence on Twitter to increase followers and promote news and events

Create Flickr account to showcase photographs taken by museum employees and visitors

Create Youtube page to show promotional video and PSA, as well as post video updates

Design an interactive calendar of events to add to new web design Consider weekly Facebook/email blasts to give current clients a “first

look” at new exhibits and happenings Reach out to local opinion leaders, such as “mommy bloggers,” and

encourage them to visit the museum and write about their experiences Add “Live Chat” to website (if resources allow) to allow visitors to ask

questions during museum hours – (inspired by New Jersey’s Liberty Science Center website)