Making warm memories in the cold winter
Philadelphia Zoo
The pachyderm-sized problem that Masterminds was challenged with was to encourage people to visit the Philadelphia Zoo during the cold and dreary Philadelphia winter. We needed to create awareness that the zoo is open all winter AND show people that it’s worth going out for in the cold. Oh, and we had to conquer this challenge with virtually no budget.
We knew that people loved the zoo and that many of them were repeat visitors (just like us). So we started with a cold weather visit in search of some insight—a trip that quickly turned into an eye-opening experience for us all. To our surprise, exploring the zoo at this time of year gave us a glimpse into an interesting and unique place that was different than the zoo we (thought we) knew so well from previous summer visits.
The exotic animals were more lively than we’d ever seen them before—and seeing them was much easier since that other species, humans, seemed to be greatly diminished in number. We realized that winter zoo visitors have an opportunity to see things they might never have had a chance to see during warmer months. It’s a very different experience that provides people with a chance to linger, look closer and discover something they’d never notice in the hubbub of summer. Something unique. Something unusual. Something that, just maybe, they’d never forget.
Armed with this key insight, we launched a campaign that employed non-traditional tactics – including coffee sleeves and clings to be placed on car windows along busy streets – in addition to more traditional mass-media-like billboards. Each encouraged viewers to look closer and discover something hidden—in plain sight. Just like that winter zoo experience, people that took the time to slow down and look closer at our campaign were rewarded with a unique and memorable feeling. And as for the zoo, well, it was rewarded with an influx of inquisitive winter visitors—much to the delight of its year-round residents.