In its first campaign for the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore since landing the account in October, Baltimore?s Leffler Agency is saying that the firm?s work has already made a significant impact on attendance at the longtime Baltimore institution.
During the zoo?s opening weekend, Heather Sable, an agency spokeswoman, said the zoo saw attendance of more than 21,000 people, compared with attendance of only 2,600 for the opening weekend in 2005.
Alyson Weinstein, the agency?s director of media and account services, said that a major focus of the campaign will be a year-round focus on events at the zoo, while the remainder of the media will center on branding. Campaign spending is expected to be between $300,000 and $350,000 annually.
“It?s a full media campaign, with broadcast and cable television, radio, print and outdoor,” Weinstein said. “Outdoor is the one thing that we have to do consistently throughout the year. The rest of our advertising is directed toward events. We?re working with the marketing department at the zoo to create targeted advertising to drive admission for those events.”
According to Richard Pretl, Leffler?s creative director, the campaign is tagged “New at the Zoo,” and that part of the branding initiative focuses on raising awareness of new exhibits at the zoo as well as the zoo name change from the Baltimore Zoo to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
“It used to be called the Baltimore Zoo, and we needed to just get the name out there to build awareness with the families that are our target audience,” Pretl said. “The major overall strategy of ?New at the Zoo? is, it?s not the same old zoo [that people] know from their childhood. They have new exhibits, and they?re really changing things around. They?ve gotten away from the old animals in cages thing. Now the animals are exhibited in more natural environments.”
Bill Etter, the agency creative director handling the zoo account, said that he designed the ads to be simplistic so as not to distract the consumer from the overall messaging.
“We wanted something simple, clean and eye-catching that will pull you in,” he said.
CONTACT THE AGENCY
» The Leffler Agency
2607 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
» 410-235-5661
» www.leffleragency.com
