Company Finds The Right Chemistry In High School Road Tour
It's rare that a chemical manufacturer garners glowing media coverage -- especially for a company that has been historically linked to unpopular causes and even recent front-page litigation concerning one of its products.
But that's exactly what The Dow Chemical Company [DOW] did beginning in 1994, by taking a musical show about chemistry on tour into middle and high schools across the country. (The tour just ended in July.)
And if being linked to the Vietnam war (as one of several producers of napalm and Agent Orange) and to recent breast implant litigation (its subsidiary, Dow Corning Corp., was found negligent Aug. 18 in a class-action lawsuit brought by 1,800 women in New Orleans) wasn't enough of a PR challenge for Dow Chemical's PR firm, Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide/Washington D.C., Dow's tour, dubbed "ChemiPalooza," would take place in public schools -- just as the corporate presence in the classroom began to attract a great deal of negative media scrutiny in the national press.
But the 100-year-old company, which recorded sales of $20 billion last year, conceived and executed the tour primarily as a way to pump up kids' interest in chemistry, and devoted more than $2 million to create it. But its ancillary goal, corporate visibility, was also attained.
Dow wisely chose to leave no obvious corporate trail in its wake -- except for educational CD-ROMs, activity booklets and a video -- sustaining its corporate visibility in a way that suggested generosity and genuine concern for students.
"ChemiPalooza is about science education," says Mike Boyle, account executive, Ketchum. "It's not about students seeing the Dow diamond [the company logo]." Indeed, the company logo never appeared in the schools or as part of the show.
The Midland-Mich.-based company, known for manufacturing plastics and chemicals for industrial clients, as well as its DowBrands consumer products line, created a live, theater-style show with professional actors, dancing, music and interactive components that had kids -- and educators -- apparently rocking in their seats. It also had reporters turning out in significant number to write glowing stories on how Dow was revitalizing chemistry education.
The tour, known as "ChemiPalooza," visited more than 150 cities since 1994 and entertained over 200,000 students. The show was performed for free.
Media coverage from more than 650 print and broadcast outlets included The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Atlanta Journal/Constitution, and ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox television affiliates nationwide.
"We really had two goals," says Doug Draper, director of external communications at Dow. "We wanted to increase the enrollment in chemistry classes, and we wanted to show the importance of chemistry in everyday life."
Dow hired L.A.-based producer/writer/director Jim Bates to provide the entertainment components of the show, and worked closely with the American Chemical Society and groups of high schools teachers to create the educational content.
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Tips for Road Tours
1. Do extensive research. Know your market and what you want to say to them.
2. Be organized. Have lots of good communication set up between tour stops. 3. Make sure actors or performers have media training before they leave. 4. To sustain visibility, don't forget to leave something about your client or your company behind. Source: PR NEWS |
The 50-minute show used young professional actors, opera and rock music, and an interactive game show format in a fast-paced in-your-face look at facts and concepts related to chemistry.
"We got their attention right away," says Kristen Patterson, tour manager for ChemiPalooza. "When the kids heard the music, they said, these people are hip."
The media thought so too. Wherever the tour went, the media was sure to follow -- to the tune of 9.5 million media impressions just for the fall '96-spring '97 tour alone.
And, much to the relief of Dow and Ketchum, reporters did not link Dow Corning's litigation with ChemiPalooza -- even when the tour played in a school in Louisiana at the same time a breast implant-related case was being fought in that same city.
"Were we prepared for questions by the medialinking the two?" asks Boyle. "Yes. We had to be. Did we ever get any questions? No."
In 1996, Dow created 10,000 CD-ROMs, 30,000 activity books and 25,000 videos, all available for free to any school or teacher that requested them. Dow has so far given away several thousand CD-ROMs, 27,000 activity books and 25,000 videos. That strategy helped Dow to continue to maintain a corporate visibility in a very useful and low-key way after the show was over -- and also suggested new approaches to the media.
"Previously, Ketchum targeted education, science and feature reporters," says Doyle. "With the CD-ROM, we were able to offer the story to technology reporters, which took us to new markets."
Additionally, an audio cassette containing musical segments from the show were a perfect way to pitch radio stations, says Doyle.
"It was the type of show that was phenomenal for radio," he says. "We would send radio stations a tape of hits from the show so they could play it while leading in to the story." According to Doyle, the story was covered extensively on radio, though Ketchum did not track the coverage.
The company is now considering mounting a more elaborate traveling show that may contain hands-on experiments for students to interact with. (Doug Draper, Dow Chemical Company, 517/636-1000; Tom Donnelly, 202/835-8835; Mike Boyle, Ketchum Public Relations, 202/835-8847; Kristen Patterson, 805/498-0327)