Pop quiz: Who was our first president? Who wrote the "Star Spangled Banner"? Who were the contenders in the Civil War? And from what country did America win its independence as
a result of the Revolutionary War?
Easy stuff, right? Not so, according to a survey conducted among American teenagers by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and its agency, Eisner Petrou and Associates, in the
summer of 2001. These questions are considered fourth grade history basics. But according to the survey of more than 1,000 teens ages 12 to 17, 14 percent thought the United
States gained its independence from France, 11 percent thought John Adams wrote our national anthem, and only 76 percent knew the North and the South fought the Civil War.
These disturbing statistics became the basis of a sweeping campaign designed to spark a dialogue about history education - and draw attention to Colonial Williamsburg's
educational mission.
Survey Says ...
Tourist visits to Colonial Williamsburg were markedly low in July 2000. So, in 2001, the Foundation approached Eisner Petrou and Associates with a challenge: Increase visitors
and attention to the historic spot. The agency, along with the foundation, decided to focus its efforts on adults over the age of 18. Surveys had been an effective vehicle for
getting press for the foundation in the past, and the potent patriotic combination of July 4, 2001 (the nation's 225th birthday) and Colonial Williamsburg offered the perfect
opportunity to create a survey based on U.S. history. The survey results would then be leveraged as a tool to gain coverage for the fun, educational opportunities available in
Williamsburg.
"Our principle challenge was one that we face every day," says Tim Andrews, director of PR for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. "We have to get a very fast-paced,
distracted American public to stop and think about and appreciate our nation's history and what the nation itself stands for today. The second part is our role as an educational
institution to elevate the level of dialogue about history education. We felt if we could connect with kids and get kids, their parents and the media engaged in an active
dialogue, we would raise awareness not only of Williamsburg, but of the importance of history."
The foundation and Eisner Petrou and Associates set three objectives for the campaign:
- Increase ticket sales by 5 percent over July 2000;
- Create a dialogue about history among the public that would be measured by an increase in editorials;
- Increase July 2001 traffic to the http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org site by 25 percent.
Working with education experts, the team devised a set of 10 questions based on fourth grade-level history. Caravan Opinion Research conducted the national telephone poll of
more than 1,000 teenagers.
The team then used the results to develop key message points for foundation execs and to create press teasers and releases, a VNR and an ANR.
The team designed a press teaser with a copy of the Declaration of Independence and a quill pen with a note reading, "Would teenagers know the purpose of this document?" The
teaser warned reporters that results of the survey were forthcoming, and it was sent to 50 editorial writers at major newspapers across the country, as well as other media
outlets, a week in advance of the release.
Eisner Petrou and Associates blitzed the media on Monday, July 2, with the press release, the VNR and the ANR.
Historic Results
Despite the fact that there were two other major Fourth of July-related stories (the 225th birthday celebration in Philadelphia and the last showing of the Declaration of
Independence at the National Archives in Washington), the Williamsburg campaign was a tremendous success. Media impressions totaled 314 million, with hits on CNN Headline News,
Fox News Channel, NPR, AP, CBS Evening News and CBS Early Show, a CNN live broadcast from Colonial Williamsburg on July 4th, and an interactive quiz on ABCNews.com challenging
visitors to the same questions teenagers answered.
The foundation saw a 9 percent increase in ticket sales over July 2000, and 43 editorials resulted from the survey, a dramatic increase over the six written in 2000. Plus, site
traffic was up a whopping 174 percent over the previous year. "It was a homerun no matter how you look at it," Andrews says. A year later, the foundation is still receiving calls
from media and educators regarding the results of the survey.
(Contact: Andrews, 757/220-7265)
Case Study
Campaign Stats:
Timeframe: Study was conducted May-June 2001; media relations implementation took place June-July 2001.
Budget: The massive effort, including Eisner Petrou's counsel, conducting the survey, producing the ANR and VNR and distributing those and other media materials, was
accomplished on a tiny $60,000 budget.
"This was a huge challenge on a practical, tactical level to do an extremely ambitious, provocative and compelling initiative using very limited funding," says Andrews.
Patriotic Penny Pinching
The VNR included shots of Williamsburg's sights and attractions, which were not only key to getting broadcast coverage, but also a cost-saver for the PR team: "We didn't have a
lot of money to do fancy bells and whistles," says Lisa Miles, VP with Eisner Petrou and Associates, "so the majority of the VNR was stock footage the foundation already had."
The team did do one day of shooting in Colonial Williamsburg, creating "kids-on-the-street" interviews using the same fourth grade trivia. The interviews - sadly - validated
the results of the survey, but they provided high impact visuals for the VNR.
(Contact: Miles, 410/843-3096)