PR practitioners with Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration and its agency, Cronin and Co., got a serious lesson in flexibility and determination when they scheduled
a key media event for the week of Sept. 11.
Museum administrators had long planned to unveil a show of historical artifacts called "Noah's Flood & Ancient Shipwrecks" during September. At the same time, they wanted
to build public awareness of the museum's recent merger with the Institute for Exploration, a research facility headed up by Dr. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreck of the
Titanic. The PR team put in place a campaign to draw media types to a major news conference on Sept. 15, 2001. Then came Sept. 11, and suddenly everything changed.
The Pitch, #1
Pre-Sept. 11, the public-relations team at Cronin was running a standard pre-launch campaign.
The new exhibit was to offer a look at two of Ballard's deep-sea archaeological expeditions in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Highlights included an elaborate replica of a
Phoenician ship, artifacts and footage both from Israel's ancient port of Ashkelon and the Black Sea Expeditions, which had earned honors as nothing less than the "Greatest
Discovery of 2000" from Scientific American.
Press materials highlighted the involvement of Ballard, who already had earned public renown as the explorer who found the Titanic. As one typical newspaper story stated: "The
aquarium is also home to Titanic explorer Robert Ballard's institute, and currently features a new exhibit on the search for evidence of the biblical Great Flood in the time of
Noah, called 'Noah's Flood & Ancient Shipwrecks'."
That's letter-perfect coverage from the PR team's point of view.
The Pitch, #2
Just prior to the planned mid-September press conference, things were chugging along nicely. In addition to the interest shown by the local media, the PR team had managed to
leverage Ballard's fame in order to draw interest from several national news outlets.
After Sept. 11 the PR pros pushed back the press conference to Sept. 25, and then decided to write off the national media outlets, instead focusing all their attention on the
effort to draw local and regional coverage. "All the national media was really tied up covering 9/11," says Patti Hoskin-Stern, SVP of public relations at Cronin.
In order to garner local attention, "We were very aggressive" in pursuing coverage, she says. "We were going after science editors, feature editors, education editors, many of
whom we already had relationships with. So we faxed and emailed, and then we followed up on the phone, right up to the last minute before the press conference."
In practically every media call, the PR team acknowledged up-front that writers and editors no doubt had other things on their mind. They kept calls brief and tried to focus on
the positive aspects of the story, explaining why readers and viewers would be interested in this exhibit, even in light of recent events.
"A good PR person always has to understand what is happening in the world and understand what the press is looking for. In a way this was no different from beginning every
press call by asking whether the person is on deadline," says Hoskin-Stern. "By trying to do our job in the midst of what we knew was a very difficult time, we actually formed
some really deep bonds" with journalists.
The Results
With a budget of just $12,000 the campaign generated over 3 million media impressions. The press conference drew participation from five regional television network affiliates
and the New England Cable News Network, which then resulted in at least eight segments on network affiliates and two segments on the New England Cable News Network.
The campaign also generated feature stories in seven daily newspapers, including a piece in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and a feature story on the front page of the "Life"
section of The Hartford Courant.
The campaign created a strong connection between the aquarium and the work of Ballard's institute.
That connection helped to place the exhibit opening as a news story, rather than a community happening, and thus helped bring the museum's efforts to the attention of a wider
audience. "It got beyond the science page and the fun-things-for-kids column," says Lisa Jaccoma, VP of public affairs at Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration.
Agency Stats Cronin & Co. Inc.
Founded: 1947
HQ: Glastonbury, Conn. with offices in Boston
Clients: McDonalds, Phoenix Home Life Insurance, Domain Home Furnishings, Northeast Utilities
Billings (2001): $65 million
Employees: 65
Staff on this campaign: SVP of PR Patti Stern, VP-Director of PR AnnMarie Kemp, AE Jeanne Corcoran, AAE Leigh Golden
Campaign Timeframe: August to September 2001
Budget: $12,000
(Contact: Patti Hoskin-Stern, 203/640-3762)