The Challenge: For the past several years, the Museum has grappled with meeting its capital campaign goals while also providing in-depth educational and experiential programming for children and adults. Since 2014, the Museum has hosted its the My Music Matters: A Celebration of Legends Luncheon as its primary fundraiser to support its educational programs. Yet, with a new communications director, and less than one month from the event, the nonprofit had not appropriately publicized the event or kept its audiences up-to-date with the news surrounding the event. Moreover, it had not secured talent for its red carpet announcements or media to cover the event. The event had not sold a single ticket.
The Solution: We sprang into action, partnering with our beloved friends at MEPR Agency. In less than 24 hours, we developed a robust communication and outreach plan that blended media and influencer relations, as well as social media and e-mail marketing. We collaborated to develop graphics, set up an event web site, and begin creating custom content that not only showcased the event but also emphasized the purpose of it.
The Result: The results were phenomenal. The event was a sold out success. We also booked former 106 & Park host Miss Mykie to serve as the red carpet host. We managed all talent arrivals including those of Patti LaBelle, Kirk Franklin, Bobby Jones, and other performers and guests. We secured advanced media coverage as well as day-of coverage of the event from traditional media as well as social media influencers. As a direct result of our efforts, the Museum received the most media coverage from the event that it had ever experienced in its history, which netted 88 million media impressions from traditional media and blog outlets including Entertainment Tonight, Huffington Post, AP, Tennesseean, and many others.
Photo Credit: Emanuel Roland of Roland’s Photography
