In assisting Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History with its new member-acquisition program, direct marketing agency Kobs Gregory Passavant, Chicago, will strive to convey the entertainment as well as educational value of the museum's exhibits.
“We will be appealing to both family groups and the intellectually curious,” said Kevin Leo, senior vice president and director of client services for KGP, noting that the agency was testing several different lists with its first test mailing that dropped at the end of February.
The museum's exhibits continue to get more entertaining and inventive, Leo said. A recent exhibit allowed children to sit in sand and dig for fossils to better understand archeological procedures. This summer, the museum will have an outdoor butterfly exhibit that visitors can walk through. It's these types of exhibits that the agency hopes to play up in mailings to prospects.
“We want to show that the Field Museum is not just intellectual, it's downright fun,” Leo said.
The first test mailing features Bill Kurtis, longtime newsman and hosts of specials on the Discovery Channel, encouraging prospects to join the museum. In a split test, the mailing offered some prospects a tote bag, which has been offered in the past, and others a geography trivia book as an incentive for joining. Results of the test were not yet available.
