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CASE STUDIES
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Birthday
Celebration
Case Study
The following case study
represents a project Pat Kremer and Carolyn Jacobs worked on during
their employment at a Chicago natural history museum.
SITUATION
Museum management wanted to
increase attendance in January (a traditionally slow month), reach members
of Chicago’s African-American community and dominate the media coverage over
competing MLK events in all local and regional print, TV and radio coverage
in the days preceding the event as well as throughout the four-day weekend
celebration.
SOLUTION
Setting the Stage: We
invited actor and singer
Kevin McIlvaine, who is known throughout the U.S.
and Europe for his enthralling portrayals of Dr. King. McIlvaine’s
performances combine the intensity of King’s words with the power of gospel
music. We also brought Chicago's
Metropolitan Apostolic Community
Church Choir to join McIlvaine, round out the hour-long performance and augment
his recitations of King’s speeches.
Speaking to the Community:
We sent personal letters to the pastors of Chicagoland community churches and encouraged them
to talk about this unique opportunity as part of their Sunday sermon. We
supplied them with flyers to post and distribute to members of their
congregations. We also targeted the leaders of organized groups such as
the Chicago Boys and Girls Clubs. We invited Cliff Kelley, a popular radio talk
show host on both
WVON and
WVAZ, to MC the event because of his devoted
following of radio listeners.
Capitalizing on Sponsor
Participation: Ariel Capital Management, an investment firm whose
management was interested in bringing attention to their educational
mission, sponsored the event. We worked with the sponsor to showcase their
pet project - - the teachers and students from Ariel Academy - - and
inviting them to participate in the media preview for the event.
Communicating to the Masses:
Ads were placed in the
Chicago Daily Defender,
Chicago Sun-Times,
WVON and
the
WVAZ.
New releases were sent to
Chicago’s mainstream media outlets as well as African American newspapers
and radio stations. Typically public programs were always presented in a
theater on the museum’s ground floor, far from the main hall. We made a
controversial decision to hold the event in the
Museum’s main hall, sending a message to visitors that this event was to be
shared by everyone who entered the museum.
RESULTS
The event kicked off with a
front-page (above the fold) article in the
Chicago
Tribune entitled
With King’s Words and Voice, Performer Relives His Dream, written by
Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter William Mullen.
Chicago Sun-Times
also ran a front-page article with an image of McIlvaine. All major
dailies and weeklies ran extensive articles, allowing us to reach both
readers of African American and mainstream publications.
N'Digo,
Chicago Reader,
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Sun-Times, and the
Time Out
devoted prominent space to the event. The electronic coverage was also
outstanding. All broadcast TV stations began covering the event on
Thursday with the media preview.
The coverage continued for five
consecutive days as part of the evening news on all seven TV stations
(CBS2,
NBC5,
ABC7,
WGN9,
WTTW,
Fox &
CLTV) with interviews with McIlvaine and
the museum president. Radio coverage included extensive
coverage by WVON talk show host Cliff Kelley who served as MC for the
event due to his devoted following of radio listeners.
WGN Radio aired the
program in its entirety and
WGN's John Williams also interviewed McIlvaine on his afternoon show. WGN is a leader in Chicago’s radio
market.
We exceeded expectations by “owning” the event in the media,
including competing with events held by City officials featuring Senator Obama. The buzz attracted more than 17,000 visitors, an increase of more
than 43% over the previous year’s attendance. Placing the event in the
main hall proved to contribute to the event’s success. In addition to the
visitors who filled the main, there was a “sea of people” who
enjoyed the performance from the balcony that surrounds the Great Hall. It
was also most rewarding to learn that most attendees at the event were
first-time visitors to the museum.
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