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ART OF THE MOTORCYCLE

Case Study

THE ART OF THE MOTORCYCLE RIDE STOPS TRAFFIC IN CHICAGO

SITUATION

The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition opened its U.S. tour at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.   It was an instant hit with the public and received kudos from the national media.   Its next stop on the tour was Chicago’s Field Museum, where management was concerned at a possible backlash from the media for their decision to feature a show that radically departed from their mission as a natural history museum.   However, the Field Museum chose this exhibition in order to “shake things up” by offering an exhibition that would attract new audiences from both local and regional markets.

SOLUTION

Our PR goals in bringing this exhibition to Chicago was three-fold:   1)   we needed to create a major opening event, one that would attract major media attention (particularly TV), 2) the event should reflect the exhibition’s underlying message of “ freedom of the open road”  and 3) attract both a mainstream audience, one that enjoys admiring motorcycles for their artistic and cultural value, as well as appealing to  a new museum audience - -  people who are committed to riding as a lifestyle as well as the men and women who consider themselves weekend warriors and can be found on country roads on any given Sunday heading for breakfast and shop talk with other bikers.   Although a “Biker Ball” was held on Friday night as a fundraiser, the major media event centered around a motorcycle ride that began with a rally at dawn at Montrose Harbor for one thousand participating riders.  Before lining up in position for the seven-mile ride to the Museum, the riders signed in, consumed donuts and coffee on a crisp but sunny Saturday morning in November and met other riders.   Field Museum president John turned into what a cool, inventive idea it was that the Museum brought this historic collection of bikes McCarter was joined by sponsor Sam Zell in leading the kick-off of the ride.   PR initiated the assistance of the City of Chicago in shutting down Lake Shore Drive in order to stop traffic for the duration of the ride.  The media were invited to mount their cameras on an open-back truck that preceded the riders.   Cameras mounted on the roof of the Museum captured the final stretch of the ride providing a spectacular view of the massive number of riders.   Local sports and entertainment celebrities participated and provided additional interview opportunities that brought status to the event and the exhibition.       

We conducted a grass-roots PR campaign through the internet with bikers from all across the Midwest and western states and communicated that the Museum was bike-friendly, cutting our parking rates in half for visitors who rode their bike to the exhibit.   We attended local bike rallies, speaking about the exhibit, conducting drawings and passing out discounted coupons.    It is clear that we broke new ground with this exhibition by letting the public know that the Museum was interested in exploring all cultures and from now on we were not limiting our museum offerings to natural history.

RESULTS