Sharks Go Wild At John G. Shedd Aquarium "Wild Reef" Exhibit Opening

With a limited budget and high expectations for opening its largest, most expensive exhibit ever, the Shedd Aquarium knew that its success would rely on effective public relations to build anticipationand excitement for the opening of Wild Reef in April 2003. The $48 million underground exhibit not only featured an eye-to-eye look at reef aquatic life, but it brought to Chicago two dozen sharks.

Communications planning began in early 2002 for Wild Reef and started with market research that identified five key audiences and the messages to which they would be likely to respond. For example, Young Urban Explorers would respond to messages that the exhibit was "the newest thing" and wasn't just for families or kids, while Fun-Loving Suburbanites want to get up close to the animals and need activities with kid-friendly features.

In addition, the Aquarium identified a sixth audience. Chicago has a vital Filipino community, which would take a keen interest in this exhibit, since it re-creates a Philippine island and the surrounding coral reefs. Through interviews and secondary research, team members learned about this community, especially its opinion leaders and media outlets, to build awareness about the opening of Wild Reef.

Using the marketing research, the communication team prepared a 12-month media plan starting in April 2002, culminating with the exhibit's opening on April 15, 2003 and continuing into the summer. Throughout the campaign, the communication team worked closely with the aquarium's animal care and facilities staffs to identify several key story opportunities in the year leading up to the exhibit opening.

The key objectives established for the campaign were to 1) increase the awareness among local residents and tourists by 20 percent that Wild Reef was opening in April, 2) to raise annual attendance by 10 percent, and 3) to expand annual membership revenue for 2003 by 8 percent and to garner a 1 percent return on direct mail. Because of limited advertising dollars, the public relations team was charged with generating a "buzz" about the exhibit to carrying the public awareness.

Although the exhibit featured a life around a coral reef, the communications strategy centered on featuring the sharks. Although nearly 1 million animals are in the exhibit (if you count the coral), the sharks were what captured people's imaginations and interested. Media materials and story pitches focused heavily on the sharks. To ensure as much favorable exposure as possible, the outreach started one year before the opening date with a tour of the empty shark tank that is three stories tall. Starting media outreach early helped position Wild Reef as the major "must-see" in Chicago.

Throughout the construction of the exhibit, Shedd and PCI worked with the animal care and facilities staffs at the aquarium and pitched an average of one story every month during the last six months before the exhibit opened. The resulting news stories served as periodic media previews to build excitement in prospective visitors for the opening.

In addition, to gauge the effect that the impending war in Iraq was having on national television news, Shedd and PCI made some initial "soft soundings" to producers with the national television networks to evaluate the chances of landing a feature story on Wild Reef. As a result of these calls, it was determined that the best strategy to deal with the impending war in Iraq was to minimize national TV public relations efforts early on, but to start targeting the national TV network morning shows after the war had been fought and the initial aftermath had subdued.

The communication team created a second, more elaborate media kit on CD-ROM, which was sent out to all target media three months before the opening.

By partnering with Borders bookstores, Wild Reef displays were featured in the front windows of Borders stores in Chicago. Closer to opening day, radio promotions were initiated which included free Wild Reef tickets as part of the prize package.

In a unique promotional tactic, the aquarium created huge artificial shark fins and anchored them to the outside dome atop their building, which is visible from downtown Chicago. They also appeared at various locations in the aquarium. In addition, aquarium employees and volunteers wore a shark fin on the back of their uniforms. One employee even threw an honorary pitch at Wrigley Field with the shark fin on his back.

Opening day festivities included a performance by a dance troupe of Filipino children, who performed traditional Filipino dances. The Mayor of Chicago and dozens of city and state dignitaries attended the opening ceremonies, along with 250 children from Chicago Public Schools. Guests received Wild Reef pins, which they enjoyed trading and collecting.

After the opening, when the media furor over the Iraq war had largely subsided, the communication team offered NBC's "Today" show an exclusive story on one of the signature animals featured in Wild Reef. The four-minute story aired on "Weekend Today" on September 13.

PCI proved that no one could withstand the awesome power of sharks! Due to the early and widespread interest created by the aquarium's strategic communication plan, the aquarium surpassed each of its communications objectives:

1) To increase the awareness of local residents and tourists by 20 percent that Wild Reef was opening in April. In baseline research taken in January and February 2003, 35 percent of local residents and tourists surveyed knew that the new exhibit was opening later that year. When follow-up research was taken in April, 62 percent knew the exhibit was opening. This surpassed the aquarium's awareness objective by 27 percent.

2) To increase annual attendance by 10 percent. Through December 31, 2003, almost 2.1 million guests visited Shedd, exceeding actual attendance from the same time last year by 22 percent. To put this in context, Shedd's 2003 attendance 400,000 people ahead of the second-place aquarium in the country and at least 600,000 people ahead of the second-place cultural institution in Chicago.

3) To increase annual membership revenue for 2003 by 8 percent and garner a 1 percent return on direct mail. To date, Shedd Aquarium's membership department reported that they nearly doubled the number of member households, have achieved a revenue increase of 66 percent (from $1.85 projected to $2.8 actual in hand), and have had a 2 percent response to direct mail. (National return average is between .4 - .6%.)

Shedd's communication department credits the aggressive public relations campaign with its success. Media relations secured more than 877 placements from April 2002 through August 2003, reaching an estimated audience of more than 150 million. National, regional and local placements were secured in all major media outlets and the Wild Reef exhibit helped Shedd Aquarium set new attendance records in 2003, becoming the most-visited cultural attraction in the Midwest and the best-attended aquarium in the United States.