San Francisco Zoo & Gardens

CLIENT:

San Francisco Zoo & Gardens

PROJECT:

Radio

CHALLENGE:

The nearly 100-year-old Zoo had no existing creative brand standards, style guide, or creative assets aside from the Zoo logo. Nor did it have any existing messaging, marketing strategy. My task was to drive attendance for the third annual Sunset Fridays, an eight-week summer concert series at the San Francisco Zoo & Gardens.

The pre-existing media buy was limited, as was the production budget. The bigger issue was the media buy itself because it wasn’t based on current, unbiased consumer market research. I led the Creative Strategy, Creative Direction, Copywriting and Editing.

Production wise, I closely collaborated with and co-produced the campaign with an external production company. Unlike the Zoo’s previous radio campaigns for this event, we used song clips from the performing bands instead of the royalty free music. We recorded the animal sounds live at the Zoo to represent the animals that attendees would have access to during the shows.

We also introduced unique URLS for each radio station and streaming platform to drive better understanding of where the traffic was coming from. Previously there were no metrics or tracking methodology.

Another obstacle to driving attendance was the weather. Unlike the rest of the United States, summers are famously foggy, windy, and chilly in San Francisco. The San Francisco Zoo is across the street from the beach making it one of the coldest, windiest places in the city. examples of positive conservation efforts.

RESULTS:

A fresh, fun, and memorable branded broadcast campaign that didn’t sound like instantly forgettable spots that clutter the airwaves. Introducing unique URL trackers helped us understand which stations performed best. But only to a point. Because the pre-existing media plan wasn’t based on data or unbiased consumer market research.

Sadly, this was a missed opportunity to connect with our target audience and drive sales. Streaming platforms like Spotify and targeted podcasts would have performed far better. Overall attendance was flat over the previous year.

The bottom line is no matter how terrific a brand campaign is executed, without a well-researched and thoughtful media strategy and plan. I was successful in persuading the Zoo to cancel the remainder of its radio media spend, saving 25% of the entire 2024-2025 media budget, preventing further waste.