Performance Counts: Promotions, Marketing, Paul Simon, and the Museum
In today’s Performance Counts we ask the question, “how do you get noticed”? Well, if you’re a presidential candidate you probably just say something outrageous, but if you’re a small gem of a Museum in Jonestown it calls for a different strategy. This month you might have seen our name attached to a familiar rock star’s face on a circulator bus or noticed a 30 foot inflatable guitar on the top of our building. You might have seen an AP story that’s making the rounds (the Jewish Museum of Maryland covered in Idaho?) or looked at www.weather.com this morning and seen a top story from WBAL: “Baltimore museum hosts Paul Simon exhibit.” You might have even seen something on the front page of yesterday’s Baltimore Sun about our involvement in working with Historic Jonestown.
You might think this is all just good fortune (and we’d be the first to be thankful for all our good luck). But it’s easier to be lucky when we have a talented team putting our name forward. Our success to date, and we strongly suspect there is more to come, is based on a combination of four forces – our in-house marketing team (mainly Tracie and Rachel), our colleagues at The Associated, our partners at Visit Baltimore, and our ambassadors on the JMM Board, especially our “ambassador-in-chief”, Board President Duke Zimmerman. Thanks to this dynamite combo we have already taken more than 300 invitations to opening weekend events and we have already substantially raised our institution’s visibility. I have asked Rachel to share some highlights of what’s already happened and what’s in store.
~Marvin Pinkert
How do you get noticed? As Marvin mentioned above: hard work, great partners, and yes: luck. As the marketing manager here at the Museum those three tenets are a bit of a mantra for me. It’s been very exciting behind the scenes for the last few months as we’ve tried to figure out the best way to capitalize on the broad appeal and “cool factor” that is Paul Simon: Words and Music. Happily, I think we’re already showing some real signs of success with organic coverage:
A cover story in the Baltimore Jewish Times – plus we especially enjoyed last week’s “MishMash” question on favorite Paul Simon songs!
A travel story in the New York Times online (Special thanks go out to Visit Baltimore for this one!)
A sneak peek tour with WBAL
Even an Associated Press story that has indeed been picked up as far away as Idaho and Florida (and in plenty of places around town – including the Washington Post)!
Marvin has also been interviewed on WJFF and will be appearing live on air with Tom Hall this Monday at 9:15am (so be sure to tune your radio to WYPR 88.1).
In addition to organic coverage we’ve lined up quite a bit of traditional advertising and promotion to further our reach including:
Television campaigns with WMAR/ABC2, Maryland Public Television, and Fox 45
Radio campaigns with WTMD, 100.7 The Bay, and WAMU
Print campaigns with Baltimore City Paper and the Baltimore Sun, the Jewish Times, Overture Magazine, Baltimore Magazine, and the Ravens Yearbook
And our partners at Visit Baltimore donated additional print coverage in AARP magazine and regional travel magazines in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and the Shenandoah Valley, as well as featuring the exhibit in recent editions of their e-newsletter “Baltimore Buzz,” and on their blog with a special entry from Marvin.
My personal favorite part of marketing has to be the social media piece – that is, the materials we create and post on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tumblr. The fast pace and often irreverent attitude embraced by the user groups that populate these platforms make them the perfect environment for playful, often experimental work promoting our programs and exhibits.
For Paul Simon: Words and Music, one particularly cool thing we created is a series of “lip synch videos” to various Paul Simon songs. These short clips star JMM staff members and some very energetic summer interns. You can view the videos we’ve posted already here and there will be more to come! You can also follow along with all our Paul Simon related-tweetings by following the hashtag #PaulSimonBaltimore – you can even use this tag to share your own photos and thoughts with us and we’ll re-tweet our favorites!
As Marvin mentioned above, we’ve also been delighted with the coverage from the Jonestown Brand Unveiling, held on October 1st here at the Museum. Reporters from the Baltimore Jewish Times, Baltimore Sun, the Daily Record, and the Baltimore Business Journal attended the event which featured the Mayor, Jonestown State Delegates Luke Clippinger and Brooke Lierman, and the President of Historic Jonestown Inc, Lindsay Thompson. You can read their articles at the links below!
Jewish Times: http://jewishtimes.com/41013/a-neighborhood-revitalized/news/
Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-jonestown-branding-20151007-story.html
Daily Record: http://thedailyrecord.com/2015/10/05/jonestown-seeks-to-boost-recognition/
Baltimore Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/real-estate/2015/10/jonestown-leaders-want-development-plan-that-will.html
So now that you’ve noticed us – why not share with your friends and family? Forward our e-newsletters, send links to our blog posts, or just check-in on your phone when you come to visit! Every little bit helps when it comes to catching the public’s eye.