Chemical Heritage Foundation

ELISE first came on board with the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) in late winter 2008 to help with the Grand Opening of its new museum and conference center, in a renovated nineteenth-century bank building. Our brand positioning for CHF’s expansion project and permanent exhibition, Making Modernity; marketing partnerships; and earned media campaign led to approximately 50 million media impressions during the museum opening alone.

Approach

ELISE started our work with CHF by conducting an internal brand positioning and messaging session with approximately a dozen CHF staff to help develop the language and messaging for its new space and exhibition. We also created an earned media strategy that incorporated social media initiatives, including a blog, to help share the story about the progress of the museum’s construction as well as build anticipation for the unveiling of the exhibit. ELISE arranged advance hardhat tours with bloggers and shared their posts with traditional media outlets to help drive coverage. We developed media kits that complemented the branding of the new exhibit. And, we introduced CHF to several local tourism and marketing organizations. Our intention was to leverage our local coverage to gain national attention for this unique center—opening to the general public for the first time.

RESULTS

In 2008, ELISE secured national and local media coverage: highlights included favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal and The Philadelphia Inquirer; several radio interviews; placement in a summer fun guide in WHERE Magazine; and a local Associated Press story that ran nationally.

Nearly 500 people attended the CHF Museum’s Grand Opening—double the anticipated attendance. Many of the guests indicated that they had read or heard about CHF through ELISE’s efforts. We also held a private press preview the day before the Grand Opening to offer key media a chance to meet stakeholders in the project, including Ralph Appelbaum of Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the interpretative museum design firm, and Peter Saylor of SaylorGregg Architects.

And, one year later in fall 2009, ELISE was at it again: 400 people attended CHF’s one-year anniversary party after learning that our partnership with Tria Café would include a fermentation conversation and tasting. For this event, we recommended the purchase of on-air ads on WHYY and WRTI during drive time to augment our earned media efforts.

We are still working with the Chemical Heritage Foundation to help shape and publicize its public programming as well as plan for the International Year of Chemistry in 2011.