User Analysis and Audience Development for Zeum at Yerba Buena Gardens
Greg Kwangrog Kim, the PhiloDesign, USA
Tiffany Rosenberg, Zeum at Yerba Buena Gardens, USA
http://www.zeum.org
Zeum was founded in 1998 with much fanfare are the flagship cultural institution in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens development, which had been in the works for more than 20 years. The construction of the building and programming took priority over the process of identifying and grooming of an audience. In 2004, Zeum asked Turner & Associates to approach their marketing in a holistic sense. They knew that they needed to reach out in a different way than they had before, and they wanted the Web site to be central to their efforts.
The first step was to identify a desired constituency and understand their existing perceptions of Zeum and the Web site. The demographic was explored through secondary research, including an evaluation of trends and media that children and teens consume. During initial exploration of the rebranding, Turner & Associates planned and executed primary research. Three sets of focus groups were conducted with different age groups. Participants ranged from members of Zeum, as well as those who had little familiarity with the institution.
The results suggested that different aspects of Zeum's programming was appealing to different age groups. However, the existing marketing effort and Web site did not speak to them or reflect the fun and creativity offered by Zeum. They also learned that Zeum was not present throughout the City in the way that other institutions were, therefore, Zeum was not top-of-mind for many kids.
Based on what we learned, it was clear that the budget they had would be insufficient to roll out a rebranding on the scale required. Turner and Zeum jointly secured a sizable grant from SAPPI "Ideas that Matter." This was used to fund offline branding that would drive traffic online.
The composition of the traffic to the Web site changed after the campaign was launched. This took some analysis to really understand. The result allowed us to see that there was a 50% increase in traffic to the home page of the Web site, and reduction of false traffic that would not result in new members or visitors.
Demonstration: Demonstrations - 2 [Close-Up]
Keywords: Children, Teens, Hands-on, Audience, e-Branding, California
