3 minute read
Guerrilla Marketing: The MAX’s Make Your Mark Campaign
Mark Tullos (President/CEO) and Kasey Mosley (Youth Educator), Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX), Meridian, Mississippi
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All museums have been struggling to rebound from the setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Certainly, one of the most significant losses over the past two years has been the absence of children’s voices in our galleries.
One strategy that the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX) has launched is our “Make your Mark” campaign. This internal effort has proven to be an effective way to reach teachers and school counselors where the real decisions about field trips take root. We conducted this campaign in February of 2020 and saw our field trip calendar populated to capacity. Those bookings fell away due to coronavirus closings and restrictions. We relaunched the campaign in March 2022 to welcome schools back to our museum.
We created printed collateral including a letter of invitation (authored by a significant artist, in our case, it was Cheryl Henson from the Jim Henson Foundation), a flyer illustrating the field trip experience, and a door hanger advertising our free teacher admission policy. We identified public and private schools, as well as homeschool co-ops, in a five-county region for our campaign. We acquired data on the number of teachers at each school and prepared bundles of collateral for each school.
On the week of the campaign, each museum staff member signed up to visit particular schools and districts. We rented a car to be used for the week and staff members reserved the car to make deliveries in a way that fit their schedule. We encouraged staff members to go in teams of two. Everyone participated, including our Museum President!
Here is an example of our Make Your Mark Campaign instructions:
• Call the school the day before you go to let them know you will be coming and approximately what time you should arrive. Ask about their visitor policies
and verify where you will need to enter. Please wear a mask, as that is our MAX employee policy. • Ask to speak to the counselor. Counselors are usually the ones who have their fingers on the pulse of the students’ and teachers’ needs. If one is not available, a principal, assistant principal, another administrator, or even the school secretary will suffice. • Introduce yourself and explain that you are from The
MAX and ask if they know about us. If not, briefly explain and invite them for a visit! • Make sure you include that educators get free admission with their teacher IDs. • Tell them that the Make Your Mark Campaign is designed to let the schools know what we have to offer here for their students. Then, talk up field trips! • Give them: • A packet of door hangers and ask to have someone at the school (student worker, for example) put them on classroom doors
• A packet with envelopes with various information to distribute to teachers (either in their classrooms via student workers or in their boxes in the staff room) • Ask if they have any questions. Answer them as best you can. Give them our scheduler’s business card in case they have further questions. • Thank them for their time and head to the next place!
In this challenging time, we all need big wins not only for meeting mission but for staff and stakeholder morale. The Make Your Mark campaign is not only an effective direct marketing tactic but it left our staff feeling united and with a sense of real accomplishment. When the school buses pull up, we cannot help but think, “We did this together!”
The Columbus Museum | Columbus, Georgia
A THOUGHTFUL APPROACH TO EXHIBIT DESIGN + INTERPRETATION
703 + 246 + 9241 www.thedesignminds.com
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