The Field Museum: Case study

Credits & Description:

Brand THE FIELD MUSEUM
Entrant ENGAGE & RESONATE CHICAGO
ENGAGE & RESONATE Chicago, USA Entrant Company
LEO BURNETT CHICAGO Chicago, USA Idea Creation
ENGAGE & RESONATE Chicago, USA Production
Mark Tutssel Leo Burnett Chicago Executive Chairman & Global CCO
Britt Nolan Leo Burnett Chicago CCO
Carlos Murad Leo Burnett Chicago Creative Director
Pete Lefebvre Leo Burnett Chicago Creative Director
Julio D’Alfonso Leo Burnett Chicago Creative/Writer
Luis Marques Leo Burnett Chicago Creative/Art Director
Travis Klausmeier Leo Burnett Chicago Creative/Writer
Chrissy Bruzek Leo Burnett Chicago Script Writer
Anthony Brooks Leo Burnett Chicago Script Writer
Austin Paramore Leo Burnett Chicago Script Writer
Juan Woodbury Leo Burnett Chicago SVP/Executive Producer
Luke Crawford Leo Burnett Chicago Associate Producer
John Havemann Leo Burnett Chicago Producer Designer
Jon LeVert Leo Burnett Chicago Editor
Bryan Casallo Leo Burnett Chicago Production Intern
Josephine Tse Leo Burnett Chicago Production Intern
Peggy Walter Leo Burnett Chicago VP of Celebrity Services
Alina Carrel Leo Burnett Chicago Celebrity Services Associate
Chris Clark Leo Burnett Chicago Director of Music
Alec Stern Leo Burnett Chicago Senior Music Producer
Jocelyn Brown Leo Burnett Chicago Senior Music Producer
Rodrigo Cantalejo Leo Burnett Chicago Motion Designer
Amy Tyszkiewicz Leo Burnett Chicago Associate Producer
Sarah Paulsen Leo Burnett Chicago SVP/Account Director
Monica Stahl Leo Burnett Chicago Account Supervisor
Sasvi Alam Leo Burnett Chicago Senior Account Executive
Kevin Brown Leo Burnett Chicago Creative Resource Director
Andrew Connell Engage & Resonate CEO
Jessica Rae Engage & Resonate Director of Strategy & Integration
Chris Andrew Stoptime Live Videographer
Entry Summary
With no shortage of talent, Chicago has cemented its reputation as America’s comedy mecca with names like Bill Murray, Tina Fey, and Steve Carell. We wanted to tap into Chicagoans’ innate ability to be funny, to draw them back to the Field Museum.
Brief Explanation
To get local Chicagoans engaged with the Field Museum, we made them part of it.
After writing monologues for every specimen in the exhibition, we built a mobile recording booth (with live professional voiceover coaching) and took it to the four corners of Chicago. At each stop, we asked people to get in the booth, read a script and, using their voice, bring a specimen to life.
The best performances became the official voice of the specimen in the exhibition. Chosen participants could hear themselves, or their friends and family, inside the exhibition via an audio guide tour. All voices became part of the museum’s permanent collection, creating a perpetual bond between the Field Museum and the people of Chicago.
Synopsis
Considered one of the most important natural history museums in the world, Chicago’s Field Museum wanted to promote its new exhibition “Specimens: Unlocking the Secrets of Life” to increase attendance. Another broader goal was to engage people living in and around Chicago with the Field Museum – which represented only a fraction of the total of visitors – and start to create a more durable relationship with this specific audience. But although the exhibition gathered a selection of the most interesting specimens in the museum, it wasn’t interactive or different enough to bring back Chicago residents who have already visited the museum once in their lives.
Strategy
The primary audience was local Chicagoans across the city, a group whose relationship with the Field had lapsed. To reintroduce the Museum, and get people thinking about coming in, we thought it best to go to them first.
Previously, in the museum people saw only dead things. But by making the specimens stories more entertaining and enlisting locals to voice these stories, it brought the specimens to life in a way that locals were invested in. People love talking animals, like Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob. We thought by taking a page from that playbook, could make our specimens more endearing.
Then, by putting locals in the permanent collection, we created a perpetual bond between Chicagoans and the museum. People could relate to the place more because they were now physically inside it.
Relevancy
Specimen Monologues turned the Field Museum’s specimens into animated characters, similar to Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob. Local Chicagoans auditioned to become the voice of each, with the best rendition earning “the part." We used this extensive local hidden talent to breathe new and exciting life into otherwise lifeless objects.
Outcome
With only one recording booth, over 4,000 people have participated over the course of 4 weeks, even waiting up to an hour for their turn to read a monologue. More than 200 minutes of audio content was added to the exhibit. The museum had 129,490 incremental visits, increasing local attendance by 21%. For the first time in years, locals saw the rebirth of their relationship with the Field Museum. The museum has plans to extend the activation beyond the exhibition, who was up until January 2018, inviting the public to give their voice to the entire collection of specimens.
Execution
With the help of Field Museum scientists, monologues were written for every specimen in the exhibition. Like Pixar characters, each was given an interesting personality and back-story.
With scripts in hand, we built a mobile recording booth and traveled around Chicago, north, south, east, and west, for two weeks. At each stop, locals were invited to read a script, give their voice to a specimen, and bring them to life.
The best performances were given “the part” of their specific specimen and included in the exhibition audio tour over its six-month run. All voices were made part of the permanent collection, building a connection with locals that was both physical and perpetual.
The collected audio content was also used to amplify the idea on social, alerting everyone to look for the booth and inviting them to participate.
Campaign Description
The specimens in the Field Museum’s latest exhibition had a lot of interesting stories to share with visitors. But since it’s hard to engage with something that’s dead, we enlisted the city’s help to give naturally historic specimens voice, bringing them to life.