One of the best things a creative public relations firm can do is to turn somewhat boring news into something the media will want to cover. Here’s a case study in creativity from INK on the work we did to get media coverage for the SEA LIFE Aquarium water fill event.
The SEA LIFE Aquarium was a new attraction coming to Kansas City in mid-2012. One of the milestone events was the day they first started putting water into the 260,000 gallons of tanks. It was a big event, but one that was kind of anticlimactic visually speaking. They turn on a faucet, the water starts slowly filling the tank. Not exactly earth-shattering stuff.
But that’s where a creative public relations firm can help to create the news.
Creating a Visual PR Event
Rather than have the first water going into the main tank be just regular water, we decided it would be fun to use water from a couple of iconic Kansas City institutions. Kansas City sits right on the Missouri River. Kansas City is also known as the City of Fountains, with more than 200 registered fountains in the metropolitan area. Our idea was to use water from the Missouri River and from a Kansas City fountain to kick off the water fill event.
We recruited some local kids to help with the project and even shot video of them scooping water from the river and a fountain into SEA LIFE Aquarium branded buckets. Then we invited local media (particularly TV) to come capture the event. We turned a simple turning of the faucet into a big, visual event that paid homage to Kansas City’s uniqueness and history.
Coverage Results for the SEA Life Aquarium Campaign
The results speak for themselves. Every local TV station did multiple stories on the event. The Kansas City Star covered it as well. Many outlets used the footage we provided of the kids scooping water out of the river and fountain.
Those stories made up more than 600 local stories INK secured for SEA LIFE Aquarium and LEGOLAND Discovery Center during their construction and grand opening. To learn more about our creative public relations approach with these clients, check out our case study on the INK website.
