You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast. Conversations on how nonprofit attractions
are increasing attendance and sharing their missions through marketing. Your hosts are
Ryan Dick and Jenny Williams of Attend Media.
Jenny, today spotlight episode, Shawna Brumfield, Washington, director of marketing and communications
at Riverbank’s Zoo in Garden. I think what’s cool about Shawna is she’s kind of like
a newbie to the zoo space, right? She, her background, she worked 10 plus years with the
city. She’s only taken this director of marketing communications role for the last year.
So she’s bringing some fresh ideas to the table. What are we going to talk about today?
Yeah, I think, you know, Shawna is gracious to share kind of a deep dive into a new initiative
that she brought to the table at Riverbank Zoo in Garden. And it’s really kind of this
zoo wide social media meeting that she’s hosting and getting by and from all departments
at the zoo. And I think this is something that a lot of people talk about, right? How do
we represent all the departments? Everyone has something to say, the horticulture team,
the, you know, like Shawna will share the public safety department, right? Everyone has
something to say. So how do we make sure that we’re representing all these different department
departments to really kind of share our story to the public? So we’re going to dive into
how they’re, you know, using this, this monthly kind of meeting to get more content overall
for their social media channels. And then get more approval and buy in from everybody,
making sure that everybody feels good about the content that Riverbank is putting out in
social. And then lastly, really kind of building more advocacy. So a lot of stuff to dive into
today. She shares a lot of details about how exactly this is all working and we can jump
it to it.
Shawna, thanks so much for making the time to be on our podcast. I’m so excited to be here.
Thank you for having me. All right, Shawna. So you have a pretty interesting background.
You’ve been with Riverbank Zoo and Garden for about a year now, right? Why don’t you share
a little bit about how you got there and your story?
Absolutely. It’s funny because anytime people ask you how you got from one place to the
next, there’s this story that I love to tell going all the way back to when I was an undergrad
because I don’t think I’ve had a career other than Riverbank’s or my degree actually made
since. So I actually went to Columbia College and I got a biology degree and around my junior
year, I had taken an art class and I was taking actually an English course and both of the professors
in those courses were like, you should be an English teacher and the art teacher is like,
you should go to art school and I was like, I don’t know, maybe. And so I just remember
calling my parents and again, junior year. And I said, you know, hey, mom and dad, I think
I want to change my major to art or something with art or something with English. And
rest of you, my mom was just like the funniest woman on this planet and she goes, I’m sorry.
If you like to continue on with that degree, you’re probably going to have to cover that
yourself and I can hear my dad being like in the background, like such an enabling, like,
it’s okay, honey, we’ll figure it out. I graduated with that biology degree, did not change my major,
proceeded as she requested. And I immediately, when I got out of school, I wasn’t sure if I wanted
to go into school again, like starting my master’s right away. So I got a job and it worked for
like the 4 to 500 tech company doing like customer service, did not enjoy that very much, but learned
a lot about corporate straight out of school. So just like the structure around like being on time,
certain things of how they do processes and procedures that was super helpful. And I left there and I went
into retail management and I did that for a couple years and I lucked up and Wells Fargo was hiring
for people who had retail management backgrounds. And I thought it was just this crazy idea that they
would actually take someone out of like a retail store environment and want them to be in a branch
manager role. But I was like, hey, if they’re crazy enough to do this, I’m crazy enough to apply. So
I did branch manager for about three to four years and then I went to the internal side of the bank
and I did training. So we trained the people, if you’ve ever been in a branch and you hear the
teller call and they’re like, hey, I need help on this account. They’re calling people who used to
work on the team that I helped train. And so that was a really cool job. Talked me a lot just about,
even math was not my favorite subject. So it’s very amusing to me that I got this job in the bank,
but apparently calculators do really great magic and they do all the things for you. So that
worked out well. And then I found out about working in city government. And so I found out a job
listing for city of Columbia and it was like an event coordinator type of role, a little bit of PR
because I had always loved writing. It was kind of a perfect mix of I get to be hands on, do some
event planning, but also I get to do the writing. And so I started that role probably 2012. And
from there, I mean, the next five years it was like insane. Just skyrocket into all these different
opportunities. I had about two or three different promotions and when I ended up leaving that role,
I was the public relations manager and I had been tapped by our local police chief at the time.
And he wanted to start a media relations office for the police department, which was super cool. And
so it was like kind of setting up this new role, new piece, not part of law enforcement,
traditionally. And I became the marketing communications manager for them. And so as first person
that role got to really carve out a lot of the things I wanted to do, focusing on a lot of the
recruitment, humanizing the stories of officers telling their stories from a different perspective.
And I did that for about five years. And so at that point, I was like, let’s try something new. Let’s
see what else is out there. And I applied for a job with one of our insurance companies is based out
of Chattanooga. So global company actually is like a huge reach and they were amazing. And I
thought, hey, I like this, but I kind of miss the autonomy. If you go in a corporate environment,
you kind of take some of that away. And that was the only piece that was just kind of like it kept
nagging at me. And a girlfriend of mine had mentioned River Banks is hiring. And I think you’d be
perfect for it. And I was like, River Banks, like, are you sure? Because they never have openings for
something that I did. I would look, trust me, but they never have openings for anything I did. And at
the time, my son was in a program at River Banks. And I was coming here every Saturday to bring him.
So I was like, really absorbing the culture from the standpoint of a guest, right? Coming in, I’m
seeing how he’s doing. He’s loving it. I as a parent love that he’s loving it. And so when she
mentioned it, they had it. I was like, okay, I’m gonna fly and see what happens. And it turned out to be
the best experience ever. And so the interview was about three different sessions I met with who is
my now manager. And then I met with what I did know at the time would be my future team. And then
I met with the RC Sweet Staff and a couple of other leadership members. And this was like a all-day
interview, which was super cool. They bring you in early. You get to tour the zoo before they open.
You talk through all the different ideas and thoughts. And what they’re hoping this thing would be
if you were to get this role. And this was right around Christmas of ’23. And I just remember
leaving the interview being like, I’m gonna be so disappointed if I don’t get this job. Like I just knew
it was gonna be such a good fit. And I got the offer Christmas EV. And I thought it was the best
Christmas present ever. And I started the job the day after my birthday. So it was just like a very
nice rotation of like kicking off the year, just being super invested in, you know, everybody’s at that
point where they’re kind of resetting. I’m already naturally having the reset because of my birthday.
And then also I get to start fresh with this new thing where I’m starting from the beginning of
what the year is gonna look like. And so I really get to see every single piece of the role. So
that’s how I got here. I took a biology class and I landed at River Banks.
Jenny, see this is why I like doing this podcast is like we get to hear people’s stories. We’ve had
like life or zoo aquarium garden museum people on here. We’ve had I got a biology degree and worked
in retail in a bank and then this is crazy path. So it’s really cool. All right. So yeah, one of the
big reasons why we wanted to have Yon Shana was you’re not a lifer. Like this is a you’re a year
into this role at a zoo. Like first of all, tell us about a day in the life. Tell us about your team
but I am kind of intrigued to know, you know, what do you learn in what what what do you from the
outside looking at? But first tell us about like what does a day look like for you? Oh yeah, I wish there
was like a typical day I could describe, but of course working in a zoo and also previously working
at that police department was very helpful in me being here and being acclimated to all of the
different things that can happen throughout a day. I will start kind of with my team because I think
that’s super important because that’s a big part of my day. I have currently four different managers
and four different areas that report under me and so I have a public relations manager. So we do all
of the comms external community based stuff and then we have a creative services manager and she has
one direct report and they handle all the graphics and that is all encompassing and I’ll get into
that in a minute. Well how many other things are a part of that that I wasn’t aware of until I started
working here? I also have an event operations manager who oversees all of our signature events
and then I have a marketing manager who also oversees social with the events manager. There are three
direct reports so combined with direct and indirect about eight employees and what that looks like
is the reason my day isn’t typical is because any one of them could have something that requires
more attention one day than the next and so again being at the beginning of the year planning ahead
doing all of this 2025 planning as well as fiscal year planning. A day could be we’re having our weekly
team meeting which is great. Love to do that. We have one every single Tuesday and that was actually
the same day I used to have when I was at the insurance company and it was almost like it was
built into me like Tuesdays are the best days because I’ll Monday sometimes you have holidays
and people take off so Tuesdays are a better day so that everybody will be here more than likely
and we can touch base and so typically Tuesdays we kind of do a rundown of what’s going on with your
list how can I help support that and then the following day I typically do a one on one with each of them
to get a little bit of a deeper dive and so right now we’re working on a couple of cool projects we
have a new attraction called Saludas Guyride is opening this fall and so we’re all hands on deck
because that’s part of our larger initiative for each of the wild and then with our events team
we’re working on all of our signature events that are coming up for quarter one and so that looks
like sitting down doing logistics with multiple teams you know how is the animal team impacted by
this if we have to do an after hours event which animals are not titled that may be out which ones
aren’t that may be in and kind of just sending the stage for what’s appropriate for that
and then also with the marketing and social team essentially making sure that we are doing all
that we can with of course organic social and I will say we work I’m very likely to work with an
agency who helps us with our paid social and so that helps tremendously with our ads paid social
as well and making sure that anything that we’re doing in-houses then amplified and going back to that
graphics person we spent a lot of time together I love my graphics manager they do so many interesting
and different projects all the time today we were talking about doing a wrap for the elevator last
week we were talking about doing new signage for the salua sky ride and then we were talking through
what’s going to be on our digital board that’s right outside our front gates and then we’re talking
about an interpretive signs so there’s literally something every day that needs to be review checked
updated and we’re 50 years old as of last year so we’re talking about things that have been in place
for over 50 years that we’re having to continue to look at that infrastructure and what things need to
be changed so you’re like new to the zoo space like give us like what’s like the one or two things that
coming in from the outside is like kind of been a surprise for you I would say one of the biggest
surprises especially coming from a private sector back into public sector zoos as a whole zoos
aquariums the whole shebang they help each other and support each other in ways I have never seen
an indie industry one of my first experiences was probably even doing my orientation I remember
talking to our HR person and they were like I just got the phone with you know another zoo and I was
telling them where we got our badges made and which company to use and you know which file type it
was and which font and everything I was just like standing there kind of in my mouth I was
like what you told them all these things that’s not like a trade secret and they’re like no we want
everyone to succeed in this industry and that was just such a welcoming spirit to come into an
environment where like it wasn’t just something they were saying because it sounded good it was
truly something in action and I have seen that continuously over the last year every single time
you see something somewhere else you can pick up the phone you can send an email and people respond
immediately like they all want to help you do the best version of what we do every day and I just
think that’s super inspiring and I just wish that that was something that could be carried over into
other industries and if not necessarily industries but like individual teams within these other
industries where people can see like the support system and it’s not competitive we’re all here
for the same common goal what else was surprising probably was for me coming into this space and
learning a little bit more about how we share information about our animals for us in particular
River Banks we have a lot of aging animals and so the messaging is very particular and making
sure that we’re trying to educate our guests a little bit more around that piece and so we have
had a couple of chances you know early on where I was able to kind of observe how we message things
why we message them certain ways and then I think there’s a difference in how we message
something on social media versus how we message something through an interview process and so just
being able to see like what the process was that they had been using of course me me me I offered
some tips that I thought could be helpful in that process but mostly this year has been a lot of
me having the chance to observe and I really respect the fact that they’ve given me that space and
there was not an expectation coming in you know like I want you to come in and change x-line C it was
very much this open see what we’re doing and then because you’ve observed it then you can make that
assessment about where there are opportunities or where there are things that are working really
well and we continue doing those things and so that those are the two things I would think this
stood out the most I feel like if there’s somebody not in the industry listening to you say all
this thing say would be like I want to work in that industry it’s pretty cool yeah one of the things I
do think is super helpful though that has changed kind of the way that I do certain things at work
I’ve found this author named Donna McGeorge I found her I can’t remember what podcast I was listening to
and she was talking about her book the first two hours and it intrigued me because she was saying
that a lot of times we all regardless of what industry you and we’re starting our day looking at
emails and it’s not necessarily the most productive way and a lot of times you get bogged down in emails
and so her suggestion was for the first two hours you don’t do emails you have essentially office
hours you check your things that you had set out the night before so like every evening I make kind
of a to-do list to look at in the morning and so in the morning I come in I check my to-do list
and whether those priorities but also because I get the pleasure of being in person with my team I do
kind of a lap around our building and I say you know all of the good morning pleasantries and I
realize everybody is not a morning person and everyone’s not extroverted and believe it or not I’m
not super extroverted but I think it’s essential to have that face time and say how are you you know
how was your evening and just kind of check in and get a pulse of what they have going on because
that’s going to determine how I interact with them for the day and what things are prior to it and so
if you haven’t ever heard of Don McGeorge I highly recommend her book the first two hours she also has
another book called the 25-minute meeting that one’s a little bit more controversial but I perfectly
enjoy the 25-minute meeting it’s more it’s more about if your meeting consistently that you don’t
necessarily have to schedule out an hour every time you meet you should have a rotation in place where
I’m touching I’m having these touch points because you often enough that we could jump in for
this 25 minutes get it done and keep it moving so those those are two books that I would say
regardless again of the industry that are super helpful and have really changed the dynamic of how
I start my day and it makes me more productive.
You’re listening to the Marketing Attractions podcast conversations on how non-profit attractions
are increasing attendance and sharing their mission through marketing your hosts are Ryan Dick and
Jenny Williams of attend media attend media is a media planning and buying agency specializing in
zoos aquariums gardens and museums for more information please visit attend.media now back to Ryan and Jenny
well let’s dive into kind of one big initiative that you brought into River Banks
zoo and garden now that you’ve been there for about a year. You were sharing some information with us
about this kind of zoo wide social media marketing meeting that you’re doing and really kind of how
it’s helping you one bring all the departments together giving everyone a say but then
too really building out your social calendar and I think this is probably a hot topic for everybody
how do we give every team a say in our social media channels and make it effective right?
So maybe share with us the the good the bad where you started and where you’re at now with this
social media marketing meeting that you’ve led? Absolutely so what’s interesting about us and I think
some other teams can probably relate when I mentioned our marketing manager also does social
we fully recognize that those are two separate roles however we do not currently have a social
media manager and he has our current marketing manager has graciously stepped up to help us with
social and so he and I are refers to us as a team of one and a half he’s doing a lot more of the
heavy lifting and I’m kind of coming in and making the enhancements at the end and it works for us
really well however because this is now a secondary portion of both of our jobs it becomes a little
bit more daunting from the standpoint of making sure we have the right content and making sure that
we’re hitting those target audiences on all of our platforms and so one of the first changes that
I suggested was having us find the right type of software that was going to make it a little bit
easier for him from managing the social and so we looked at a bunch of stuff and we landed on Hootsuite
and one of the reasons we chose Hootsuite was because it included the employee advocacy tool
and they call theirs Amplify but essentially it’s a tool where you can have staff go in they have
this content management system they can pull down the content and re-share it i.e. amplifying your
message and for us to build out Hootsuite and also include the employee advocacy tool within it one of
the other benefits of kind of the cross-departmental relationships that we’re building is we were able
to work with our people and culture team to help share the burden of the cost of part of that and then
when we talked about what that looked like for the rest of us bringing our staff in initially we’re
talking through we could kind of hand pick people but then it became a well you probably wouldn’t get
everybody from every department if you start hand picking i’ve only been here a year probably
only going to hand pick a small group that i actually know interact with so i have the opportunity
while we were kind of talking through what this could look like i went to our ASEA conference in
Calgary and i attended a session where someone had mentioned that they did ZUI meetings and I was
like oh that would be amazing for us because we’re relatively small organization and so I felt like
opening it up ZUI would give us opportunity to tap into all these different departments that I
normally wouldn’t have cross-pass with on a regular day and so what happened was we came back and I met
with our COO and she mentioned that she had been doing round round tables with staff and social media
kept coming up and so it was very interesting that like the alignment of me going to the conference
and in her having these conversations and it seemed to be just a commonality around an interest
in social and one of the things that we’ll say having a support system in your workplace is huge
and so when we had this first meeting I sent out a survey to kind of assess where people thought we
were with social I was just kind of opening myself up I was being very vulnerable and letting us
put our you know put our feelings aside like how are we doing or how do you think we’re doing or
what could we be doing better and that feedback was interesting to say the least and but the one
thing I can say the feedback did it change what I was putting in our deck to share for that meeting
and then when I met with our COO one of the things that she did to support us in having the meeting was come
and she actually opened and welcomed our meeting and she gets some really good points about you know
like they’re being open and they want your feedback but let’s be kind and when we’re sharing what
we’re all working towards because I’m sure y’all don’t want Shawna and Greg to come down to the
Rhinon Barn and tell you you know what you should be doing so you shouldn’t necessarily come to
the social media meeting and tell them exactly what they should be doing this should be a collaboration
and so that set the tone for the meeting and one of the things that came out of that meeting was that
what we had been doing wasn’t really working and so by that I mean when we were asking for the content
we had an email set up and we had tried a form you know just like an online submission form and it
wasn’t resonating with the staff and so they were like I want to be able to send my video to you
and I want my videos to be posted how do we make that happen and so we got to have those conversations
around what we have this lovely tool called amplify and this is going to be super helpful because
we can take that content we can get the background information about what the relevance is and then
you can post it we can post it it actually 25 other people over here can post it too it’s amazing
and so having that dialogue we wouldn’t have been able to do that without having the Zy-Wah meeting
and so as a result of that we got two or three other things that have come out of it that were
actually right now working on putting into place and one of those was keeper chat sometimes you have
keepers who are on site at certain times a day where we might have more guest or less guest depending
on you know the busyness of their schedule and so if a guest was at a station and they couldn’t see
what was going on necessarily like our side mangs make a lot of noise in the morning for instance
if someone comes up and the side mang are out how can someone still find out about what’s going on
well we were going to do QR codes and we’re going to do keeper chats but those same keeper chats
we can actually repurpose and use on social and so now we’re getting a two for one we’re getting
stuff that doesn’t have a shelf life I mean it’s like amazing to think through like what that could
look like each one of our exhibits as we go through and that tied into some of the things that
we’ll probably talk about when we get into more of the what cultural attractions shouldn’t
be doing I think it’s really important to think through more ways that we can engage with guests
and it doesn’t always have to be an individual standing there because there’s opportunities
with just especially with technology that we can tap into so okay break this down for me just
a little bit more this amplify feature within who sweet you’re encouraging your employees to
post it on like on their personal social pages yeah absolutely okay so the way it works um this is
a pretty common tool again this is going back to when you’ve had experiences in different areas
so coming back to both of the times I’ve mentioned that I have corporate positions
employee advocacy is a huge tool in a corporate environment especially when we’re talking about
amplifying the message there’s if they’re selling good services whatever it is but the key piece
about that tool is that it also brings your staff together so you’re you’re gonna have those cheer
leaders on your team we call them brand champions here like come be a brand champion and those of
the people who already love what they do they already love the organization as I mentioned at the
beginning I had no idea how wonderful it was to be in a place where you share ideas and you collaborate
and no one stepping on each other’s toes or all like how can we lift you up and so you have those
people built into your organization already now you’re giving them a space to continue to share
that message and so if they’re in love with where they are in love of what they do they’re absolutely
going to want to share this content on their personal pages and what it helps us do is reach an
audience that we might not traditionally get to yeah yeah I like that okay I’m thinking just the
play devil’s advocate with you a little bit have you ever is the question arise about like brand
safety or brand guidelines I’m thinking you know my uncle rick’s facebook stream is is a little
different you know yeah so part of the brand branding piece of that would already be built into our
rules and regulations around social media for staff so we didn’t necessarily have to change very
much around that piece and what happens once they post we’re hoping of course other people will
like and share that content as well but if Uncle Rick doesn’t like it or he has something different
on his page we completely understand that too okay all right no yeah I love that um I mean
obviously organic social and I’ll just kind of tie in you know just emails um those are the drivers
we see that on the measurement side when we work with zoos like measuring their effectiveness and
their advertising and it’s a no-brainer like the cost is minimal and you’re reaching that core
believer that core you know that brand advocates that are your visitors but I love the idea of
taking this organic social and extending that out because you know we can’t just survive on the
same visitation that we’ve had for years and years and years we’ve got to continue to reach a new
audience so clever way to do that thank you thank you we’re looking forward to seeing what these stats
look like we’re actually just now prepping for our February Zua monthly social media meeting and so
hopefully by the time this comes out I’ll have way more information to share as things come back
how about a little bit more with um like tell us about this meeting a little bit so you’ve
really got full participation across the board every department like how yeah how are people coming to
this are they excited like I can’t wait to share what’s going on like I was telling I was so yeah um a
little behind the scenes um when I initially scheduled to have the meeting in person I booked one of
our smaller conference rooms because I didn’t want to have a large room in a small amount of people
but I just really did not expect to have a small room with an abundance of people and
there was someone from almost every single team and I will tell you if there was a team that couldn’t come
I definitely got an email that said I’m so sorry we can’t make it but please send us the meeting
notes we want to be a part of this you know like this this day of particular I think we were
getting some sort of delivery so some of our team from the aquarium couldn’t make it but they were
all invested we have people from our commissary we have people from border culture there was someone
from every public safety like there was someone from every single team that wanted to be a part of
it and it was just such a really good conversation because we presented a lot of details at first
around like this is why we do what we do and then at the end I made sure to leave ample time for just
the open conversation open discussion so people can share their thoughts and opinions and remember
I also had the surveys so I was able to pull out the trends from the surveys to say this is what I
noticed from the surveys would you all agree do you have something more to add and so it was just
kind of that conversation jump start and that really helped us keep things moving and like I said
that’s probably where we got the most out of what we’re working on now was from that portion of the
meaning where it was just open dialogue are you like sharing like here’s what the current social
calendar looks like here’s some like are you like helping kind of push him like we’d love to get some
more from our horticulture team we love to get some more from you know public say like
I don’t know if I was a little bit about how that’s happening it’s funny you said it so that’s
actually something we’re planning to do more of as we go on but this first meeting was more of a
foundational meeting this meeting talked about what our target audience is looked like it talked about
what our you know how many followers do we have do you know how many accounts we have like do you
know what platforms were on some people got that question wrong so it was it was really laying out
very very basic this is like social media 101 we want to talk through what we have going on what
we have noted that’s been working what we see that’s resonating and we also pointed out things
that we saw that weren’t working and then we opened the door for the conversation so yeah it was
a very it was a very bare bones we just tried to hit some of the some of the high-level overview of
what social looks like for us but then that is actually a progression of what we’re hoping to do as
we get this specific group of people that want to be a part of amplify we’re wanting to go take a
deeper dive into what that looks like with the content calendar so they can kind of better understand
that piece so shana this is something once again you learned about at the a z a annual conference
you know i’ve seen a lot of chatter back and forth on the a z a message boards but this is something
that they talk about in the garden world in the museum world as well so i’m going to kind of
try to tease out your three tips and you tell me how am i doing on this list but
number one so yeah this is for other marketing communications people that want to implement
this strategy within their their attraction their institution number one start with the survey
right so you don’t walk into the entire organization and say something that this is going to fall
flat right okay number two uh get your COO to talk about the rhino barn exactly i think what you
said there is hey you know set the stage especially you know within that meeting in that room
you know because the pitch forks can come out against the marketing team you know so setting the stage
of we’re opening ourselves up we’re being vulnerable but you know no one wants to go tell you
respectful in your exactly exactly and then i really like this third tip here it’s you are kind
of providing at least in this first beginning stage is this this building the foundation of this
program of this of this meeting is you know being a little bit more talking in the beginning like
education you know social media 101 because the rhino guy might not know exactly everything you know
about social media is there any other tips that you could give the audience anything that you think
we’re missing i think there’s one thing that is really important to me just as a person in
it’s the collaboration piece around making sure we all assume good intent
and so we’re all together as we know when you’re working a traditional job you’re not
to find a five whatever it is you’re together a lot and there’s a quote that comes to mind and
i’ll try to remember to write it down so i could mention it today um there’s only one thing more
precious than our time and that’s who we spend it with and so whether that’s at work or at home
being respectful coming to the table with ideas that that doesn’t have to differ because we’re
talking about social media even if you don’t do social media every day i can respect that you might
have seen something that could be helpful to me to make me do my job better and that’s really the
the whole tool behind us making sure we’re all moving forward so assume good intent is my fourth
in my fourth tip that that would be where i would like that and i put you on the spot on that
when it she nailed it thanks shana thank you all right so one more on the spot question what do you
think is like a good positive outcome for this effort like ultimately what would like success look
like i’m assuming it’s just more content is it more followers we’re where where’s your north star
for this project i think it is definitely more content but also more engagement i don’t want to be
stuck on the number of followers as much as i want to make sure when we’re posting that there’s
comments that people are engaging people want to know and people are sharing that information um
there’s nothing worse than postings i thought were you ask a question and there’s no comments back
and i mean i think anybody who’s listening to those who’s done social media knows that they’ve
teed up this caption and they think it’s great and they’re hoping for this engagement and then it
falls flat and so for me because of what we do and it’s so important to continue to educate around
conservation sustainability not just the fact that we have these wonderful animals but like what
we’re doing to care for them i think that piece the engagement is what’s most important and that’s
going to help us by building out the right content all right shana we have come to our famous last
question on this podcast what is one thing that you think that cultural attraction should be doing
more or less of in relation to marketing i’m so glad you asked me that and this one was actually
tough for me because i’m definitely not a person who typically likes to ride the fence but i feel like
there’s no way to answer this without truly just noting that there has to be balance and so
what that looks like in my view is looking at the fact that yes we have to market things that are
going to be revenue drivers i get that we have to have bodies at the gate i get that we also have to do
some storytelling and so that storytelling is going to be that educational piece and how do we
merge those two things to make them successful and as i mentioned i was going to talk through this
point i started looking into it thank you for asking me this question because it made me dig a little
bit and so i was looking into the fact that one of the things we have just started talking about is
doing some ar and vr and so looking at like which one would work best for us and so what that could
look like is someone standing coming into your gate they pull out that phone with the ar you can
put of course some sort of graphic and it can be in that space or with vr you know of course you have
all the different opportunities for tools and glasses and things but there’s ways that we can change
the dynamic of what they see when they come through our gates and that may be the thing that’s
going to educate them more than us putting up tons of signs places with lots of words that they
may not connect with or qr codes that they may not scan but bigger pieces how do i get you to come
in and experience something different and understand the value of that in addition to having
a wonderful signature event that is just fun to be in the zoo after hours and so for me i just
want to make sure that as we continue to grow here river banks that we’re not overshadowing
anything that we’re doing with conservation because we’re having an event we want to balance that
messaging and so going back to that social media piece that’s where those teens also can bring in
those ideas and thoughts that might not be on the forefront for us but are absolutely necessary
in our messaging. We’ll set thank you. Shana Brunfield, Washington, the director of marketing
communications at river banks, zoo and garden thank you so much for joining us on the podcast.
I really appreciate it thanks Ryan thanks, Ginny. Thank you for listening to the Marketing
Attractions podcast. If you have a suggestion for a topic or would like to be a guest on the show
please visit our website at marketingattractionspodcast.com
