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abby.mick@lewiscommunications.com
The Birmingham Zoo came to us with a simple ask: create a logo mark for their 70th anniversary. What they ended up getting was a year-long integrated campaign celebrating the biggest birthday in Birmingham. With a limited budget, Lewis created a platform to drive paid admissions and membership/event attendees, increase awareness of the Zoo, while helping create a positive environment for future zoo development initiatives. While paid media was important, free earned and owned media were key to driving engagement and coverage. Our team worked closely with the Zoo to leverage existing partnerships to find unique (and free!) places to showcase the Zoo’s mission and its dynamic 70th anniversary logomark.
Knowing we couldn’t afford to be boring, Lewis created a splashy activation and a media plan to optimize for reach around the Zoo’s landmark events during the year. This year, the Cougar Crossing habitat opening and Spring Break were key windows for the Zoo. With the arrival of new species, the team understood this was a key opportunity where the local community could be engaged and drive foot traffic.
Parameters on budget meant our team had to be creative in our resourcing; the Lewis team built several of the activations and props featured in the campaign ourselves. Additionally, we leveraged existing partnerships with vendors and community members to secure discounted or free placements for campaign creative.
To help promote the zoo’s 70th birthday, we created a campaign that let the animals show everyone how they each like to party in their own particular way. The images served as birthday invitations to zoo lovers across the region. In addition to paid social, Lewis worked with the Zoo and their vendor, Coca-Cola, to place the party animals on the back of Coca-Cola delivery trucks.
We engaged the Zoo’s local beer vendor, Cahaba Brewing Company, to create beer labels unique to the Zoo and their 70th anniversary. At no extra cost to the client, Lewis designed and launched the specialty label for a custom Blonde Ale for the party animal in us all.
To promote the zoo’s new Cougar Crossing exhibit, we teased a giant present arriving soon. Then we took our larger-than-life gift around town, where it growled at passersby before the big reveal.
Results included the Zoo experiencing a 10% lift in foot traffic during their spring break window, with the average daily visitors increasing by 17% compared to 2024. Additionally, the Zoo saw a 16.5% increase in March membership sales, resulting in nearly $42K in additional revenue.
A local corporate entity saw fundraiser content and reached out to the Zoo, resulting in a new corporate event sponsorship and $3,000 additional revenue for our client. Since launch, there have been 29 mentions of Cougar Crossing and/or the Zoo’s 70th anniversary, resulting in a potential reach of 21.5 million.
While the party may be technically over, this campaign was a roaring success for the Zoo and an incredibly fun and rewarding experience for our Birmingham creative team.
