Introduction

The New Children’s Museum, a revolutionary museum for young people in the heart of downtown San Diego, had a big year. It began 2024 with a new executive director and a new brand, which meant the Museum had the exciting work of figuring out and sharing its new identity with members both new and existing.  The Museum, well-known for its wealth of exhibits and activities for very young visitors, also hoped to reach older audiences, including teens and adults that were young-at-heart. 

A few months into the new year, The Museum planned to open a new exhibit, Seeding Futures, which celebrated the legacy of Octavia E. Butler, a beloved sci-fi author, AfroFuturist and pioneer for liberation. They’d also end the year with a months-long renovation that would ultimately double the size of the Museum. 

With all of the energy around a new chapter for The Museum, it needed help spreading the word locally and regionally. That’s where we came in.

Our Objectives

As the Museum’s first time launching a full media relations campaign, our job was to help the Museum raise awareness of all the cool things happening that year and ensure that the team had what they needed to take over their own public relations once our time together ended. 

This meant we:

  • Generated hype for Octavia E. Butler: Seeding Futures through:
    • Pitching beloved local media institutions across San Diego and Los Angeles
    • Developing a multi-month campaign plan and social media toolkit that gave the team guidance on how to continue getting the word out about Seeding Futures through social and earned media
  • Set the The New Children’s Museum team up for success on how to amplify their end of year renovation project, which included:
    • Creating a donor booklet that shared up to date details about the renovation, which helped new and long-time donors understand exactly how their impact would make the expanded museum possible
    • Helping the Executive Director plan and place an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune, pending publication for later in the year
    • Pitching local media and organizing hard hat tours as the renovation went underway

The Outcome

Through our time together, we:

  • Secured placements with well-read local and national outlets. This included a full-page newsletter spread and in-depth interview with San Diego’s NPR-affiliate, KPBS about Octavia E. Butler: Seeding Futures and several placements covering the ins-and-outs of their upcoming renovation in outlets like the San Diego Business Journal and Televisa
  • Equipped the team to tell its own stories, whether it be about their renovation campaign or future exhibited at the Museum, through:
    • Helping them develop messaging materials, including talking points
    • Developing social media toolkits
  • Creating a donor handbook to generate excitement about the upcoming expansion