KAREN M CRISTELLO, MBA, CTSM
brand development
integrated marketing communications
events & trade shows
Pages from the 2019 Foundation annual report. Eyeballs and VR as bookends and tributes to our naming donors on the inside spread. (copywriting)
Proposal brochure "look book." My marketing specialist designed and produced this beautiful piece. Copy by freelancer. I edited.
FUNDRAISING
TRUHLSEN-MARMOR MUSEUM OF THE EYE:
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
BACKGROUND
The American Academy of Ophthalmology Foundation had a goal to raise $12 million for a new eye museum at Academy headquarters in Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. My involvement was two-fold: Help the Foundation team raise the money and help the Museum team market it to the public.
CHALLENGES
Raising $12 million from mostly private donors was a big ask. We needed impressive, museum-worthy promotion pieces and a lot of promotion. We had aimed to open in 2020, The Year of the Eye, but Covid forced us to delay until 2021. With tourism down, it would be difficult to attain our visitor targets.
SOLUTIONS
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My team promoted the fundraising campaign with beautifully-designed collateral that normally wasn't allowed, because of member's perception of how we were using their dues money. This included a stunning "look book" and special layout in the annual report, in addition to our usual marketing channels.
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We created grand opening collateral for our members and held a launch party at AAO 2021.
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It was an excellent opportunity to market to the public, which provided ample additional external channels, such as light pole flags, hotel promo cards, tourist map destinations, and consumer media outreach.
RESULTS
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We reached our $12 million goal before the grand opening.
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I left the Academy a few months after the museum opened, so have no attendance stats.
Celebrate! Museum opening video. (copywriting, Marmor interview, images/B-roll, direction)