What do you call a place where visitors are free to be themselves? Where people of all kinds come together to enjoy nature, their families and friends? If you’re in St. Louis, you call that place Tower Grove Park, and its popularity is skyrocketing.
Objective
Tower Grove Park is at a pivotal moment in it's 150-year history. With the urban residential and commercial area around the Park experiencing a resurgence, the Park itself is benefitting from the increased popularity. Leadership, while planning updates and retaining the features that make the Park accessible to all, was ready to share this beautiful space with the public and increase its membership.
Strategy
Inspired by the community that makes Tower Grove Park unique, and Henry Shaw’s original vision for a park that is welcoming to all walks of life, we created an awareness and membership campaign that honors the Park for what it truly is: the heartbeat of the neighborhoods that surround it and a welcoming gathering place for all St. Louisans.
Park People Know Best
As soon as we saw the gorgeous images shared by the Park’s more than 20K Instagram followers, we knew we had to let members and visitors speak to what makes Tower Grove Park so special. By crowdsourcing images for the campaign, we were able to elevate their perspectives and experiences of Tower Grove Park. Our sincere thanks to everyone who contributed images to this campaign!
Families, Foodies, Farmers, Festival-Goers
Tower Grove Park is full of so many different experiences for visitors to enjoy, from family reunions and weddings to large festivals and weekly markets. There’s something for everyone at the Park. Using alliteration as a creative device we not only built memorable messaging but also brought the spirit of Tower Grove Park to life.
Park Swag
Tower Grove Park members love their park! We created swag that lets them show off their park pride while spreading awareness of membership to their friends, a/k/a potential members.
Growing Membership in Challenging Times
For parks, the start of spring brings budding flowers, warmer weather and visitors, a huge opportunity to build park membership. To drive visits and excitement, we created a unique direct mail piece that unfolds from a standard brochure into to an exciting poster, showing off the Instagram-sourced images from members and visitors.
Just before the mailer was to go out, COVID-19 hit, making parks across the country more valuable than ever. By adding a special card with a clear message about the Park’s response to the crisis, we retained the work we had already completed, while also aligning with what’s happening in the world. The poster is now a home-office necessity and reminder of the respite the Park provides us during this time.
