Innovation | Branding | Design

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Creating a wildly successful fundraising campaign.
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Big plans and bold goals
call for a big idea. corner-left-box

Raising millions for lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!

With big plans to expand habitats, enrich visitor experiences and propel conservation, the Cincinnati Zoo needed a fundraising campaign with a compelling message—compelling enough to raise $150 million by 2025 in honor of the zoo’s 150th anniversary.

A long-time supporter of the “Greenest Zoo in America,” LPK was proud to partner with this cherished Cincinnati icon and positive inspiration for families, conservationists and animals alike.

Uncovering donors' & visitors' animal instincts.

As with every project, LPK worked to get inside consumers' heads and hearts, uncovering what motivates and moves them, and what drives their desires, decisions and in this case, donations. We conducted donor and stakeholder interviews and extensive consumer research. Using a mobile ethnography research methodology, we asked families to film their favorite features and most meaningful moments at zoos across the country, gathering in-context insights to help inform and inspire our work.   

“

The More Home to Roam campaign is the biggest and most ambitious expansion ever undertaken by the Zoo. The goal is to raise all of the funds by 2025, which will be the 150th anniversary of the Zoo.

Thane Maynard

Director, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Connecting the community to the Zoo’s future.

Our research uncovered an interesting dichotomy of associations of the Zoo as a “fun day with family” and also “a beacon of conservation.” Knowing this, our messaging had to bring balance, embodying a bit of both. Hence, More Home to Roam was born.

Asking donors and visitors to help give the animals More Home to Roam works in two ways. It highlights the critical goal of increasing habitats, while leading conservation efforts for endangered animals. The campaign also taps into the essential Cincinnati spirit and pride in place by leveraging larger than life symbols of "home" (from home team to home brew), giving the campaign creative flexibility over its five-year course.

A sizeable nest egg, and growing.

With a $50 million-dollar donation right off the bat (the largest in the Zoo’s history), the campaign was off to a wildly successful start. A year later, the donations had almost doubled that, with millions being donated by the general public along with local businesses and real estate agents (tapping into the “home” theme). And today, with over $110 million raised, the Zoo is well on their way to reaching their $150 million goal—all in time for their 150th anniversary.

For more information, or to donate, please visit morehometoroam.org.

“

We’ve had great success with the campaign, raising $110 million to date.

Reba Dysart

Vice President of Development, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (as of June 2021)

A brand & innovation consultancy
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Josh Bokelman
josh.bokelman@lpk.com
+1 513 241 6401
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