The Minnesota Zoo Exceeds Emotional and Financial Impact at Fundraising Event

Background

Connecting people, animals, and the natural world.

The Minnesota Zoo is a cutting-edge zoo with strong commitments to wildlife conservation, education, and accessibility. 

Challenge

Evoking emotion.

The Minnesota Zoo wanted to create 2 videos for their annual ‘Beastly Bash’ fundraising event. This event was to be their first in-person event since 2020. The Minnesota Zoo wanted to tackle the videos from a new and fresh point of view in order to evoke a strong emotional response from all of the potential donors.

Approach

The right point-of-view.

Blue Key Media collaborated with The Minnesota Zoo on videos focusing on people rather than animals, a perspective that had never been taken before by previous Minnesota Zoo videos.

We crafted one video to be told from the perspective of children. This helped to evoke the feeling of wonder and awe that every kid feels at the Minnesota Zoo.

The second video aimed to show the effect that the Minnesota Zoo has on people’s lives. For this story, we focused on a man named Nick. Nick has a severe developmental disorder and visits the zoo nearly every day. By looking at the Minnesota Zoo’s commitment to accessibility and highlighting the positive impact made when connecting people with animals and the natural world, we could showcase the Minnesota Zoo’s immense value through unique points of view.

Outcome

Exceeding funding goals and emotional impact.

The 2022 “Beastly Bash’ was a huge success, with funding that exceeded their goal of $735,000. The videos Blue Key Media produced sparked strong engagement among guests and staff alike, garnering a lot of positive feedback. The Minnesota Zoo’s President, John Frawley, even commented “…the best video that’s ever been done for the [Beastly] Bash.”

The Minnesota Zoo’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Mike Stephenson, joins Blue Key Media for a conversation about they utilize the power of video.