Maryland Zoo
Partnering to change perception.
The 3rd oldest Zoo in the country had the essential elements – a beautiful campus, compelling animals and a committed staff. Nevertheless, having struggled for funding, The Maryland Zoo’s visitor experience had failed to evolve. This bolstered skepticism about the quality and value of a Zoo visit throughout the community. Their keen staff recognized that fixing the experience alone was not enough, and that addressing the brand perception was imperative to regaining trust, admiration and support.
Mission was originally hired by the Zoo to provide design services and implementation support for a fundraiser. After a successful event, we became the Agency of Record, working in partnership to elevate the Zoo’s brand, and rebuild the organization’s reputation. We concepted and launched a “Meet Me at the Zoo” campaign that re-introduced the Zoo as premiere place to connect with family, friends and animals alike. We carried the welcoming voice and playful energy into campaigns for signature events, as well as the phenomenal new Penguin Coast exhibit. Recently, we were honored to work with Zoo team to develop a new identity and visual language that will define the Zoo brand and inspire its voice for years to come. Together with the Zoo, we’ve successfully changed the perception of the organization and celebrated consecutive years of record attendance and financial solvency.
Expertise
Agency of Record: Brand Platform, Messaging, Content Strategy, Design, Environmental, Advertising, Photography, Video, Web Design, Development & Integration, Digital Marketing, SEO, Event Production
Markets
Entertainment, Non-Profit, Destinations
Online HQ
Identity System
A wildly unique identity.
The foundation of the The Maryland Zoo’s identity system is a logo that celebrates the organization’s commitment to conservation in an unexpected way allowing for a wide range of voice and tone applications.
- Logo
- Style Guide
- Collateral
Variants and colorways as diverse as the animal kingdom.
The primary color palette is inspired by the Zoo’s animals and their habitats.
Loud and Proud
The animals represented in the logo are the species that The Maryland Zoo focuses its largest conservation efforts on; the southern white rhino, African penguin, African elephant and Panamanian golden frog.
#DRIBBLER
Shoot anything at 1000 frames per second, let alone an animal, and it’s sure to be epic.
3470
Pages
16K+
Lines of Code
135%
Page Visits
124%
Time on Site
58
Beers
2
Days
1500
Atendees
1
Helluva Time
The zoo calendar was an exercise in herding penguins; keeping them all in tidy rows when all they want to do is waddle about.
George / Developer, Penguin-herder
Nancy H. The Maryland Zoo
The Maryland Zoo has been fortunate to experience significant growth in visitation, membership and event attendance over the last several years. The identity and message Mission has worked with us to develop is directly responsible for much of this growth. The personality, approachability and intelligence of the creative have improved both awareness and perception of the Zoo experience. We view the Mission team as an extension of our own and love their sense of collaboration which has elevated the Zoo’s brand and continues to exceed our expectations.
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