Volume 2, No. 5. March 8, 2002
Poll position
The high-powered pair when introduced
last summer was poised to accomplish the daunting mission of saving Earth: former
U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Bill Bradley and Aza (pronounced Ay-zah),
a digital critter and new mascot for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association
(AZA). The pair is the spearhead of a marketing campaign to advance public perception
of the association and generate interest and involvement in AZA's conservation
efforts. Proprietary Media, Inc., a New York marketing company "founded solely
to support the mission of AZA and its member institutions," formed the campaign,
created the critter and recruited Bradley.
The campaign, which stalled in the initial phase, is now turning to member zoos
and aquariums for help. With the official launch last June, presided over by
Bradley at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, Aza set out to attract
children to his website, www.azasweb.com,
where they could complete Aza's Poll for the Planet expressing their concerns
about the environment and wildlife. Bradley would then write a series of white
papers based on the poll results to present government and corporate leaders
around the world. For valid data, Proprietary Media hoped to get one million
children logged on. So far, less than 10,000 have.
"Now the big push is to get kids that come through the gates of member institutions,"
said Janet Weiss, senior vice president of Proprietary Media and managing director
of AzaNET, the network of AZA institutions. AZA itself has formed a panel called
the Strategic Marketing Group to promote zoo and aquarium involvement in the
campaign. Currently, 50 zoo and aquarium web sites and 25 children's sites link
to azasweb.
Not only do AZA and Proprietary Media want more institutions to feature Aza
on their web sites, they hope institutions will start directly engaging children
visiting the zoos to log on to the web site. "It's preaching to the choir: These
are kids and families already coming to the institutions, so they're already
engaged in the mission," Weiss said. Meantime, Aza himself will start making
more appearances in other mediums, including a series of comic strips. Additionally,
he "will be appearing on site at zoos and aquariums in the coming year," Weiss
said, though she wouldn't give further details on the form Aza would take.
Aza certainly has the pedigree for popularity. Proprietary Media hired Kermit
Love, the creator of Big Bird and other Sesame Street characters, to lead the
design team. What started as a talking platypus (the ultimate mixed breed) evolved
into a non-talking singular species representative of all the world's wildlife.
Aza's chief personality trait is to serve as a channeler of nature.
When it came to choosing a celebrity spokesperson for the campaign, Bradley
was at the top of a short list of candidates. "We needed somebody who had the
credibility to talk to the leaders of the world," Weiss said. When Proprietary
Media approached him, Bradley proved more willing than they expected. A man
who spent countless childhood hours at the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri, he wanted
to do more than just lend his name to the project. He is currently working on
a series of educational programs related to the campaign while awaiting the
poll results. "He'll be getting involved again when we've got that big number
of kids taking the poll," Weiss said. "We want it to be a significant number
to get the attention of the world."
