Marketers hone message as World War I museum opening nears

~ The museum will have a walk-in bomb crater, realistic battlefield trenches, and a tableau of the scarred earth of no-man's land.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Promoters of a new, $26 million World War I museum scheduled to open in less than six months are trying to find a way to get the public interested in a war that took place nine decades ago.

Officials at the Liberty Memorial, the nation's official World War I monument, are unveiling a new logo and creating a promotional campaign that will highlight not only the educational role of the new museum, but also its entertainment value.

Executive director Steve Berkheiser says it will be a marketing challenge to get people excited about a museum focusing on the Great War, especially since there are so few witnesses to the war still alive.

"If we can't establish relevance to the story that we're trying to tell, then we're missing a tremendous opportunity not only to showcase a magnificent collection, but also to understand the message, the impact of that war," Berkheiser said.

The memorial towers above parkland on a hill at the edge of downtown Kansas City. Shut down in 1994 because of deterioration, the memorial was restored in 2002, complete with an area beneath the monument for the new 30,000-square-foot museum.

The Liberty Memorial was dedicated on Armistice Day in 1926, when leaders from five allied powers, Belgium, Italy, France, Great Britain and the United States, gathered in Kansas City. The memorial's national stature likely will grow if the Department of the Interior approves a nomination to make the site a national historic landmark.

'Ultimate Reality Show'

But given the lack of "brand awareness" it generates, a team of Fleishman Hillard executives and Kansas City public relations specialist Pat O'Neill are designing the new promotional campaign.

They are calling it "The Ultimate Reality Show."

The museum's logo will tout the facility's educational role and its entertainment value, starting with the facility's walk-in bomb crater, realistic battlefield trenches, and a tableau of the scarred earth of no-man's land.

Visitors will also be able to play computerized war games and engage with other high-tech wizardry centered on World War I.

"You can elevate learning to a pleasurable experience where it's fresh and intriguing," said museum designer Ralph Appelbaum.

Marketers surveyed more than 650 people to find out how to make the museum experience just that.

They found two audiences would be particularly drawn to the museum's themes: older men, who would be interested in the artifacts of war, and younger women who would visit the monument to teach their children about history in an entertaining setting.

To reach those two groups and a broader audience, over the next six months the museum will hone its public relations strategy around three words: experience, learn and honor.

That simple tag line will accompany the museum's logo, which shows the silhouette of a gun-wielding soldier climbing out of a battlefield trench.

The museum's gala opening is Dec. 2. It will open to the public after that.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com