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For the last four years, Saul Markowitz has been known as "The Zoo Guy." Director Barbara Baker and Markowitz's marketing department took the Pittsburgh Zoo from a withering nonevent to one of the city's favorite places. True, privatization and Regional Asset District Funds played an important role, but without an aggressive campaign to awaken Pittsburgh to changes at the zoo, it could well have been a case of throwing good money after bad. And it all started with a clam.
In 1994, Markowitz and Marc Advertising began their "But have you seen the Quahog Clam" campaign. A series of media spots appeared, featuring all the animals at the Pittsburgh Zoo and leaving one unseen, hinting that, unless you've seen the clam, you haven't seen the zoo. Although it really was just a clam, the campaign worked, spurring the zoo to its second busiest season ever without even featuring a new attraction. It's the same formula Markowitz used at the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Benedum Theater for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Mellon University's College of Fine Arts.
Four years later, zoo attendance is up almost 50 percent--more than 770,000 people visited last year. Membership is up and major sponsors including AT&T and Duquesne Light have lent their names and assistance.
In April 1997, Markowitz took the leap and started his own business. Now, as Markowitz Communications, his team still works with the zoo's lions and tigers and bears, as well as other corporate and nonprofit clients across the region.
In this month's One On One interview, Markowitz tells how he turns humor and a low budget into effective publicity and media attention--even for the lowly clam.
SBN: How do you get so much attention for your clients with so small a budget?
Markowitz: You have to be very proactive in what you're doing, PR-wise, marketingwise, promotionwise, everything, because no one will do anything for you unless you ask for it It's not every day that you have Phantom coming in. I always say that in the theater world. It works for any other clients we have, as well.
When I was with the Benedum, I liked the shows that were tougher to sell; it got you thinking more. Like when Michael Feinstein came in The...