Sudbury, ON -- Science North has won an award for Best Film Launch for the opening events and marketing activities leading up to the premiere of Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees in May of 2002 in Sudbury. The award was handed out at the Giant Screen Theater Association (GSTA) Achievement Awards held tonight in Glasgow, Scotland. The Achievement Awards event was attended by more than 500 delegates representing 29 countries.
"We are extremely happy to receive this award," said Jim Marchbank, Science North's CEO. "With approximately 110 theatres world-wide launching two or three films a year, this submission is being compared with up to 250 other film launches, including those in markets that are much larger than ours. This speaks volumes about the quality of work that our marketing team, and the entire Science North organization as a whole, can produce."
Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees IMAX film premiered at Science North on May 4, 2002 along with the travelling exhibit Discovering Chimpanzees: the remarkable world of Jane Goodall, which was also produced by Science North. The combination of film and exhibit were positioned in marketing materials as the "Go Ape at Science North" event. Dr. Jane Goodall was in attendance to launch both the film and exhibit and to increase public awareness through a launch campaign.
"Science North worked with many partners, including the City of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury Tourism Partnership and local media outlets, to create a cohesive marketing plan that attracted visitors from outside the Sudbury Area," said Brenda Tremblay, Director of Business Operations at Science North. "Working as part of a larger team and marketing a film with such strong audience appeal were huge advantages to building anticipation for our event."
The results of the marketing efforts served to increase theatre attendance by 28.6% over the same period of 2001. The launch activities also drew more than three times the media coverage that was expected.
Discovering Chimpanzees: the remarkable world of Jane Goodall travelling exhibit opened at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, Illinois this past Friday, part of a five-year, 15-venue North American tour schedule. This spring, the exhibit received the Canadian Association of Science Centres award for Best Exhibit Produced in Canada in 2002. Major funding for staging and marketing the exhibit was provided by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and the Ontario Cultural Attraction Fund.
The Science North marketing team that implemented the marketing launch of the event was led by Brenda Tremblay and Michel Béchard and included Chloë Gordon, Diane Rossi, Nancy Griffin and Stephanie Deschenes as well as Graphic Designers Mireille Wright and Astrid Colton.
The Giant Screen Theater Association (GSTA) is an international association of large format theatres with an educational focus.
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Media contact:
Stephanie Deschenes, Marketing Communications Specialist, Science North
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