Greater Los Angeles Zoo
Los Angeles, CA

Client Challenge:
In 2001, GLAZA struggled to stand out from a crowd of competitors. Although GLAZA is located in the second largest city in the nation, its membership was very small for a zoo of its size and location. GLAZA faced stiff competition from lots of area attractions, including the San Diego Zoo, Universal Studios and DisneyLand. As a result, GLAZA struggled to acquire new members through its existing direct mail program. And GLAZA looked to Schultz & Williams to help grow their membership program.

Schultz & Williams Approach:
We first developed and executed a fresh strategic list plan to ensure that GLAZA’s acquisition mailings get into the hands of the right people. We improved GLAZA’s list selection by:

• targeting more strategic locations in the L.A. metro
• focusing on markets with proven results (i.e. parents with kids),
• eliminating poor responding geographic markets

We addressed struggle to compete with other area attractions by testing additional incentives—such as free train rides and plush animals—which improved the value of GLAZA’s membership and made it more enticing to prospects.

We also created and tested a Spanish language package for L.A.’s Latino community. And we created a new control acquisition package.

In addition to improving GLAZA’s membership-acquisition program, we created and executed a plan to improve their renewal program—to help them retain as many members as possible. We helped revise their 9-contact series renewal program that combined mail, phone and e-mail methods and tested different offers—such as free months, discounts and premiums.

“The Los Angeles Zoo has been using the direct mail services of Schultz & Williams since 2001. Over the past six years, we have benefited greatly from the expertise and creative ideas of the Schultz & Williams team. Schultz & Williams has been amazing at honing our list selections and geographic reach through comprehensive testing.”
—Genie Vasals, Vice President Institutional Advancement

Results:
Since 2001, GLAZA’s membership has more than doubled to over 60,000 members! The Zoo’s acquisition rates have increased by 30%, plus we’ve improved renewal rates. And our new control acquisition package has outperformed and replaced their previous control package.

GLAZA’s success is an example of S&W Direct’s strong list analysis, strategic creative capabilities and integrated marketing approach.

Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.