Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network
Client
The Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network (CBGN) is a cluster of historic, educational, environmental, and recreational tourist sites offering visitors access to the entire Bay system. The Network includes 140 disparate private and public sector entities, each its own small business—from educational sailing ships and historic homes to museums of the Underground Railroad.
Challenge
CBGN needed a comprehensive strategy to communicate with four primary audiences: watershed residents, the media, policy influencers, and its own supporting members and resource partners. The campaign aimed to increase visitation, raise public awareness and appreciation, and ultimately improve conservation of the Chesapeake Bay.
Enter Reingold
CBGN and Reingold collaborated to develop a unifying brand and message platform for the Network with a fundamental position—Your Chesapeake Connection—that identifies the unique benefits of the Network as a customizable guide to the treasures of the Chesapeake. From the start we engaged CBGN's executive committee, who became essential champions for the campaign among CBGN members, meeting with Reingold quarterly to track progress against the plan, ensure accountability, and celebrate successes. We also involved these leaders in shaping and delivering the training and technical assistance that we provided to CBGN members. Then we reached out to the wider Network membership through a strategic communications planning retreat, on-call consultation, and hands-on, experiential training sessions. We also used the highly professional CBGN leadership to impress upon the smaller, less experienced members the virtue and value of cooperating and partnering, rather than just competing with one another—and reinforced this message with examples of real businesses that succeeded by banding together.
Results
Network members immediately discovered the benefits of increased access to resources and tools. They also benefit from shared "back office" operations and support systems operating under a common, award-winning strategic communications plan that Reingold provided. And through shared marketing and joint appeals for foundation funding, CBGN helped many of its smaller members not only survive but also thrive.