RMS Titanic, Inc.
Scope: Social media strategy, content strategy, content development, community management, analytics and ROI reporting.
RMS Titanic, Inc. needed to deploy a digital strategy to promote TITANIC: The Artifact Exhibition—a traveling exhibition that features real artifacts recovered from the wreck of RMS Titanic.
Titanic's demographic was divided into two main groups: Celine Dion / movie fans, and fanatical historical purists. These groups often clashed wildly online. RMS Titanic, Inc. had to maintain scientific authority while appealing to a large group completely disinterested in science.
Following the 2010 Expedition, Allison communicated with leading Titanic experts, scientists, curators, and oceanographers on a daily basis to bring findings online.
The Strategic Objectives
The objective was to make the fascinating finds from this expedition accessible to the public without compromising the brand's credibility. It was critical to ensure that the brand did not make any scientific mistakes or neglect to cautiously present any theoretical claims, of which there were many.
There was also the PR challenge of the parent company having legally claimed Titanic and its wreckage as its own, which led to moral and ethical questions that were regularly raised and addressed on social media.
All of this was in-play while we were promoting TITANIC: The Exhibition.
Our North Star was to be loyal to the Ship and her passengers. We wanted to give them voices and pique curiosity across the world. We wanted to educate and fascinate.
We told stories of the survivors and passengers on the blog. We showed pictures and gave scientific details of the Ship on the ocean floor to audiences for the first time across social channels. We frequently posted theoretical questions to keep the historical community engaged. We sought advice from the world's leading Titanic historians to answer questions that were raised online.
Results
We grew social audiences organically by 50,000+ / month after the Expedition. The strategy supported museum ticket sales and showed a positive ROI and a massive uptick in Titanic Store sales.
