Expanding reach and driving visitation with creator-led advertising
The Detroit Zoo was looking to reach new and more diverse audiences across its market.
Traditional creative was not fully connecting with these growth audiences, limiting the effectiveness of paid media.
The opportunity was to make the Zoo feel more relevant, approachable, and reflective of the communities it serves.
We focused on showing the Zoo through the eyes of its visitors.
Creator-led video captured real experiences across exhibits, moments of discovery, and mission-driven storytelling, making the visit feel both accessible and meaningful.
Rather than treating influencer content as PR, these videos were built to function as advertising and were deployed through paid social to reach specific audiences with precision.
This allowed us to align creative, targeting, and media into one system, using authentic content to communicate both the experience and the Zoo’s broader mission.
The campaign increased engagement with new audiences and expanded the Zoo’s reach across key communities.
It drove incremental visitation by making the experience feel more relevant and tangible to people who had not previously considered visiting.
It also established a repeatable model for using creator content as a primary advertising asset, improving the effectiveness of future campaigns.