Field Museum: Blood Appétit 

Convincing people to get out of their houses during the coldest time of the year.

The Challenge

At the beginning of the year, the Field Museum of Natural History's attendance drops significantly. The freezing Chicago winter makes people picky about what they'll actually leave their house for. We needed to drive traffic for their exhibit, 'Bloodsuckers,' which is all about creatures that survive on blood. 

The Work

Even in the brutal Chicago winters, we realized that only one thing can convince Chicagoans to leave their houses during the winter: the city's world-class culinary scene. 

So we partnered with iconic local Chicago restaurants to introduce limited-time menu items with one special ingredient — blood. 

That's right—real blood. And don't be scared—it's delicious. Each of our partner chefs created a brand new dish showcasing the delicious power of blood, with culinary creations like Korean blood sausage pizza, blood chocolate tarts, and more. 

We called the activation Blood Appétit. 

The Results

A taste of blood was all it took to transform Chicagoans into Bloodsuckers.

  • We doubled our attendance goal in the first month of the activation. 

  • We generated 500MM in earned media impressions, getting the whole city talking

  • We outperformed all of our paid social and OLV benchmarks

  • We drove over 31,500 visits to our partner restaurants across Chicago — that's 140 new Bloodsuckers each day of the activation. 

And we broke the museum out of the confines of a building and across the city, making each partner restaurant effectively an extension of the Field Museum.

increase in museum traffic

42%

earned media impressions

500MM

visits to partner restaurants

31,500

Case Study

My Role

Lead Strategist

Desk Research

Creative Brief Development

Campaign Development

Incremental Sell Deck

Communications Planning

Integrated Agency Partnership

Case Study Development

Team

Lincoln Hawks (Strategist)
Alisa Wolfson (EVP, Design)
Hital Pandya, (SVP, ECD)
Will Santos (ACD)
Maicon Silveira (ACD)
Marlus Lau (ACD)
Mary Adam (Copywriter)
Brian Berk (Designer)
Jacob Etter (Illustrator)
Ellen Dollard (Strategy Director)
Lindsay Hrack (Account Director)
Margaret Davidson (AAE)
Christen James (Senior Producer)
Miranda Jacboy (Producer)