August 2018

Petersburg Preservation Task Force Tiffany Window Marketing Campaign Success

Tiffany Window

In the fall of 2017, the Petersburg Preservation Task Force (PPTF), met with a group of Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) directors, managers and staff members to provide a tour to various venues in Old Towne Petersburg.  The tour started at historic Blandford Church, home of 15 Tiffany windows, then moved to Centre Hill Museum, broke for lunch, then picked up again at the Southside Depot, Appomattox Iron Works, with a end of day recap at the Jury's Inn.  The goal was to provide VTC with a tour that any tourist would experience.  This tour was in preparation for writing a marketing grant funded by VTC titled the Marketing Leverage Program.  The MLP allows for a group such as the PPTF to include the marketing money its tourism partners spend within the same calendar year.  Thus, the PPTF was allowed to include money spent by the City of Petersburg, Petersburg Area Regional Tourism (PART), and the Jury's Inn.  The maximum amount of the grant is $50,000.  PPTF applied in October, 2017 and was awarded the grant in March 2018.  It was the first time the PPTF secured a grant dedicated to marketing tourism since its inception in 2016.  The PPTF has a memorandum of understanding with the City of Petersburg to operate the museums and market them.  The document is reviewed annually and has up to five more years to conduct museum business.

Lythos Studios was retained by the PPTF to create a marketing plan for 2018.  The team we created consisted of Leslie Strickler of Etre Communications, who was Hamner's PR partner when working with the City of Petersburg from November 2016 through September 2017.  Darrell Cahoon is the graphic designer, and various media outlets have been employed to deliver the campaign message, "Living Color: Tiffany Window Treasures of Petersburg".

St. John Tiffany Window

The campaign consists of marketing to day trippers within a 75-100 mile radius of Petersburg.  The Tiffany Window campaign is employing television, radio, digital (Facebook, Youtube and Google), and some print.  Instead of focusing on Civil War history, the campaign is focused on the artwork housed at historic Blandford Church, the home of 15 Tiffany Windows.  The first of the television advertisements can be seen at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa-5HX6SIUs&t=60s

Additional television spots appear on CBS6 during the 5:30a Sunrise sponsorship.

This grant was made possible by Virginia Tourism Corporation.  #loveva

Virginia.org

May, 2017

 Siege Museum

What happened at the Siege Museum?

Siege Museum photo by John Rooney

One of the most exciting events of this project's (working with the Robert Bobb Group) duration was an event that happened at the Siege Museum aka Exchange Building in Petersburg. The previous City Council closed the City Museums in the fall of 2016.  A group of citizens gathered to form a board to manage the museums, which at that time included only Historic Blandford Church and Centre Hill Museum.  Later in a Memorandum of Understanding generated by the Petersburg Preservation Task Force (PPTF), the opportunity to manage the Siege Museum became possible.  Upon inspection of the contents of the museum, one of the PPTF members noticed the storage units for 2-3 dozen cannon balls.  Upon closer inspection, it appeared some of these were live and had been stored in the museum for over 40 years. These cannon balls dated from the Civil War.

The PPTF notified the Interim City Manager Tom Tyrrell who immediately contacted the Fire Chief who brought in the Virginia State Police to scan the ordinances with an X-ray device that determines if they are actually live.  Turned out there were four.  In a municipality such as Petersburg where funds are severely limited, the only option was to engage the ordinances at the City dump.  The procedure requires burying them in a landfill with an explosive device that detonates them simultaneously.

The street where the Museum faces was closed temporarily while the ordinances were inspected, removed and transported to the City dump.  The locals were lit up with questions.  "Are bombs in the Siege" was the most asked.  Following is a list of media reports that include local, statewide and national attention:

http://www.progress-index.com/news/20170419/editorial-shell-shocking-discovery

http://www.progress-index.com/http://wtvr.com/2017/03/21/vsp-bomb-squad-responding-to-siege-museum-in-petersburg/

http://wric.com/2017/03/21/petersburg-museum-to-be-guarded-overnight-after-ammunition-deemed-most-likely-live/

http://www.nbc12.com/story/34967104/police-guard-siege-museum-in-petersburg-after-live-civil-war-era-ammunition-found

http://www.progress-index.com/news/20170322/four-siege-shells-removed-from-petersburg-museum

http://www.progress-index.com/news/20170322/petersburg-votes-to-keep-consultants-running-city

http://www.progress-index.com/news/20170322/four-siege-shells-removed-from-petersburg-museum

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/22/likely-live-civil-war-era-cannon-balls-found-in-mu/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

http://wset.com/news/local/live-civil-war-cannon-balls-found-in-petersburg-museum

A history and photos of the Siege Museum can be found at

http://www.preservationpetersburg.org/explore_siege_museum.html