CITY OF PALO ALTO MUSEUM & ZOO

A neighborhood landmark for curious kids

Founded in 1934 in the basement of a local school, the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo is a City of Palo Alto institution where children explore the natural world through hands-on science and live animals. The JMZ opened its own building in 1941 as the first purpose-built children's museum in the United States.

Its rebuilt home carries that legacy forward: a facility nearly twice its former size, with exhibits engineered for hands-on discovery, six animal habitats to explore, and a building designed to welcome children of every ability, ages zero to eleven. The City engaged Ruckus to reintroduce the museum to the Bay Area and fill it with families.

A new home to fill, and a ticket to sell

A beloved institution had a brand-new home to fill and, for the first time, a ticket to sell. The museum needed to drive attendance across a facility nearly twice its former size, with visits spread across the week rather than just weekends, grow a loyal fanbase beyond the regulars to families across the Bay Area, and turn goodwill into memberships, donations, and school visits that sustain the mission year-round.

One museum, four audiences

Ruckus opened with a discovery workshop and a full digital audit, mapped the target families, then built a media plan that split the museum's story into four distinct campaigns, each with its own audience, message, and creative: weekday families, regional travelers, community and giving, and schools and education.

Weekday Families invited preschoolers and their grown-ups to beat the weekend crowds, Tuesday through Friday. A Giving Tuesday campaign, coordinated with the museum's nonprofit partners, rallied members and donors around the mission. A travel campaign sold a Northern California day out, a roadtrip worth all the are-we-there-yet questions, and an education campaign put hands-on science in front of teachers and classes.

A marketing engine built to fill a museum

Pay-per-click, display, and remarketing caught families the moment they searched for a day out. Audience-targeted advertising and a managed content calendar kept the museum in the feed across every campaign, and event, seasonal, and fundraising emails turned interest into visits, members, and donations.

Every campaign drew on the JMZ's own palette, its soft halo shapes, and vibrant photographs, so the ads felt native to the museum from the first glance. Real photography of the museum and zoo carried the creative: hands on the glass, eyes on the animals, curiosity in motion.

A rebuilt landmark, reintroduced to its families

Four audience campaigns launched for weekday families, regional travelers, community giving, and schools, carried by one connected engine across paid search, paid social, and email, all reporting back to the City. The bright creative world extends from the museum's own brand and photography, ready to keep working season after season.