The Peytonville Science Museum was a labor of love by a number of high school teachers who were interested in promoting science to the general public. When they finally opened, they got a decent write up in the local paper, but they were stunned during their first week to find out that their actual attendance rates were only about twenty percent of what they might have expected.
Their biggest concern was simply that they weren’t getting the exposure that they thought that they deserved. There was a well known attraction on the other side of town which thousands of people flocked to. It had roller coasters and all kinds of water rides and the usual attractions which brought in so many people and so much money.
They were convinced that if more people knew about what they had to offer, they would want to see more than just the big amusement park. There were lots of kids in particular who would want to see what a science museum had to offer.
They decided to call on someone they knew who might be in a position to advise them: a salesman at a full service printing company which happened to be located a block from their new location. They called him and they invited him over to see their new location.
He looked at their overall effort and came to the conclusion that the best way for them to move forward would be a rack card program. They didn’t even know what he was talking about but he explained the basic concept: very inexpensive advertising in remote locations where there was a lot of foot traffic. People would come along and browse the racks and if they found something that interested them they would in many cases change their plans in order to go and see.
The keys to making it a success would be to go into restaurants, truck stops and every touristy kind of business located near the big attraction, and to find places where they could place rack cards. There were plenty of such places, and there really wouldn’t be anybody who wouldn’t want to support an educational project.
The salesman took down all of the relevant information and took a couple of days to work something up. When he brought it back, they were impressed. He had taken information about various exhibits in the science museum and used them to arouse curiosity and build interest.
Satisfied with the initial effort, they ordered several thousand, and they made the trip up and down the highway corridor making sure that they were represented well in as many places as possible.