In 2009, the Dallas Zoo hired Allyn Media to help manage media following the privatization process as the Dallas City Council turned over management of the municipal zoo to the private Dallas Zoo Management, and then hired Allyn Media to stay on and create a communications and marketing campaign and tools to help fund the completion of the $30 million Giants of the Savanna habitat, and finally manage public relations for the 2010 grand opening of the Giants of the Savanna. We continue to manage the Zoo’s crisis communications. Allyn Media worked with the Zoo originally:

• Developing a communications and marketing campaign for the Dallas Zoological Society to help complete the Dallas Zoo’s new Giants of the Savanna habitat, including creating the Savanna Society, its name, look and graphic identity and all printed materials for the campaign.
• Planning and executing a high-profile grand opening for the new $30 million Giants of the Savanna habitat filled with interactive experiences for guests built around the many different species of animals that call the Giants of the Savanna home: elephants, giraffes, impalas, zebras, ostriches, lions, warthogs, red river hogs, guinea fowl and cheetahs.
• Creating the concept, design, original art illustration and copywriting for an eight-page insert in The Dallas Morning News to promote the new Giants of the Savanna habitat, getting people excited about the new habitat by telling the story and then empowering them to do something to support the Zoo by inviting them to become members. This was the Zoo’s first major announcement following privatization and the Zoo led all communications and messaging, while recognizing the city for their significant contribution.
• Handling media related to crisis situations relating to animal or staff issues, including immediate focus on media response, positive message development, spokesperson training, anticipation and countering of opposition arguments, and issues management and related public affairs responsibilities.

In January 2023, the Dallas Zoo was targeted by criminal acts which gained international attention. First, the mesh in the clouded leopard habitat was slashed and one of the animals escaped. The second incident was the suspicious death of a beloved vulture, and finally the theft of two tamarin monkeys. All the incidents were weeks apart from each other.

The Dallas Zoo approached Texas PR agency Allyn Media to help with strategic messaging, media outreach and fact correcting, as the story began to extend beyond local news coverage, but soon grabbed the interest of journalists world-wide. Allyn Media helped the Dallas Zoo manage the crisis during all the incidents and facilitated joint responses with the Dallas Police Department.

Allyn Media operated alongside the Dallas Zoo communication and leadership teams to keep the media updated with all three cases. We monitored social media for tips from the public, corrected misinformation timed responses

Effective Strategies:

• Utilized existing, strong relationships with local and national media to gain positive coverage.
• We set up social media listening tools and assigned team members to monitor individual media outlets
• Strategic planning to have information available while cooperating with the law enforcement and their investigation
• Answer media requests in a timely manner
• Streamlined the process of interviews for Zoo officials
• In the event of a discrepancy, an Allyn Media Crisis Communications’ team member reached out to the outlet/journalist to correct the misinformation
• Drafted statements for the media as the story grew

The Dallas Zoo with the support of Allyn Media managed the narrative of the coverage locally, nationally and internationally in print, TV, radio and online outlets with the correct narrative for our client.