As part of the Great Lakes Forever public education initiative, Biodiversity Project experimented with an unusual outreach and education tool - bar coasters. The two-sided coasters feature a strong message about the vulnerability of the Lakes on one side, with some corroborating facts on the back. Nearly 20,000 Great Lakes Forever coasters are being used at local restaurants and bars all along Wisconsin's Great Lakes' coastline, including Racine, Milwaukee, Door County, Bayfield and even into Duluth, Minnesota. Response has been very positive so far. Nearly every restaurant and bar we approached welcomed the idea. Overall, this has been a very successful media and business outreach tool - drawing attention regionally and around the United States .
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The Coasters in Brief
- Goals: : Design and place educational bar coasters in coastal bars, restaurants and hotels on or near the Great Lakes . Like all of the products, the coasters were designed to increase awareness of the vulnerability of the Great Lakes. A secondary goal was to test the efficacy of using this type of unusual communications tool to bring messages to unexpected locations.
- Audiences : As with all Great Lakes Forever products, the target audiences were Great Lakes Lifestylers and/or Engaged Frequent Voters (click here to read more).
- Distribution : All venues were coastal restaurants, bars and hotels on or very near the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior shore. Managers were interviewed about their clientele demographics and, in the majority of cases, Biodiversity Project staff visited the location for data collection. Locations were given a one-month's supply of coasters based on their needs - in all, nearly 20,000 coasters were distributed to nineteen coastal bars and restaurants.
- Outcome : The Great Lakes Forever "coastal" coaster received a surprising amount of attention from the media and from our nonprofit and agency partners. Media coverage included a front-page article in the state's second largest newspaper - a story that was later picked up by Associated Press and run throughout the region. 5% of Web site survey respondents reported visiting the site after seeing a drink coaster.
Planning to Produce Your Own Coasters?
We're happy to provide advice and materials to help you produce your own coasters! Contact Jeffrey Potter at jpotter@biodiverse.org or 608-250-9876. See "Terms of Use" for more details on using Great Lakes Forever materials.