The Franklin Rebranding Campaign Leaves Behind Questions

• By Kara LaFleur
• October 28, 2008

When a rebranding campaign leaves its audience with question marks, that’s typically not a good thing. But for The Franklin Institute’s rebranding campaign, launched this spring, that’s exactly the point.

In addition to taking on a new moniker (“The Franklin”) the rebranding efforts included a new web portal that hammers home the campaign’s tagline, “Curious?”.

The portal is beautifully designed. By using elements of nostalgia framed with tech appeal – a period piece mannequin with stop motion animation, a slide projector with flash movies – The Franklin has created an experiential and engaging web presence.

More importantly, though, is the way the “Curious?” portal manages to put the focus on the visitor – and not the museum (notice that there are no images of the museum featured.) This shift allows The Franklin to successfully establish a new public face as the place for anyone who takes wonder in the world, and goes along way toward broadening its appeal to a wider (and younger) audience … because who doesn’t like to think of themselves as “Curious?”

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