Operated by Pacific Battleship Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the Battleship IOWA Museum is one of the top five museums in Los Angeles. Located in San Pedro at the Port of Los Angeles, Battleship IOWA was the lead ship of the Iowa class of battleships that served during World War II, the Korean War, and through the Cold War. The maritime museum serves as a valuable platform that provides education programs to inspire future leaders, veterans’ programs to empower those who served, and community programs to strengthen the community.
Highlighting a Volunteer Hero
One of the most interesting aspects of the Battleship IOWA Museum, are the more than 100 veterans that volunteer aboard the ship in all areas of operations, maintenance, and guest interactions. Many of the volunteers served aboard the ship before she was decommissioned in 1990. Perhaps the most notable of the volunteers was 100-year-old Navy Petty Officer Lloyd Glick, a World War II veteran who volunteers regularly as a docent aboard the battleship.
The timing of LA Fleet Week during Memorial Day weekend, the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 2024, and the recent 100th birthday of WWII veteran Lloyd Glick would provide us with a unique story angle to pitch that we hoped would enable us to secure a story at LA Fleet Week that would capture the potential interest of a national news outlet.
The goal for this project was to secure a feature story about WWII veteran Lloyd Glick that would leverage the timing of the 80th anniversary of D-Day during WWII and generate awareness of LA Fleet Week. Due to the limited mobility of Petty Officer Glick, we suggested interviews take place during one of his volunteer shifts aboard the Battleship IOWA Museum during the week of the bi-coastal Fleet Week celebrations in New York and Los Angeles.
Given the studies that report that most museum visitors are over the age of 50 (American Alliance of Museums), Gen X and Millennials tend to donate more to charity (CCS Fundraising), and millennials travel the most (Expedia Media Solutions), we would target broadcast news organizations for our outreach.
Our objective was to secure one feature story on a national news program highlighting the continued service of WWII veteran Lloyd Glick aboard the Battleship IOWA Museum by June 6, 2024.
Taking the Story National
We pitched the story to Nancy Loo, National Correspondent at NewsNation. An interview with Glick was conducted aboard Battleship IOWA and Loo fronted the story live throughout the morning during several NewsNation news programs during LA Fleet Week. We also arranged a special tour for her aboard the visiting aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, between live shots which enabled her to add more information about LA Fleet Week during the afternoon live hits.
This single NewsNation feature story on Lloyd Glick reached a total national TV audience of 1,415,622 and a total local TV audience of 854,149. The total online news audience reached was 97,818 and 1,320,000 total social followers. In addition to the national broadcast (multiple times) on the NewsNation broadcast and digital channels, the major cities in which the story aired (local TV audience) included: Los Angeles, CA (2), Chicago, IL (3), Denver, CO (17), Salt Lake City, UT (27), Kansas City, MO (34), Austin, TX (35), Greensboro, NC (45), and Albuquerque, NM (49).
In addition to the feature story, the media relationship established with Ms. Loo was instrumental in securing a live five-minute interview of Battleship IOWA Museum CEO Jonathan Williams on a NewsNation morning news program prior to LA Fleet Week that enabled us to leverage the visibility of the longer-established New York Fleet Week to drive national awareness of the Los Angeles event and Battleship IOWA.