Putting 300 Million Years of Colorado History on Display
Our Challenge
Friends of Dinosaur Ridge was preparing to open Deep Time Detour, a new immersive prehistoric exhibit, ahead of Memorial Day weekend. The team wanted to build awareness, drive visitation and stand out during a busy start to the summer season. The timing created additional opportunities to connect Dinosaur Ridge to broader conversations, including Colorado’s 150th anniversary and the launch of a new weekend RTD shuttle to the site. Beyond the opening, the organization wanted a more manageable approach to ongoing communications and practical tools to help its small team plan ahead, stay consistent and make the most of its communications resources.
Our Solution
Friends of Dinosaur Ridge applied for Barefoot PR’s 2026 pro bono program and was selected as one of our partners for the year. We were excited to support the organization with an integrated communications campaign that provided audiences with timely, relevant reasons to visit Dinosaur Ridge and its new exhibit. We built media outreach around the exhibit’s grand opening, summer activities, Colorado history and easier access to the site, while using organic social content to keep the story moving and paid digital advertising to reach new audiences. We also created a communications roadmap featuring strategies and tactics to help the team plan ahead, stay consistent and continue building awareness beyond the launch. We provided Dinosaur Ridge with practical tools, including an editorial calendar, an earned media storybank, a social media content calendar and a set of branded social media graphic templates to support implementation. Learn more about our creative process in our blog: From Dinosaur Bones to Native Foliage: How We Found Inspiration at Dinosaur Ridge.
Results
The campaign secured 17 earned media mentions with a potential audience of nearly 873,000 and an estimated publicity value of more than $34,000.
186,000 organic social media views and increased new followers by 52% compared with the previous period
3,145 link clicks through paid digital advertising at an average cost of $0.19 per click
5,000 visitors welcomed at Deep Time Detour in its first six weeks
Meet the Project Leads
Emily Keely
PR Associate
