Built in 1903, rebuilt in 1955 and remodeled in 1989, the strategy of the new design launch was simple: educate the public on the need for the new space and reaffirm the library’s purpose and relevancy. A destination location in Uptown Charlotte, Main Library is the local library for 25,000+ residents in center city and 100,000+ weekday commuter workers. The library belongs to everyone, and the design was informed by potential users and customers and how we will serve this diverse cross-section of the community.

The library placed embargoed articles with Charlotte Business Journal and Charlotte Magazine, in addition to a news release sent to local/regional news, library and architectural media outlets. Social media created a robust plan that boosted posts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and tagged our project partners. In owned media, we produced a new Main Library video with community members and staff talking about relevancy, created a new website page, emailed all library cardholders and developed a marketing toolkit.

Surpassed both goals:

1. More than 390 media placements/mentions resulting in a reach of 171.9 million. The library hosted a news conference with 10 media outlets, created a digital media kit with news release, design images, video, backgrounders and specifications of the projects and included a gift of a library-branded notebook/cellphone holder.
2. Social media resulting in 93,001 impressions, 6,645 engagements and 442 click-throughs, along with 261 received messages. Recorded 3,400 trackable website links and 7,500 web page views.