This summer’s hottest new dinosaur exhibition! Behind-the-scenes of the PR for the DinoScience Dinosaur science museum
Hello! My name is Miyazaki, and I joined SUNNY SIDE UP this year.
Today, I’d like to introduce a new dinosaur exhibition that can be enjoyed both at the exhibition site and online along with its PR, which is perfect for this summer vacation. When you think of “dinosaurs,” you may think it is for families and children, but it is full of fascinating contents that will satisfy adults as well.
Sony Group came together to create the “Sony presents DinoScience The Dinosaurs of Laramidia 2021@YOKOHAMA” (hereafter “DinoScience Dinosaur Science Museum”), based on one of Sony’s Values, “Dreams and Curiosity.”
SUNNY SIDE UP is in charge of the PR secretariat for this exhibition, which has been held at Pacifico Yokohama since July 17th.
What is the PR Office ?
It is a function that serves as a PR agency or press room, acting on behalf of a company in all aspects of its public relations operations. SUNNY SIDE UP can support PR operations with its strong network of contacts with a wide variety of media and flexible mobility.
Specific activities include working with the DinoScience Dinosaur Science Museum Production Committee and the organizer of the event to create and distribute press releases about the event, responding to media inquiries, attracting media coverage, and supporting press conferences and previews, making full use of SUNNY SIDE UP’s extensive relationships with the media to disseminate information.
Dinosaur × Science =“DinoScience”
“DinoScience” is defined as “a completely new dinosaur experience created by Sony from a scientific perspective.”
Conventional dinosaur exhibitions tend to display dinosaurs from various periods from the Triassic Period to the Cretaceous Period along the lineage of dinosaurs, or exhibit a wide range of dinosaur species regardless of the region in which they lived, treating dinosaurs merely as entertainment.
On the other hand, Western museums do not only exhibit dinosaurs as skeletal specimens, but also view them from a scientific perspective as living creatures, and try to satisfy the visitors’ intellectual curiosity by explaining their mysteries and interesting aspects. Dinosaurs are positioned as one of the “doors to science.”
However, this year’s exhibition focused on the “Lost Continent of Laramidia,” which existed during the late Cretaceous Period (approximately 100 million to 66 million years ago), and is a long continent that stretches westward from present-day Alaska to Mexico. The surprising characteristics of the dinosaurs that inhabited the continent and their climate and ecosystem will be introduced.
With the massive support by the Sony Group, the members of the PR office worked closely with the organizers, related parties, and the media to prepare for the event to determine how best to accurately communicate the “dinosaur experience created from a scientific perspective” to the public.
We had an interview with the planner/supervisor “Mr. Dinosaur(Tanaka Masashi)”, created articles featuring Sony’s technological capabilities, had entertainment-oriented exposure for ambassador Nao Kosaka of Hinatazaka 46, Emiri Miyamoto, who wrote the official theme song, and DAITA. We thought of the PR approach and timing of information dissemination more than six months in advance, and formulated and implemented in order to convey the full range of attractions of the event, rather than just information on summer vacation excursions for DinoScience Dinosaur Science Museum. As a result of all the support and thorough process, the media exposure was not only quantitative but also qualitative, including an interview with Mr. Dinosaur(Tanaka Masashi) in a newspaper that took up one-third of the space and a full-length feature in a TV program (BS channel,) which contributed to the excitement of the event.
Highlights of the event
The exhibition venue features a full lineup of dinosaurs that are on display for the first time in Japan, and other popular dinosaurs, including the “Lane,” a full-length Triceratops skeleton which is said to be “the most complete and beautiful in the world”. The exhibition was thoroughly supervised by the exhibition planner and supervisor, Mr. Dinosaur(Tanaka Masashi), under the theme of “Recreating the World of Dinosaurs.”
Lane the Tremendous Triceratops
Collection of the Houston Museum of Natural Science
Profile: Mr. Dinosaur(Tanaka Masashi)
Science Communicator. Fascinated by dinosaurs as a child, Mr. Dinosaur(Tanaka Masashi) went to Canada by himself at the age of 16 to study. He studied paleontology and a wide range of other sciences at the University of Alberta, where dinosaur research is flourishing. His wide-ranging activities include planning and supervising dinosaur exhibitions, organizing hands-on classes such as talk shows and workshops, creating illustrations, supervising robots and models, writing, and translating. His theme is not simply to disseminate knowledge about dinosaurs, but to create opportunities for people to look at various things in the world, such as living creatures, nature, science, and environmental issues, through dinosaurs. He is the only person in Japan with expertise in dinosaurs who is not affiliated with a research institute or university, and is active in conveying correct knowledge about dinosaurs in a fun, easy-to-understand, and entertaining way.
Official site： https://kyoryukun.com/
Sony’s technology and creativity are used throughout the venue. One of the most representative examples is the Cretaceous Period Experience Theater. It took about two years from planning to production. Mr. Dinosaur(Tanaka Masashi) thoroughly supervised the latest research into dinosaur body shapes, textures, and movements, as well as the vegetation of the time. The large CG images, reproduced with the utmost precision using Sony’s image production technology, are projected on a large screen of Sony’s Crystal LEDs, 12 meters wide and 6.8 meters tall, with overwhelming reality and power. The 7.1.2ch surround sound system, Sony’s haptics technology (tactile presentation technology), vibrations from the floor in time with the images, wind effects, and various other unique technologies will make you feel as if you have stepped back in time to the era when dinosaurs existed.
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- ⓒDinoScience Dinosaur Science Expo Production Committee
Tours available online as well
The “Xperia ‘True Remote EXperience’ powered by au”, an online tour that allows visitors to experience new discoveries, emotions, and fun that are different from those at the venue, will also be held. In the tour, scenes from the venue are filmed with Xperia™ smartphones and distributed in real time. The tour offers plenty of unique online highlights that will make you want to learn more about dinosaurs, such as photographing skeletal specimens from angles that cannot be seen at the venue and bringing the camera closer to the diseased and injured parts of dinosaurs for a more detailed explanation.
You can participate in this online tour from your own smartphone or computer and enjoy the realistic view of the venue from your home or any other location outside of the venue. This is another “DinoScience Dinosaur Science Museum” with discoveries, impressions, and fun that can only be experienced in real life.
We hope you will enjoy the “DinoScience Dinosaur Science Museum,” a completely new dinosaur experience created by Sony from the viewpoint of science, not only in the real experience of visiting the Museum in person, but also through the online tour.
*This exhibition will be held in accordance with the guidelines of the government, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the venue, and will be held under thorough measures to prevent the transmission of the COVID-19. For more information, please refer to the official website.
https://dino-science.com/
The above is an introduction to “event PR” to maximize the excitement of the event as well as the appeal of the “DinoScience Dinosaur Science Museum”. We will continue to update our PR methods to convey the appeal of various events that are diversifying with the times!
