Copy This: Zero One Sponsor a Museum

There is a great program from Zero One Design called Sponsor a Museum. In a nut shell, they call for smaller museums and galleries to submit an application to receive pro-bono technical and web services. They call this program Sponsor a Museum and they have an advisory panel of museum professionals that help to determine the winner.

If you go to Zero One's site, you'll notice that their target market just happens to be arts and culture organizations in Canada. Why am I pointing this out? Because this is a brilliant model for small businesses to copy. This program is a way to:

- Raise profile by creating a prize platform with an advisory board
- Create leads by getting applicants in specific target markets
- Create visibility
- Package a good story for the media to pick up on
- Create buzz among the applicants
- Create fans (if the project is executed flawlessly)
- Gain brand awareness and name recognition
- Use the work as a case study
- Gain the halo effect by giving back to the community
In their words, "We are firm believers in giving back to our community and we decided in 2004 that what we really wanted to do, what really put a fire in our belly, was to take a smaller museum or gallery under our wing and help them out with their technological and web needs. We run across too many institutions that have amazing collections, but no money, staff or technological skills to present them in the online world."

Great program by Zero One Design. By the way, this year the The Vancouver Police Museum won. Check out their site and their blog called Off the Cuff, it's a hoot.