Girl on the Roof was hired by Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau (now called Explore Oak Ridge) to assist the City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee with rebranding. The city was built during World War 2 as part of the Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This complex history has haunted the city’s identity and thwarted its development.
Girl on the Roof hosted a series of stakeholder interviews followed by a large community forum in which attendees from various sectors of the community (education, industry, arts, nonprofit, tourism, government...) discussed the community’s assets and the common needs, goals, and audiences of their respective organizations. This formed a solid foundation upon which a new asset-based branding strategy was developed and supported by the community.
The launch of the Explore Oak Ridge brand family was followed by a new asset-based website, social media campaign, and community engagement initiatives that garnered significant attention. In the first 5 months of the new website (compared to the last 5 months of the previous site):
Users increased by 600%
Number of Sessions increased by 700%
Number of Page Views increased by 1,100%
Average Duration of Session increased by 250%
Screenshot of Explore Oak Ridge website page:
Once the website was live and generating unprecedented traffic for Oak Ridge, the Girl on the Roof team turned our attention to promoting one of the leading revenue-generating tourism assets for the city — its world-class rowing venue. In addition to stunning land and drone photography of the venue, Girl on the Roof produced a video and used it in a Google Display Network campaign that generated $72,000 in incremental tax revenue with just a $400 media buy.
Because of the success of our community engagement, branding and promotion efforts, the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce hired Girl on the Roof to produce a series of videos used to promote the town to its target audiences. Girl on the Roof was also hired to produce a video about the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in partnership with Explore Oak Ridge, the City, and the Department of Energy.
In the three years following Girl on the Roof’s work with Oak Ridge, the city saw double-digit increases in tourism annually and a palpable sense of community pride among its residents.
"Girl on the Roof has continually exceeded our expectations. I’ve been extremely impressed with their attention to detail and their effort to understand our goals. Combining that with GOTR’s outstanding customer service has made them an indispensable partner." – Marc DeRose, former Executive Director of Explore Oak Ridge
"Girl on the Roof is extremely creative and very flexible. They anticipate our needs and questions, proactively seek to control costs and are respectful of our relationships with parties who will be impacted by projects. They are very conscientious of our staff time and quick to act on suggestions or to offer effective alternatives. Girl on the Roof has our highest recommendation." – Parker Hardy, President/CEO of Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce