The city of Alpharetta, Georgia is on a mission to rebrand itself. Not to its own inhabitants, but to outsiders who aren’t familiar with the city and what it has become. Suburbs aren’t traditionally viewed as hip hubs for tech companies, cultural events, nightlife and more; those distinctions are generally relegated to their urban counterparts. In Alpharetta’s case, however, this distinction couldn’t be further from the truth.
With 600 technology companies and over 100 restaurants, breweries, shopping centers, music venues, and events that are unique to the city - Alpharetta “ain’t no sleepy suburb,” as one tagline puts it.
But how was Alpharetta to establish itself as more than just a commuter suburb for Georgia’s capital city? What would be the best way to communicate the energy and feel of the city while simultaneously connecting professionals with the area, its people, and its booming tech trade?
For a community that’s as inviting to the technology sector and a creative culture as Alpharetta is the answer became immediately obvious: connect through video.
The Challenge
Alpharetta’s goal was twofold: encourage tech companies and workers to move to the the crowned “technology city of the south” while simultaneously highlighting the city’s trending cultural aspects to encourage visitors to the city.
Alpharetta had already been touted as America’s #1 place to move to by Forbes, now it was time to share the message to grow the Atlanta suburb while continuing to build the economic engine of the community.
When looking for ways to share their message with the world, Grow Alpharetta (the organization overseeing the growth project) chose Crisp Video Group to develop and implement a video marketing strategy to spread the city’s message.
Crisp had a unique offering: an ongoing, year-long organic video marketing strategy incorporating keyword research data, targeted reach, and a steady rotation of high quality in-house produced video content to showcase the city, its brands, and its people.
The Strategy
In order to achieve Grow Alpharetta’s goals, Crisp Video Group produced video content to showcase Alpharetta not only as a cutting edge technology community, but as an ideal community to succeed economically and raise a family socially.
In order to craft a narrative around Alpharetta’s multi-faceted culture, part of the video series would focus on different social aspects of the city (the “foodie” scene, nightlife, parks, etc.).
New video content would be released consistently for the duration of a year in order to create a steady buzz around the community. Beginning the process with an in-depth discovery call with representatives from Grow Alpharetta, the organization’s marketing goals were identified, solidified, and used to form the basis of the campaign’s messaging.
With slogans like “this ain’t your pap-pap’s city” and a hip, young vibe, it was immediately apparent that the city’s first target demographic (technology workers) is a younger, tech-oriented crowd.
Corresponding with the cultural strategy, the second approach to attract tech companies to the area began to take shape. In order to encourage these companies to move to the area, Crisp Video Group devised a plan to highlight the city’s business environment through Alpharetta’s current business owners and CEOs.
In order to create an authentic feel that appealed to directly to the second target audience (tech CEOs and business owners), this video marketing strategy centered on CEO profiles from Alpharetta’s current technology companies.
There’s no better way to tell a story than through the lens of those who currently live it, and the Alpharetta CEO profile series serves to showcase not only the companies that have headquartered in the area, but also the reasons for which they did and the success stories for companies who have relocated there.
The Results
In the first 6 months, the city of Alpharetta’s YouTube exposure grew nearly 10x from 189 to 1,390 video views per month while their Facebook presence has more than tripled, currently reaching 6,237 people per month through organic views and shares alone.
A YouTube search for “City of Alpharetta” yields a first page full of videos exclusively from the current Grow Alpharetta video marketing campaign:
Alpharetta’s videos have also been extremely successful on social media (a key outlet for their tech-savvy target demographic), with the top results for their Facebook videos currently as follows:
Taste of Alpharetta 2016: 33,000 views
Alpharetta’s Parks and Trails: 14,000 views
Only in Alpharetta: 5,000 views
Alpharetta 360, the digital media arm of the Grow Alpharetta campaign, has also seen site traffic increase by 136% in the same time 6 month frame.
With the goal of branding the city to engage and attract new workers and businesses, it’s safe to say that the strategy is beginning to work its course. With current video and web metrics pointing toward a staggering exposure increase, the city has already decided to follow their initial campaign with a renewed second year.
Discussing their campaign with Crisp Video Group, Peter Tokar III (Economic Development Director, Grow Alpharetta) had the following to say, “I’ve worked with a lot of media and production companies in the past. Crisp Video is by far the best video production studio I have ever worked with. From production to filming to providing the latest in optimization of our video content, Crisp Video provides the best customer experience I have ever had. They give us big studio productions with small studio personalization and attention.”
As the strategy continues, Grow Alpharetta’s corporate video strategy shows that high-quality video marketing strategy can not only serve to brand a company or organization, but that the right video content can branch out to reach a new audience while increasing exposure for said organizations.
As Grow Alpharetta continues their high-quality video marketing campaign, they will continue to drive engagement and spread word of the “technology capital of the south” to their target demographics.
Take a look at the full video:
About Crisp Video Crisp Video is a client-focused, results-oriented corporate and small business video production company. Their mission is to help you tell your brand’s story through the power of video. Crisp Video is different from other video production companies out there. They believe in building quality, long-lasting relationships with clients and believe that their work does not end once they deliver your video.
