Greater roc
bringing in the new crowd
Sometimes big impacts come in smaller packages. When time limits and software complications keep you from doing absolutely everything possible, you improvise, pivot, and make something visually stunning.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Greater ROC is a tourism brand sponsored by New York State to attract in-state and out-of-state folks to come and visit one of Western NY’s biggest hubs of music, art, and history.
Project timeline
November 2023 – March 2024.
This project started before I had joined the team and continues on now after I’m no longer a part of it. However, for the length of time I was able to be a part of it, I was grateful.
my part to play
I was brought in as a digital expert of sorts, focusing primarily on their web presence and digital advertising. I acted as web designer and web master for the duration of my time with the client.
software
Adobe Photoshop
Figma
Wix
the issue
Rochester, NY is not exactly a small city that you’d miss on a map. Between garbage plates, RIT, and Kristen Wiig, it’s an incredibly vibrant city with massive history and culture. Unfortunately, the tourism sector was struggling to capture what exactly about Rochester was worth visiting. They had a great foundation of integrated marketing campaigns, but it all drove to a website that needed a bit of a refresh.
the solution
The process began with a phase of client communication, expectation, budget, and then an internal investigation. Rochester has one of the largest deaf populations in the United States and while the campaigns weren’t all necessarily focused internally, making sure all things surrounding the promotional and digital assets were accessible were key.
results
The website was behind its accessibility standards and between font illegibility and incompatible color contrasts, changes had to be made.
The limitations of Wix made restructuring the website a bit difficult, but it just meant the site was simpler and had a lesser possibility to have interaction and animation accessibility issues. The actual rebuild itself took only about a month between initial re-design and landing on a final website. The whole campaign ended up with some pretty amazing results, including winning six different ADDY awards. Below are just some of the amazing highlighted results from the campaign.
850%
increase in web traffic
147%
increase in social media engagement
34%
increase in YOY social media following