Organization: 21st Century Waterfront
Agency: Waterhouse Public Relations
Timeframe: June 2004 to July 2005
When one of the most trusted names in news is skewering your city in a live TV broadcast audience, the call for image control couldn't be more pressing.
"Walter Cronkite [in the 1960s] said Chattanooga was the dirtiest city in America," explains Todd Womack, former director of communications for Mayor Robert Corker (2001-05).
"People would tell the story of how they would take an extra white shirt if they were a white-collared employee because there was so much soot. People felt that Chattanooga lost
its identity and the downtown suffered accordingly. The city lost its identity in many ways."
By the time Mayor Corker took office, Chattanooga was already on the up-and-up in tourism figures. Clean-up efforts resulted from federal and state laws stemming pollution in
the 1970s, and in the 1980s the private sector mobilized a project, aptly titled "Vision 2000," to generate $30 million that helped fund the Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga
Visitors Center and Creative Discovery Museum (all of which opened in the early to mid-1990s).
Other businesses took notice and began making their way back downtown. "It was driven by the private sector who wanted to see change," Womack says. "What it really did was to
help Chattanooga's renaissance. The city was becoming a fairly dynamic place to be."
In 2002, Corker rallied the private and public sectors to hammer out what would become the jewel in Chattanooga's revival crown: The 21st Century Waterfront Project.
Approximately 300 people attended the first meeting in 2002, which was advertised through Chattanooga-area newspapers, morning radio shows and TV news stations.
But, according to Womack, the best promotional tool was that of fear. "People in Chattanooga were already used to coming to these meetings. People were afraid not to be at
the meetings," he says. "Because the mayor was driving this, it caused the local media to be more interested in coming to the events."
To the tune of $120 million, the plan called for renovations of its main attractions and riverfront space, parkway and shoreline - a $30 million expansion of the Tennessee
Aquarium, a $20 million expansion of the Hunter Museum of American Art, a $3 million renovation of the Creative Discovery Museum, enhanced public spaces along the
riverfront at Ross's Landing and on the north shore, a pedestrian pier and bridge, new boat slips and green spaces, a wetlands park and adventure playground, and a new underground
passageway to the river that celebrates Native American culture and marks the history of the forced exile of the Cherokee Indians in the Trail of Tears.
Through revenue streams raised through private donations, constructing parking garages, and overall tourism, the city parried the taxpayer burden so it could foot the $120-
million project. "We didn't take any money from the general fund," Womack says, proudly. "It was an incredible vision and people responded to it in incredible ways."
Be Like Water
To coordinate the promotions of the 21st Century Waterfront Project, Waterhouse Public Relations of Chattanooga was enlisted, which immediately launched a three-pronged
objective: Position the city as a tourist destination, promote its individual attractions and use local media for pre-coverage of the grand-opening festivities.
""We were like the symphony," says agency president Albert Waterhouse of his agency's efforts to coordinate this PR project. "We managed it all."
But Waterhouse's communications juggling act of the mayor's office, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the PR directors of each attraction and Development
Counselors International Ltd. of New York was originally far from symphonic. To avoid duplication, missed deadlines and inaccurate messages, Waterhouse implemented an
aggressive and thorough e-communications system that outlined strategies, tactics and guidelines to brief "where people were, what the message is" every week.
The PR agency devised local, national and international media campaigns to streamline publicity announcing the grand opening of the Waterfront. "There are a trillion market
magazine segments that were targeted," Waterhouse says. "Everybody got their fair share of visibility."
"Throughout the entire process the communications was up to date," Womack adds. "There were so many entities involved, so making sure all entities weren't duplicating each
other [was important]. One entity would get a call that might not be applicable. Working hand-in-glove was very important and making as much progress from a PR perspective."
Rolling On The River
The Chattanooga Waterfront attracted approximately 30,000 people during its concert/fireworks-spectacular grand-opening weekend in May 2005. "We felt we far exceeded
everybody's expectations," he says.
From April 2005 to March 2006, the river city saw 3,228,000 tourists, a 9.6% increase from the previous year.
"I don't think we would have seen these increases without a PR campaign," says Robert Doak, president and CEO of Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"Clearly, we also saw increases in non-traditional feeder markets which helps the public relations effort and was instrumental in drawing people from other markets. PR
campaigning can add more validity to what a story is and is a more inexpensive way to get that message out."
The PR effort garnered more than 3.5 million impressions from more than 80 publications, including USA Today and the New York Times plus a skein of travel,
economic development and architectural trade magazines. The PR-fueled media coverage also encouraged municipal delegations from as far afield as Los Angeles to study the river
city's success in hopes of duplicating their efforts.
Contacts: Todd Womack, [email protected]; Albert Waterhouse, [email protected]; Robert Doak, [email protected].
Lessons Learned: Municipal PR Projects
If you are planning to promote a municipal rejuvenation project, here are salient some tips to ponder:
- Learn to be patient. Municipal bureaucracy is not known for its speed and efficiency. This is not the territory for the impatient, so be calm and don't expect
short-order service.
- Take it to the trades. The Chattanooga project featured here was promoted in both the general consumer media and the trade media. Don't overlook the value of trade
publications for promoting such projects. Trade publications have a longer shelf life than consumer media and they reach significant national audiences.
- Coordinate with the CVB folks. Local convention and visitors bureaus need to promote their cities for attracting both general and business-to-business tourism. By
keeping them abreast of your PR efforts, you will help to grow local revenues and (with good fortune) help snag new PR partnerships via your new CVB friends.