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February, 2008
Ruby, Rock and Railway
Three roadside attraction stalwarts pool advertising dollars to create an uptick in outlook for tourism on Lookout Mountain
By Allison Gorman
Before the roaming gnome, there was Rock City—where the gnomes are going nowhere, thank you. They've
left the roaming to others, mostly drivers lured up Lookout Mountain by hundreds of barns and
billboards dotting highways east of the Mississippi. Rock City turned 75 last year, and except for
peripheral upgrades, the attraction itself—a quirky blend of kitsch and stunning rock
outcroppings—seems frozen in time. That it has remained both economically vital and fundamentally
unchanged, even as the era of roadside attractions has passed, is a testament to the belief behind
the barn roofs: Marketing will get you everywhere.
"Once people could take interstates, they bypassed America. That was really the beginning of the end
of the classic roadside period," says Ron Dylewski, Pittsburgh-based publisher of the Web site
TheAmericanRoadside.com. Modest, privately run attractions fell into disrepair, he says, while theme
parks became destinations, strategically evolving to capture new waves of tourists. Within this
context, Rock City, like its 79-year-old neighbor, Ruby Falls caverns, is at a unique disadvantage:
Its appeal is both geologic and nostalgic—qualities that defy change.
So Rock City changed its marketing. In 2006, it partnered with Ruby Falls and the nearby,
100-year-old Incline Railway to "brand" Lookout Mountain under the umbrella of R & R Marketing.
Company president Robert Pettway calls the approach "co-opertition": Each attraction retains its own
identity, but their blended creative and sales force allows for coordinated messaging. Even better,
their combined $2 million budget buys advertising opportunities previously out of reach.
Last year, the pricey Atlanta market was part of a new, multi-city ad campaign; since then, Pettway
says, sales have increased 8%, with more than a million annual visitors at the three attractions
combined, and Internet ticketing has grown to 6% of total sales. (The goal is 15% to 18%, he says.)
R & R has cross-promoted with out-of-market media, slapped ads on the back of Pepsi trucks in
Tennessee and Georgia, and partnered with hometown Hercules, Gordon Biersch Brewery. Meanwhile, the
attractions have stretched their seasons well beyond warm weather; Ruby Falls' Halloween Haunted
Cavern and Rock City's seven-week Christmas festival are growing moneymakers. Next up, Pettway says,
are events and programs targeting niche demographics, from Hispanics to dog-lovers.
Still, he notes, over half of R & R's efforts are roadside, on billboards and, yes, barns—including
the latest, painted just last year outside Chicago. "You don't ever want to give up on what's
brought you to the dance."
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