As part of an on-going community strategic planning initiative focused on communication and collaboration, the Burkesville/Cumberland County Industrial Authority, Cumberland County Fiscal Court, City Council of Burkesville, Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce, and the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service  worked together with the help of professional consultation to develop a community brand and identity that will result in an improved visual presence on the worldwide web that will support positive economic and community development for years to come.

Over the past year, the work of this project has been guided by local volunteers that have served on an Ad-Hoc Community Branding Committee. The joint committee reported monthly to the Burkesville-Cumberland County IDA, Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce and to the Cumberland County Tourism Commission. As a result, the volunteers who serve within in each of the groups had a chance to provide on the input. 

The work of the Ad-Hoc Committee was support by an ARC mini grant. One major difference in this project from most projects like this is that the funds were not sent to just one consultant. The Ad-Hoc Community Branding Committee felt that local resources were available and by partnering, money could be saved, and it would lead to a better and more sustainable finished product, long after any single consulting firm would have moved on. 

Example One: Instead of hiring an outside professional photographer, 3 different local photographers were paid $100 to take pictures of public events and in return they shared many of their photos that had already taken. The goal was to create an online database of local pictures and video for future marketing and branding efforts. 

Example Two: We partnered with our local high to school who has a marketing class to create marketing videos. This served as a great method for increasing awareness about the ongoing project and a source of volunteer labor. Community Branding and Marketing will also be apart of course content during the 2021 school year. We paid the school $500 to support their efforts. They purchased video editing software and held a contest for the best marketing video using the videos and photos included in database. 

One byproduct of this project is series videos that lasted 5 minutes, 2 minutes, 60 seconds and 30 second that are for use on the internet and TV. A local 4-H member and State 4-H Speech Contest winner narrated the videos and the script was created by a high school student.That resulted in a great reduction in cost.  One of the videos can be see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZEG9fQmyg