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Creating a Brand 4.5 Billion Years in the Making

Geothermal Rising

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Use the Earth to Save the Earth.

Geothermal Rising came to Taoti as the Geothermal Resources Council, an organization with an outdated brand representing a renewable energy source most people had never heard of. They struggled for years to make geothermal energy approachable and appealing to the average American and tasked DC’s best creative agency with rising to this challenge.

We did just that.

We made it our business to become experts on geothermal energy, and our team set out to ensure the organization’s brand, marketing, and website were as powerful as the limitless energy source beneath our feet. We achieved this by:

  • Performing a thorough research and discovery phase to uncover key insights about the brand and the public’s perception of geothermal energy.
  • Renaming the organization through a comprehensive naming and messaging process that resulted in the new Geothermal Rising name and Powering Our Renewable Future tagline.
  • Rebranding the organization to better reflect its capabilities and to communicate geothermal energy’s function and value through visual design and messaging.
  • Creating a marketing strategy to help guide Geothermal Rising’s outreach activities for members and the broad public.
  • Launching the brand with a brand video, swag, press release, and more as part of a large industry virtual event.
  • Designing and developing a new website to be the home for Geothermal Rising and its members in the United States and around the world.
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Behind the Scenes of an Award-Winning Rebrand

Our discovery process included surveys and stakeholder interviews with members and the Board of Directors, competitor research, and collaborative mind-mapping workshops designed to help us immerse ourselves in the unique opportunities and challenges of the industry. Brimming with ideas after this intake process, our team generated several new names for the organization and ultimately landed on Geothermal Rising. This name describes both the phenomenon of heat rising upwards from the Earth’s core and the upward momentum of the geothermal movement. Next, we designed a custom icon for the logo that depicts a cross-section of the Earth, revealing the power right below the surface. Finally, we created a robust set of brand guidelines to empower Geothermal Rising to maintain consistency in its new brand going forward. We were proud to be the recipients of a Gold MarCom award for this rebrand.

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Not Just a New Website, But an Experience

We undertook a full website redesign focused on educating and inspiring the general public about geothermal energy while still improving the digital experience for members of the association. Our creative team designed the homepage to experientially simulate the user sinking through the layers of the Earth as they scroll. We also replaced the industrial-looking images of geothermal power plants that had previously been used with beautiful, grand-scale nature photography—geothermal is from the Earth and for the Earth, so why not use beautiful images of the Earth in our materials? After the site launched, Geothermal Rising has seen its website traffic increase substantially and has attracted more new users looking to learn about this powerful energy source.

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Spreading the word

With a refreshed brand and website, Geothermal Rising needed to tell their newly invigorated story through its social media channels. As advocates of a lesser-known renewable energy source, they knew they had to be both strategic and creative with how they shared the benefits of geothermal energy with key stakeholders, policymakers, and the public.

Armed with a strong understanding of the brand, Taoti extended their new look into social media visuals and messaging, incorporating fresh branding and eye-catching design to create a more polished and engaging presence across platforms. We then layered their newly refreshed  “always on” messaging regarding the benefits of geothermal energy with quarterly campaigns designed to create “always fresh” ways to deliver their message: geothermal really is the best.

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The impact was significant. During 2024, Instagram saw a 75% increase in impressions (17K+) and 82% more engagements. Facebook impressions grew 31% (35K+), with engagement soaring 166%. On LinkedIn, Taoti reactivated a dormant company page, growing it by 3,650 new followers while generating 420K+ impressions and 51K+ engagements.

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Geothermal Rising’s Profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X) 2024 total numbers compared to 2023 numbers on the same platform.

Through strategic messaging, strong visuals, and consistent engagement, Taoti turned Geothermal Rising’s social media presence into a thriving, influential community that now serves as a leading voice in the geothermal energy space.

Beyond social, Taoti has also aided in Geothermal Rising’s mission to spread their influence in the geothermal space through in-person activations. To start, Taoti’s The 507 Events Space played host to the 2024 Capitol Hill Day — serving as a home base for the Geothermal team as they spoke with policymakers on Capitol Hill.

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Plus, when it came time to curate informational videos for the annual Geothermal Rising conference (which Taoti made), the GR team was in need of a recording booth to get some quick narration done.

Say no more.

A few sound proof barriers and our in-house content team turned the walls of Taoti into a professional studio.

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We weren’t the only people excited about Geothermal Rising’s new brand, website, and social presence. Here’s what GR’s executive director, Dr. Bryant Jones, had to say about our work:

“Taoti’s work has been instrumental in our increased presence in the conversation about renewable energy. We’re operating at a whole other level now, and they’re a big part of why.”