Rise Brands creates unique, fresh, modern, and entertaining brands. Their largest brand is known as Pins Mechanical Co., which is a duckpin bowling alley with seven locations across Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania. The first brand to come out of Rise is 16 Bit Bar and Arcade. This brand is known for its retro style; each location has classic arcade games and traditional cocktails on their menu. 16 Bit only has one stand alone location in Columbus, Ohio and is attached to many Pins Mechanical’s around the country. Their newest concept, Weenie Wonder, is a fast casual build-your-own-hotdog restaurant that has one location in Dublin, Ohio. Weenie Wonder will eventually be placed directly next to all Pins Mechanical and 16 Bit locations throughout the U.S. 

During my time at Rise, I was able to shadow the Vice President of Marketing as well as complete a few personal projects. Shadowing the VP of Marketing allowed me to sit in on the first ever concept meeting for Weenie Wonder four years before it would be announced to the public. During the meeting, CEO and Owner Troy Allen led the group through his overarching vision and an imprecise marketing plan. Allen had lots of background in the agency world, as Rise Brands formerly defined themselves as a brand management agency.  It became clear to me as I was listening to Allen discuss his thought process that I wanted my future career to look something similar to his.

In addition to attending meetings and shadowing, I was in charge of conducting research on potential competitors in all of the cities that Pins Mechanical was in at the time (Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland). I defined exactly what I thought made businesses competition and how Pins Mechanical was better or worse than their competition and why.