The Georgia State trade and tourism account is up for grabs. It's expected to be handed off to one of four agency finalists this week. But the mega-advertising conglomerates
that once dominated the RFP process are conspicuously absent from the short list (J. Walter Thompson held the account for eight years). Finalists include a sprinkling of smaller
ad shops and one PR heavyweight: Fleishman-Hillard.
One reason for the shift in agency contenders, according to Robert Morris, communications director with Georgia's Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism, is that PR, for the
first time, will claim a significant piece of the budget pie in the state's economic development strategy. (All of the smaller ad shops bidding for the account have PR
partnerships waiting in the wings.) "Legitimate editorial stories are increasingly important," Morris says, noting that advertising alone won't cut through the cacophony of an
over-saturated media market. Especially not with the state's $2.5 - $5 million marcom budget, which when divvied up, won't buy more than a thimbleful of ad space.
The Peach State is hardly the first locale to reach this epiphany about PR. Communities that once banked their livelihoods on bumper sticker slogans such as "I Love New York"
and "Virginia is for Lovers" are increasingly ditching mass market appeals in favor of alternative branding strategies -- media relations, event marketing and executive
communications, in particular -- to bring more jobs, vacationers and big businesses closer to home.
The latest proof comes via Chicago, which continues to ride the wave of positive press generated by its successful courtship of Boeing (PRN, May 21). The city is recycling a
slew of communications materials, crafted by Golin/Harris, that bear the theme, "Chicago: Central to Your Success," with hopes of attracting even more Fortune 1000 businesses to
the area.
Oh, the Places PR Goes
Of course, not all communities enjoy the luxury of being asked by major corporations to strut their stuff. Last year, Tacoma, Wash., launched a multi-faceted development
campaign geared toward attracting more technology companies to its Northwest digs. "It's uncommon for cities of our size to put money into marketing because we have so many other
great needs in sewage, public safety and other areas," says Julie Wilkerson, director of the Tacoma Economic Development Depart-ment. "But, we realized that if we wanted
businesses to come here and create jobs, we needed to be more proactive about reaching out," she says.
Touting itself as "America's Most Wired City," Tacoma played up its 700-mile infrastructure of fiber optics, scoring ink in The New York Times, Business 2.0 and the Seattle
papers. On a more collegial level, Tacoma's economic development team rallied local civic and business leaders to adopt consistent "talking points," not only for media interviews
but also rotary club meetings, speaking engagements and in-person meetings with "site selection" consultants in other cities. Tacoma has since attracted more than 100 high-tech
businesses. In the process, more than 4,500 new jobs were created, mostly in construction and renovation projects in the downtown area.
Tacoma's success underscores PR's value as a precision targeting tool on the economic development front, according to Rob DeRocker, EVP with Development Counsellors
International (DCI). "Think of the automotive market, where you have a dozen major car companies with a potential customer base of millions of people who drive," he suggests.
"With economic development, the pyramid is inverted. You've got tens of thousands of communities chasing top decision-makers in only a relative handful of companies [that] in a
given year are going to expand or relocate," he says. Reaching the right people at the right moment with the right message is everything.
Corporate execs don't make expansion decisions based on advertising. A 1999 survey of 427 U.S. and European corporate execs, conducted by DCI of Tacoma, found 69 percent of
respondents cited "dialogue with industry peers" as their main source of site selection information, followed by "articles in newspapers and magazines" at 63 percent. Print ads
and TV/radio spots ranked last on the list, at three percent and one percent, respectively.
Push vs. Pull PR
There are many ways to influence business expansion decisions, CEO courtship being one. Some of the more innovative economic development campaigns in recent years have
eschewed the traditional top-down approach in favor of indirect strategies. In 1999, for example, the city of Atlanta worked with Duffey Communications to launch the "Industries
of the Mind" campaign (PRN, January1, (yr)) in an effort to position the city as a technology hotspot. But instead of cajoling tech CEOs, campaign messages targeted tech
employees, notoriously fickle and lifestyle-driven, with promises of mild weather, moderate living expenses and hip entertainment. The thinking was that if enough talent jumped
ship and headed to Atlanta, employers would surely follow. More than 40 employers did.
Now St. Louis is hoping to convert its residents into goodwill ambassadors with a new advertising/PR campaign bearing the theme, "We got it good." Officials realize that
before they can sell their city's merits to the business community, they first must counter a decades-long inferiority complex among locals who consider their city second-rate.
This, DeRocker surmises, is a smart first step, considering roughly 80 percent of new jobs created in any community come not from relocating companies, but from local businesses
that expand. "If your own people trash the place, then it's curtains before your [campaign] even begins," he acknowledges.
PR opportunities in the economic development landscape are on the rise. DeRocker, whose firm specializes in city development and tourism, estimates that there are anywhere from
10,000 to 15,000 economic development "entities" in the U.S. alone. But this niche is not for communicators who crave quick turnarounds and immediate results. Most development
campaigns are inherently bureaucratic, involving local chambers of commerce, mayoral/gubernatorial offices, planning commissions, nonprofits and other players.
Virtually all economic development campaigns are marathons, not sprints. Wilkerson, for example, is plotting Tacoma's campaign success along a five-year continuum, but
concedes that the most significant long-term outcomes may be realized much farther down the road. The results of a massive turnaround -- a la Cleveland's metamorphosis from a
toxin-laden, rust-belt city (in the 70's) to a thriving, diversified metropolis -- can take decades. Rome, after all, wasn't built in a day.
(Robert Morris, Georgia Dept. of Industry, Trade and Tourism, 404/651-8578; Rob DeRocker, Development Counsellors International, 212/725-0707; Julie Wilkerson, Tacoma Economic
Development Department, 253/591-5139)
Sense of Place
Standard snoozer videos that once served as linchpins in economic development campaigns no longer cut the mustard. "Communities used to try to be all things to all people,"
observes Rob DeRocker, EVP with PR firm Development Counsellors International. "For years, every community doing videos [that] showed they had a ballet [but] those things never
got watched: they went right in the trash." What's imperative is for each locale to distill its uniqueness and tie that in with the needs of prospective businesses. DeRocker
cites a recent campaign for Tulare County, Calif., where unemployment hovers between 13 and18%. Its key message? "The people to grow your business."
(Rob DeRocker, 212/725-0707)
Measured Growth
How can you measure the success of an economic development initiative? Lee Duffey, CEO of Duffey Communications in Atlanta, cites the most common quantitative metrics:
- number of new jobs
- square footage absorbed in office spaces
- real estate investment.
And don't overlook qualitative rankings such as "Top 10 Places to Work," "Best Places to Live," etc.
(Lee Duffey, 404/266-2600)