Why Disney wants to change Orlando's image

Abraham Aboraya
Reporter- Orlando Business Journal

So yesterday, I posed a simple question: Why does Disney want to rebrand Orlando’s image?

The Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission is working on a $10.3 million rebranding campaign over the next three years, including in-kind donations, to bolster Orlando’s image. The slogan is “Orlando. You don’t know the half of it.”

Three companies already have committed to help with funding: Disney, the Orlando Magic and Florida Hospital. The one that jumped out at me was Disney. Disney is Orlando's largest employer in the field that's the biggest part of Orlando's economy — why mess with perfection?

"Tourism will always be an important economic driver for our region but we also have long recognized and supported efforts to continue to diversify our economy," said Andrea Finger, spokeswoman for Disney. "We are committed to helping Central Florida thrive, and we all benefit when other companies and industries invest in our region." More here.

Wisconsin marketing crosses Illinois, Minnesota borders

By Shaun Zinck 

Television commercials promoting Wisconsin's business market will be playing in Illinois and Minnesota starting today.

It's a new “aggressive” marketing campaign for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) that involves 30-second spots in the Rockford, Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul markets.

TV ads are only a portion of what WEDC is doing to promote the business climate in the state, said Ryan Murphy, WEDC deputy secretary.

“Three years ago when we were created one of our charges was to dramatically increase Wisconsin's marketing presence,” Murphy said. “We had never done television. We had never done a lot of the things that we are now doing. This was seen as a pretty significant improvement amongst economic development professionals all around the state.”

Kelly Lietz, WEDC vice president of marketing, said the budget for marketing is about $5 million with about $2 million being earmarked for advertisements that will reach outside the state.

“This isn't WEDC in and of itself deciding we need to do more marketing in the state,” Lietz said. “It was really a chorus of economic developers looking to the state to help them do what they do, and raise the marketing profile of the state at a national level.” More here.

Okaloosa EDC unveils new marketing strategy

By DUSTY RICKETTS / Daily News

FORT WALTON BEACH — The Okaloosa County Economic Development Council plans to launch a new initiative early next year designed to increase participation and funding in the organization.

The EDC will mark its 25th anniversary in 2014 by launching a new marketing campaign called The Next 25.

“We know that in order to compete in the new economy, we have to ratchet up our efforts in terms of outreach and marketing,” EDC Executive Director Nathan Sparks said. “We have to improve our marketing collateral. We need to have the resources to go to where business decision makers are. We’ve got to pound the pavement more than we have been, and right now we don’t have the resources to do that.

“This is the first time the EDC in 25 years has done a concerted capital fundraising campaign,” Sparks added. “We think this celebration of our 25-year anniversary is a perfect opportunity.” More here.

South Dakota economic development officials launch national ad campaign

Written by
Sioux Falls Business Journal

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development is launching a national advertising campaign to promote South Dakota’s recognition as CNBC’s top state for business.

The campaign, which was created by Lawrence & Schiller, will include print ads in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune and Money. One-time bonus ads also will run in January in Sports Illustrated, The Week and Time.

Billboards will go up in four locations that drivers will see when entering South Dakota, and similar ads will be placed in the Minneapolis and Chicago airports.

“We are really excited about this campaign. Being declared the best state in the United States for business is definitely a message we want to share with companies considering a new location,” Commissioner Pat Costello said. “We are constantly on the lookout for new ways to promote ourselves, and this campaign will go a long way in using this distinction to its fullest potential.”

The campaign will run from January until June.

Can Email Marketing Deliver in 2014?

From Vertical Response Marketing Blog

With the rise of social media marketing and the increase in purchases being made on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, you may be wondering if you should continue to focus efforts on email marketing in 2014? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” While social media has become an important part of marketing for businesses, email is still the work horse of your marketing tool kit.

According to a study by predictive analytics firm, Custora, email is one of the top ways to get new customers (beating out Facebook and Twitter), and what’s more, this channel has continued to grow considerably over the past year. Most importantly for your business, customers that come to you via email rather than social media tend to shop more and spend more, as stated in the Forbes article, “Why Email is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing.” That’s a definite win for email!

More here.

Suburban towns selling themselves

By Jonathan Bullington and Gregory Trotter, Chicago Tribune reporter

Highland Park doesn't yet grace any billboards or beckon businesses with radio ads, but that could soon change.

Over the summer, the city approved a $75,000 branding study to be conducted by North Star Destination Strategies, a Tennessee-based firm. The hope is to unify Highland Park's nine distinct business districts under one brand, city officials say, and North Star's recommendations could be made to the City Council as soon as January.

The endgame: retain and attract more businesses in a competitive marketplace.

"Each district is still marketing itself. That's not going away," Deputy City Manager Ghida Neukirch said in a recent interview. "All this is doing is creating a larger umbrella."

Across the Chicago area this year, communities as demographically and geographically different as Des Plaines, Highland Park and Tinley Park are breaking out their checkbooks to pay marketing firms and economic development consultants tasked with helping them figure out how to better attract businesses to fill vacant sites. But communities run the risk of projecting a negative image with aggressive marketing campaigns, some warn. More here. 

Economic development campaign: More to Orlando than tourism

by Jim Stratton

Central Florida economic development leaders unveiled Friday the theme of new marketing campaign meant to show the world that Orlando has more to offer than pixie dust and performing killer whales.

The campaign, which is expected to formally launch early next year, will be built around the slogan, “Orlando. You don’t know the half of it.”

The idea, officials said Friday, is to highlight Central Florida’s businesses, industries, infrastructure and quality of life, while capitalizing on its position as one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth. They said too many out-of-state decision makers – company CEOs and site selection consultants – know only part of what the region is about. More here.

County plans marketing videos to tell stories of ‘Faces and Places’

The Orangeburg County Development Commission, the county’s economic development arm, has often touted the county’s rail and interstate access, proximity to the Port of Charleston and certified industrial parks as marketings tool to attract industrial prospects into the area.

The OCDC is now putting local voices to the county’s amenities and assets through the creation of “Faces and Places,” a video profile which highlights the assets the county has to offer.

“Faces and Places have been very popular in the state,” OCDC Executive Director Gregg Robinson said.

“We are one of the first ones to do this. This is about getting our faces and our places in a video marketing platform easy to send across iPhone, Smartphone and You Tube.”

The videos will focus on the county’s quality of life, health care, manufacturing, education, access to the arts and some of the its businesses. They will be upward of two minutes long and will most likely be broken into 30-second spots, Robinson said. At about $1,500 to $2,000 per video, the total cost for the first set of 10 videos to be released the first of the year will be about $20,000. More here.

Hudson unveils marketing plan to attract businesses

Hudson -- "Businesses Welcome. Workforce Ready."

Those are the words the city will use on brochures, postcards, newsletters and other promotional material sent out to targeted businesses.

Economic Development Director Chuck Wiedie and Communication Manager Jody Roberts unveiled the second phase of the Atlas Advertising Campaign Nov. 12 to Council members at its workshop. Phase II will begin in 2014 with an estimated budget of $87,000.

Atlas Advertising was hired in October 2012 with a budget of $76,317 to develop a marketing plan, concept development, available property directory, website content, advertising campaign, trade show materials, direct and email mailings, a virtual familiarization tour and business databases Hudson should target as part of phase I. More here.

Iowa city development group launching new branding initiative

An Iowa City development organization is launching a new branding initiative to promote a creative corridor on the eastern part of the state.

The Iowa City Area Development Group is sponsoring the initiative. The regional economic development organization will begin the initiative on Tuesday during the Hawkeye Huddle in Tampa.

Dubbed "Iowa Brag," the initiative is a social media-based program that will use Twitter and Tumblr to post about Iowa's Creative Corridor, ICAD said in a statement.

The corridor is made up of seven counties on the eastern side of the state and is intended to promote economic development and job growth in the region. The counties involved include Benton, Linn, Jones, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar and Washington counties. More here.

Five Resolutions for Place Marketers

As 2014 dawns upon us, we would like to share five New Year’s resolutions that place marketers should consider for 2014. These resolutions reflect lessons learned from working with EDOs, corporate real estate executives and site selection consultants this past year as well as opportunities for the future.

1.  Develop a Consistent Marketing Strategy – To be effective, your organization needs to be marketing everyday across multiple channels.  Determine which combination works best for you and execute regularly.   Understand what your audiences want to know, create a plan to deliver the information and have the resources in place to support your plan.
   
2. Commit to Collaborate – More and more, communities need to collaborate with each other and across regions to be successful.  Openness and sharing allows all knowledge, resources and skills of stakeholders to flourish.  Collaboration also reduces risk, provides financial savings and creates a stronger, unified voice for your region.
   
3. Demonstrate Value Beyond Incentives – A growing body of evidence is demonstrating that the use of financial incentives is more politically valuable than it is as a tool to attract and retain companies.  Work to develop a value proposition that communicates other advantages your area offers, especially in logistics, workforce and regulatory costs.
   
4. Draw Your Bull’s-eye – Communities must target those industries that have the best chance of succeeding in their unique environment and culture.  Many strive to be all things to all industries and thus wind up being ineffective. By focusing on what your community does well, it can be established as an important industry hub that is particularly supportive of your targets and add even more value to both the business and your community.
   
5. Continue Your Education – New developments are constant in economic development and the business world it serves.  Learn about the new technologies and methodologies that are emerging. Keeping up to date with these new trends is important to maintain your position as a high performing EDO and to provide opportunities for your community to stand out in the marketplace. 

The Place Marketing Group is committed to helping communities succeed in their marketing efforts.  We hope you enjoy our list of resolutions.  Best wishes for a successful marketing effort in 2014!