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.