Atlas CEO Ben Wright presents "Marketing for Success" at the International Economic Development Council's 2013 Marketing and Attraction Conference on October 3, 2013 in Philadelphia PA.

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Questions we will answer
1. How do we as a profession feel about the impact we are making on
our communities today?
2. What are the basic principles that should drive your economic
development marketing?
– What should our marketing, job creation, and capital investment objectives be?
– How will we know if we are successful?
– How can we be more relevant to our investors, boards, and stakeholders?
1. What can we learn from high performing communities?
2. How can we implement high performing marketing programs in our
own communities?

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But first…
Cutting through the clutter: The
world we work in

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Do we as economic
developers make a difference?

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How To Vote via Texting
EXAMPLE

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Poll Question:
As a practitioner, how much do
you think you impact the overall
economic activity in your area?

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A few principles that drive
(or should drive)
economic development

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“Economic development organizations
increasingly operate under much tighter
budgets at a time when the need for
economic development programming is
becoming more crucial to the continued
vitality and competitiveness of a community.”
International Economic Development Council
in
“High Performing Economic Development Organizations,” 2011

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What worked 20-50 years ago is
not the same as what
works today.

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What hasn’t changed:
To make a difference, we have to
serve companies directly.
If we are not having
conversations, we are not
making a difference.

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What has changed:
The ways we start conversations
have changed forever.

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Poll Question:
Did your organization set
measurable goals for your
marketing this year (2013)?

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A simple framework to help
define success:

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What “High Performance
Economic Development” is
• It is the first measurement of
the outcomes (Inquiries, jobs,
capital investment) that
EDO’s create on this scale.
• It proves the ways we make
a difference, and in some
cases, the ways we don’t.
• It can help drive your
strategic and marketing
planning using actual
outcomes, instead of
activities, using national
benchmarks as your guide.

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Who participated

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The Framework

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Key finding: Tremendous
variance in results
Budget
Level
LOW JOBS
ANNOUNCED
HIGH JOBS
ANNOUNCE
D
LOW
CAPITAL
INVESTMEN
T
ANNOUNCED
HIGH CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
LOW
INQUIRI
ES
HIGH
INQUIRIE
S
Under
$100,000
20 243 $500,000 $442,000,000 5 214
$100,000 to
$249,000
2 1,500 $600,000 $250,000,000 1 400
$250,000 to
$499,000
5 5,000 $300,000 $4,500,000,000 3 600
$500,000 to
$999,000
4 4,283 $235,000 $2,500,000,000 15 670
$1,000,000
to
$2,500,000
35 8,000 $10,000,000 $650,000,000 5 4,000
Over
$2,500,000
6 16,835 $1,500,000 $2,200,000,000 3 1,425

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EDO Performance,
benchmarked by population
POPULATION
YEARLY
WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES
PAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE
JOBS
ANNOUNCED
LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
LAST 12
MONTHS
Less than 25,000 7,779 43 115 $24,951,083
25,001 to
100,000
5,790 90 411 $81,263,040
100,001 to
250,000
23,339 112 737 $330,501,622
250,001 to
1,000,000
48,533 157 1,696 $335,914,394
1,000,000 to
2,500,000
42,753 327 3,035 $378,869,231
Over 2,500,000 23,516 603 6,134 $502,258,333
Average for all
Sizes
25,562 146 1,293 $234,366,814

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EDO Performance,
benchmarked by staff size
STAFF SIZE
AVERAGE
YEARLY
WEB VISITS
AVERAGE
INQUIRIES
PAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE
JOBS
ANNOUNCED
LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
LAST 12
MONTHS
1 11,603 56 176 $45,676,585
2 to 3 9,269 85 493 $186,364,000
4 to 9 45,237 161 1,696 $267,705,000
10 to 19 47,977 184 2,859 $469,212,381
20 or more 49,836 799 6,279 $548,110,000
Average for
all Sizes
25,562 146 1,293 $234,366,814

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EDO Performance,
benchmarked by budget
Budget Level
AVERAGE
YEARLY WEB
VISITS
AVERAGE
INQUIRIES
PAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE JOBS
ANNOUNCED
LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
LAST 12 MONTHS
Under $100,000 1,240 45 85 67,050,000
$100,000 to
$249,000
5,635 59 300 40,047,027
$250,000 to
$499,000
12,006 85 542 219,461,767
$500,000 to
$999,000
13,755 129 712 210,183,125
$1,000,000 to
$2,500,000
30,552 335 1,617 212,146,897
Over
$2,500,000
68,819 193 3,987 499,600,294
Average for all
Sizes
25,562 146 1,293 $234,366,814

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Who are the highest
performers?

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Who are the highest
performers in key categories?

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What Does Your
Organizational Leadership
Expect of You?

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What’s Your Organization’s Version
of Economic Development?

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What can we learn from the top
performers?

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How the Indy Partnership Defines
Economic Development
As an economic development practitioner for over 20 years, Marty Vanags
has worked in communities such as Rockford, IL, Bloomington, IL, and Indianapolis,
IN. In recent years, Marty has been one of the biggest proponents of using all forms
of media as a tool to develop relationships with the business leaders and residents in
the communities he works in. Marty has hosted ongoing radio shows, contributes to
his own blog, and uses Twitter consistently to communicate.
“The definition of economic development for me is about developing relationships with, and solving problems for
business. I have worked in communities that have been successful at retention, recruitment, and entrepreneurial development, all at
different times. Today, social media and my radio shows allows me to cast a wider net than I could even ten years ago – developing
and maintaining more relationships – allows me to solve more problems for my community.”
- Marty Vanags, Vice President, Regional Economic
Development, The Indy Partnership

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COLUMBUS 2020 – Leading the
way using a good ‘ground game’
“Having been on the “other side” as a site selector, I can tell you that I try to
run Columbus 2020 with the customer in mind. Under my watch, we have
invested heavily in business development staff, because we believe a good
“ground game” makes a huge difference for us. Only recently however, and
partially because of High Performance Economic Development, have we
started to build our marketing capability. I believe strongly that for Columbus
to be successful, we need to drive more conversations with our business
development staff.”
-Kenny McDonald,
Columbus 2020, the
Columbus Region

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High Performers: A Day
In the Life….
Janet Miller
Chief Economic Development
Officer
Nashville Area Chamber of
Commerce
Email
jmiller@nashvillechamber.com
Sara Dunnigan
Senior VP, Existing Business Services
& Talent Development
Greater Richmond Partnership
Email
Sdunnigan@grpva.com
Clint Kolby
Project Manager
Brenham Economic
Development Foundation
Email
clint@brenhamtexas.com

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Case Study 1: Nashville Area
Chamber

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Nashville Challenges
• “Music City” brand association
with old-line country music
can paint negative image for
business
• Shortage of IT workforce with
5+ years experience limiting
factor on tech-company
growth
• National attention to state
legislature and political
infighting around immigration,
incentives, etc. damaging for
state image

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Nashville Goals
• Annual dashboard of metrics include:
– Job growth – 12,500/year
– Per Capita Income growth – 1.6%
– Population growth – 1.5%/year
– Increase GDP – 2.3% /year
– Relocations & Expansions
• Number, Jobs, Cap Investment, Square Footage,
Jobs Retained
– Internal Metrics – prospect visits by industry sector; %
ratio of RFP’s to site visits, etc.
• Successful launch and implementation of IT recruitment
project including
– Number of tech jobs created, time to fill, etc.
• Legislative scorecard

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Nashville Tactics
• Get the tools
right..nashvilleareainfo.com;
RFP process and design; slide
decks
• Consistent marketing over a
period of years to target
audiences………site selection
consultants #1
– Music = Creativity is the
message
• Play to strengths rather than
weakness – e.g. health care
services versus biotech
• Policy work on state and local
level…

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Nashville Results
• Ranked number one for job growth
in Atlas Advertising 2012 survey of
ECD groups, Top 3 in 2013
• Top Ten Economic Development
Group in America, Site Selection
Magazine, 2011
• City named:
– #1 – Kiplinger’s “Future Job Creating Machines”, 2012
– #3 – “Future Boomtowns”, Forbes 2012
– #2 – Top Start Up Paradise, Young Entrepreneur
Council 2012
– #3 – Overall America’s Best Cities, Travel + Leisure
2012
– #2 – Most Cost-Attractive Business Location, KPMG
2012
– Top 10 U.S. Culture Cities – Homes Dot Com, 2012

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The Corporate Relocation
Story

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Nashville Learning's
• Embrace who you are
• Public-private sector leadership
is key
• Metrics matter
• Acknowledging weakness is
first step to tackling it
• People will fund what they are
passionate about
– Nashville Entrepreneur Center
Launch
– Tech Talent Campaign

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Case Study 2:
Greater Richmond Partnership

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Richmond Region
Challenges
• Bringing together 4 strong localities
around shared vision
• Integrating private sector investors and
interests
• Relatively successful – no crisis
• Diverse economy – no single strong
industry “identity”
• Slow growth economy, competitive
neighbors
• Existing business program needed a
boost
• Little brand awareness
• Tight labor market

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Greater Richmond
Work Program
• Business Attraction Regional Marketing
• Business Retention and Expansion
• New Business Formation & Small Business Support
• Talent Development and Promotion

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Greater Richmond Tactics
• Sound foundation in strategic plan –
clear message to investors and
community
– Our work has impact - economic
impact
• Revisited the plan assumptions –
cluster study
• Reoriented work programs to
support the above goals
• Developed internal scorecards and
management tools
• Refined data systems and tracking
methodology

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Greater Richmond Tactics
• Business Attraction Regional Marketing
– Cluster Focus
– Domestic/International
– Engage Stakeholders
• Business Retention and Expansion
– Cluster Focus
– High Growth
– High Impact
• Talent Development and Promotion
– External Market
– Cluster Focus
– Graduate Retention
– High Demand Occupations
• New Business Formation & Small Business Support
– Innovation
– Peer Learning

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So, What Do They
Measure?

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How do they share?

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Greater Richmond
Results
• Specific job creation and investment (and more) goals – by
program of work
• Attraction program emphasis on quality vs. quantity
• Invested in web-based CRM, workflow system
• Launched refined collaborative BR&E program
• Launched talent portal – RichmondJobNet.com
• Launched virtual relocation resource – LoveWhatYouFind.com
• Scorecards developed for management, board and investors

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Greater Richmond’s
Learnings
“We can’t control the direction of the wind, but we can adjust our
sails.”
‘Jobs & capital investment still matter’
• Link & understand process, output and outcome metrics
• Alignment, accountability and transparency
• Change when conditions change
• Embrace technology
• Explore “link and leverage” strategies
• Focus on conversion
• Transactional vs transformational

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Case Study 3: Brenham Economic
Development Foundation

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Brenham Challenges
• In the shadow of Houston
and Austin
• Seen as more of a tourism
destination
• Small pool of skilled labor
• Lack of available
commercial buildings

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Brenham Goals
• Build awareness with site selectors
• Familiarization tours with
commercial real estate brokers
• Reach out to existing primary
employers
• Strong workforce development
partnership with local college and
school districts
• A leading website that gets 7,000 +
visits per year

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Brenham Tactics
• Direct e-mail campaigns
• Site visits and windshield tours
• Survey with local primary
employers
• Industry tours and training
programs
• Relevant and updated website
content
INSERT SCREENSHOT OF SURVEY
or SAMPLE EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

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Brenham Results
• 66% increase in the number of
conversations
• 100% increase in the number of
proposals submitted
• 50% increase in the number of
ongoing prospects
• Top micropolitan in Texas by Site
Selection magazine for second year
in a row

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Brenham Learnings
• Embrace regionalism
• Make yourself known
• Business retention &
expansion is the meat and
potatoes of rural economic
development
• Workforce development is a
major ingredient for success

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Poll Question:
After this session, are you more, the
same, or less convinced that you
can make a difference in your
community?

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Take the survey
to participate:
http://atlas-advertising.com/Community-Benchmarking-Study.aspx

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Thank you!
Contact information:
1128 Grant St
Denver, CO 80203
Contact: Guillermo Mazier
t: 303.292.3300 x 232
Guillermom@Atlas-Advertising.com
www.Atlas-Advertising.com
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