Marketing and Economic Development: A Dynamic Duo

One of the main reasons our community continues to grow (+60 ppl per day) and appear on almost every list or ranking, is because we have a great story. Whether the focus is on NC State’s Quantum Computing Hub or Wake Med’s drone delivery program, our story is dynamic, evolving, and covers almost every angle. For a more convincing look at just how powerful our stories are, look at the video below. The video captures the last two years of our national media campaign.

In partnership with the City of Raleigh, Office of Economic Development and Innovation, we launched a national media campaign in August of 2014 to showcase Raleigh and Wake County in the national spotlight for talent recruitment, entrepreneurship and innovation, business recruitment, development, and lifestyle. Since 2014, the campaign has resulted in 110 nationally placed articles in various publications and national broadcast outlets. You can find examples of recent articles here.

One of the key focus areas of our economic development strategy is marketing. Creating and crafting the message around who we are and what we do helps drive awareness for the entire region. One of the main drivers of launching the national media campaign was the need to promote “brand awareness” of our market. For example, stories like the recent article in Forbes shares a look into our startup community or a recent story in Curbed featuring Dorothea Dix Park. These articles help tell our story from different angles and drive overall awareness.

Creating compelling stories and sharing who we are on a national stage helps play right into the hands of successful economic development. Marketing helps sell and reinforce who we are as a community, what we do best, and what we have to offer. When done right, the pairing of strategic marketing and economic development can help accelerate attraction and retention efforts, which helps drive continued growth and development.