Module 04: Discussion: Marketing Communication& Campaigns

The workforce reshuffling has given cities and towns a new opportunity to market themselves with glitzy ad campaigns and worker recruiting trips, putting a new spin on the conventional municipal economic development playbook. Instead of trying to attract big companies with tax incentives to bring a new headquarters or manufacturing plant (along with hundreds of new jobs) to town, city leaders are looking for the “micro-talent” or the individual who already has a job somewhere else, but is willing to relocate.

The following cities created marketing campaigns and programs aimed at convincing talent to take a gamble on moving to their city:

West Virginia’s Ascend program: https://ascendwv.com/Links to an external site.
Newton Iowa’s Call Newton Home initiative: https://callnewtonhome.com/Links to an external site.
Tulsa Oklahoma’s Tulsa Remote program: https://tulsaremote.com/Links to an external site.
Shawnee County Kansas’ Choose Topeka program: https://choosetopeka.com/apply/ Links to an external site.Links to an external site.
For Part 1 of this discussion, compare and contrast the different programs listed and share:

What city has the best marketing campaign?
What program has the most creative communication strategy and how will the target audience decode this message?