Brewed Fresh Daily

I noticed this the other day at CrainTech. Chris Thomspon posts:

"Marketing campaigns are expensive. I’m offering this campaign idea for free (of course, some may say it’s worth less than that). I propose we create the “Call Cleveland Campaign.” And it works like this: “When Tiger Woods needs business advice, he calls Cleveland.” The tag line reads something like: “Cleveland is home to sports marketing giant IMG and dozens of other innovative companies. Call us to find out how we can help your business grow.” The campaign could work across multiple industries: “When Christopher Reeve wanted to breathe on his own again, he called Cleveland.” Or: “When Proctor & Gamble wants to develop a new product, it calls Cleveland.” Similar campaigns could be developed for Akron, Kent, Canton etc. Whether we “Call Cleveland” or not, we must do a better job of telling our story to the world and to ourselves."

Don Iannone picks up the thread and comments:

What Chris is pointing to is the fact that considerable professional service expertise exists in the region. He's right. Moreover, many of the region's leading professional service providers (ad firms, law firms, accountants, health care providers, etc.) serve a worldwide clientele... NE Ohio's advanced service sector is at a crucial turning point at this very moment. Our leading law and accounting firms are opening offices around the world to grow their markets. They have moved from being regional service firms to becoming national and global leaders. Our banks are developing in-roads in states across the nation. This is good news for these companies, but does Cleveland and NEO have the assets to keep these companies' headquarters in the future as other locations tender offers to them to relocate from Cleveland? Is our airport good enough to accommodate their travel needs? Can these companies retain and attract the talent they need to NEO? Can we compete with Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and other locations that have a full-court press on to attract headquarter companies? I guess what I'm asking is do we have a solid strategy in place to make sure we can retain and grow the "talent" that Chris Thompson says we should be touting about Cleveland and NEO? How long will IMG stay in Cleveland now that its founder Mark McCormick is gone? Which of our leading banks will get bought up and absorbed by the next new financial conglomerate? How long before one of our leading law firms decides that Chicago is a better place for developing global business? We hear and see great things with area companies like Progressive and MBNA, and hopefully they will continue to find Greater Cleveland to be the best location for their businesses. We cannot assume that they will. Any company can move any time... Trust me when I say that we have a lot of work ahead of us in retaining and growing the advanced service giants that occupy much of our downtown and suburban office space and hire a large percentage of area's universities B school graduates.

I've got a couple of thought (I know, when don't I?) First, what number are you going to use to call Cleveland? I know it's not literal, but my point is, how are you going to find these resources once you promote them? Personally, I'm not as concerned about traditional assests as I am about the virtual assest. People don't call on the phone these days, they visit your website first. So does that mean we put up CallCleveland.com? I don't think so. People don't use the web that way. Where do you go to find info? Search engines. The problem with search engines to me is the opposite of what heirarchies think it is. I think search engines give too much weight to portals like Cleveland.com and not enough to individual's websites. I'd much rather survey the Northeast Ohio blogroll to get a sense of what's happening in the area. Why? They do a much better job of filtering what's relavent then me going to the media outlet, which is like drinking from a firehose. The one thing that Don mentions that I do think is important is the condition of our airport. Why? In an ever increasing virtual world, face to face meeting are even more crucial. I was just talking with someone today about working on a project virtually for a year, then doing a face2face where the critical tasks needed to be done to finish. The hordes of independent contractors that dwell in this post-industrialized society we live in will need realiable hubs to stay connected to the physical space of a interconnected world.