Albany EDC official discusses business recruitment, Albany rebranding

ALBANY — In an appearance before the Kiwanis Club of Dougherty County, Albany/Dougherty Economic Development Commission executive Justin Strickland described how his organization is still hard at work promoting Albany and Dougherty County for industrial prospects.

The EDC’s stated mission is “to foster new business investment and job creation through the recruitment, retention, and expansion of industry for Albany-Dougherty County.” Strickland said that’s what the EDC works at every day, “and we take great pride in what we do.”

Strickland described recruitment, retention, and renewal as “the three Rs” of economic development, and following a strategy session in 2012 that involved community leaders and volunteers, strategies were developed targeting those areas.

The question was asked, said Strickland, why would a person not want to locate a business in Albany. While there were a number of responses, the top three were racial and socioeconomic issues, perception and image, and education.

To aid in retention, EDC staffers visit industries every month and often take local government officials with them. The goal is to see what a business may need to continue operation or expand and how the EDC and local government can assist them.

Recruitment will hopefully be helped by a job investment fund. “Through the city, we had some money (from) MEAG (Municipal Electrical Association of Georgia) and we set aside $30 million to help attract industry and existing industry to expand,” said Strickland. At least one local company, Thrush Aircraft, is already taking advantage of it for expansion.

Renewal is where the rebranding strategy comes in to erase a negative perception of Albany, not only by outsiders but local residents as well.

At the 2012 strategy session, said Strickland, “Fifty-eight percent of the people said in Albany we don’t feel very good about ourselves sometime, we tend to put ourselves down. External perception and online negativity were also vote-getters.” He added, “And if the EDC didn’t do anything, it could prove disastrous.”

“So, if we’re going to rebrand Albany, how we do it? We needed a partner, and we had people get mad at us about this,” Strickland said, while acknowledging there are some great marketing people in Albany, “but we needed a partner that could look at Albany with a different set of eyes.”

The EDC contracted with JWT, a global marketing concern “that partnered us with Lattimer Communications.” Lattimer conducted research that unearthed three “overarching topline thoughts”: All respondents believe Albany’s greatest assets is its citizens; several respondents believe Albany has many undervalued and underutilized equities; several respondents feel that past efforts to move Albany forward have come and gone with none being sustained; and near all respondents feel that Albany is “cliquish.”

Strickland presented three short videos produced as part of the rebranding campaign. The first was a montage of scenes and people.

“It was all scenes shot around here and all people from Albany who participated. We actually submitted it to the American Videographers Association and won a Platinum Award for place marketing. We beat out other cities around the world who were competing for that award.”

A second video was prompted by Industry Celebration Week, an annual April event. “We did a video about manufacturing in Albany and called it ‘Made in Albany’.” Scenes focused on Albany-made products including beer, spot removers, yarn, U.S. Marine Corps support and service, paper towels, and candy. And, Strickland added, “Albany is the only place in the world where ThermaCare Heatpacks are made, right out here behind Procter & Gamble…that they ship all over the world.”

“We submitted both videos to the IEDC (International Economic Development Council) and won a Gold Award for both of those. And our marketing campaign hadn’t even rolled out yet, so we kind of set bar way up here, right,” Strickland said, hold his hand high above his head. “So we’ve got some work to do to keep the bar that high.”

The blue-and-green logo for “There’s Only One Albany Georgia” was designed to represent the Flint River, growth, and the agricultural heritage of the area. Banners have been placed around downtown and at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s Meredyth Drive campus. Also, a 30-second video spot has played on local television and cable and is being distributed to people who request information about Albany.

A website – OnlyOneAlbany.com – “has a wealth of information. I encourage you to go check it out. We also have social media – Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus,” said Strickland. Logo merchandise is also set to roll out shortly, he added, and encouraged the club members to “be ambassadors for Albany. We need people to be positive about Albany, to tell others about the assets and people we have here.”

Closing on a positive note, Strickland reminded the audience about recent economic developments here. Webstaurant – “They’re like an Amazon. They ship restaurant equipment all over the place – is slated to create 150 new jobs. Also, “Procter & Gamble is building a biomass facility that will create 55 to 70 new jobs when they’re finished, and they’ll have 500 construction jobs during the process. That’s good news for Albany. You look around and you see new buildings going up and dirt being move, so it’s an exciting time for us.”