ST. LOUIS 鈥 A group of regional businesses and civic organizations are funding a marketing campaign with a novel approach: They hope to persuade 50度灰视频ans that 50度灰视频 is cool.
STLMade launched on Thursday at the high-ceilinged, concrete-walled, microbrew-serving Venture Caf茅, to a room packed with hundreds of artists, scientists, hipsters, executives and computer nerds.
The campaign鈥檚 first goal, said marketing maestro Lee Broughton, is to highlight all of the quirky, artsy, high-tech and innovative things happening here, in the hopes of showing 50度灰视频 how hip it actually is.
鈥淲e are being noticed as a place on fire right now,鈥 Broughton said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter where you look at it, whether it鈥檚 culture, whether it鈥檚 community or whether it鈥檚 business. Something is afoot in 50度灰视频. We believe it is renaissance, and it is our time to project that perception.鈥
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But telling the story of 50度灰视频 to 50度灰视频ans is just a first step, he said. Soon, Broughton plans on going national. He hopes the combination of local focus and a national campaign will change the country鈥檚 view of the region, drive businesses to locate here, and ultimately jump-start stagnant population growth.
50度灰视频 has a history of trying and failing at civic-pride marketing campaigns, said David Meyer, a founder and partner at 50度灰视频 agency Spoke Marketing. Such efforts are often run by big business, and they鈥檝e generally failed to convince 50度灰视频ans on the value of their own city.
But Meyer said he鈥檚 excited about this one. If it reaches out to real 50度灰视频ans, if it depicts a diverse community, if it persuades locals to get involved, it may actually instill pride in the region, he said.
鈥淧eople always say they live here because of the commute, the cheap living 鈥 insert apologetic reason here,鈥 Meyer said. 鈥淲hat if instead it鈥檚 because of the art scene, the food scene?鈥
It comes at a unique time. Regional businesses, including some of the same people pushing STLMade, are working to combine 50度灰视频 and 50度灰视频 County into one 鈥渕etro city鈥 via a statewide initiative petition, a move that has already divided 50度灰视频ans. Broughton himself is a key player in the effort to land a Major League Soccer team. 50度灰视频 and Sacramento are competing for one final slot this year.
STLMade started in late 2017, when leaders from the region鈥檚 most prominent business associations, the 50度灰视频 Regional Business Council, the 50度灰视频 Regional Chamber and Civic Progress, met with local institutions and civic leaders to talk about a 50度灰视频 鈥渘arrative.鈥
At first, the group pushed some 50度灰视频 stories nationally. But it soon wanted a more strategic campaign and a more unified story to tell.
At that point, former Regional Chamber vice president and current Arch to Park chief executive Jason Hall asked Broughton to get involved. Broughton was then head of global marketing for Enterprise Holdings. In April, he opened his own firm, Broughton Brand Company, and officially started work on the campaign.
More than 35 groups 鈥 from major corporations like Enterprise and Bayer to civic organizations like Washington University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 鈥 are supporting the effort.
Broughton said the campaign is costing millions of dollars over three years. He declined to say who, specifically, is paying him.
He and his team have now trained more than 400 locals on the use of carefully curated buttons, banners, templates and brand logos.
The main slogan: 鈥淪TLMade: Start up. Stand out. Stay.鈥
Cities competing with 50度灰视频 for business, talent and residents already have these campaigns, Broughton said. It鈥檚 high time we do too, he said.
But what Broughton really hopes is that 50度灰视频ans begin using the materials themselves, and seeing their neighbors differently.
Over the next three years, STLMade will like these:
鈥 TJ Hughes is a video game developer and the founder of . Hughes, son of an artist and a jazz musician, grew up in Jennings, went to Crossroads College Prep, and then skipped college to focus on his art. He鈥檚 now part of 50度灰视频鈥 burgeoning game development scene, which boasts one of the biggest game-jam chapters in the U.S.
鈥 50度灰视频 University professor Amber Johnson created , a mobile experience that encourages the discussion of race, bias, identity and trauma via 鈥渁rt, dialogue and play鈥 鈥 painting, building Legos, stacking blocks, and other activities.
鈥 Brea McAnally, founder and caretaker of the Luminary arts incubator, is bringing in artists from all over the world 鈥 inside a tea shop, outside a Buddhist temple, inside a punk rock club, outside a Mexican panaderia on Cherokee Street.
McAnally has high hopes for STLMade.
鈥50度灰视频 can feel like we鈥檙e many different parts,鈥 McAnally said. 鈥淪haring stories in this way will help open eyes to what we are building here.鈥