Marketing the market

As reported in The Idaho Statesman last week, the Boise Valley Economic Partnership has hired a three-company marketing team to promote the Treasure Valley for corporate relocations and expansions. That three-company team includes:

Porter Novelli, handling national media relations.
Scott Peyron & Associates, handling stakeholder relations, local media and brand development.
es/drake, developing a web site and advertising.

Now, there's a couple of different ways to look at this news. First of all, the report was compiled by "statesman staff," which to me suggests that someone reworked a press release for space and content, and then used it as filler material on a slow news day.

The more interesting part, however, is the combination of companies that are part of this team. Part of me tends to think that es/drake is doing more than just building a website and creating advertising. With their addition of Joanne Taylor earlier this year, they've got the credentials to handle most, if not all, of the PR for this, but bringing in a national PR agency such as Porter Novelli lends a little more credibility to it, especially on a corporate/national scale.

The addition of Scott Peyron & Associates is an interesting twist, however. Joanne Taylor came to es/drake from Scott Peyron earlier this year, where she was a vice president. Why, then, would they bring in another local PR agency to handle part of this work? This is where another part of me thinks that it might be Scott Peyron that is the leading force behind this. They are, after all, the ones who are managing "brand development." And brand development should drive the rest of the efforts of this campaign.

The jury is out on this one, but BVEP has got some money to spend in order to reach their goals of $650 million in new capital investment and $1 billion in economic development.

What do you think? Comment away.

Technorati tags: idaho ad agencies, idaho statesman, boise valley economic partnership, porter novelli, scott peyron & associates, es/drake