Tacoma, Ho!
Billboards in Seattle Encourage Business to Move South
Tools
If your building permit doesn't arrive in eight weeks or less, you don't pay!
That's one of the latest Domino's-delivery-style offers from a Tacoma advertising campaign designed to lure in new business.
Stranger Personals
After dubbing their burg "Tacoma, America's #1 Wired City," marketers are just now winding down a $150,000 radio and billboard campaign that emphasizes the city's business-friendly strengths. It just so happens those strengths are also Seattle's weaknesses.
Billboards, like the ones located near the West Seattle Bridge and on 86th Street and Aurora Avenue, are hyping Tacoma's efficient Internet and rapid building-permit process, as well as better traffic. "What?! I could have saved a bundle in Tacoma," says a character posed in front of a Space Needle skyline.
The sign over Aurora has business advocates on the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association (AAMA) peeved, but it's also confirming their biggest complaints with Seattle's business atmosphere. AAMA President Dave Quiring mentioned the threat of the sign in the group's November newsletter while criticizing Seattle's dwindling support for business (i.e., high business taxes and the notorious wait time for building permits, which can be one to two years).
Beckie Japhet, the economic development marketing specialist of the City of Tacoma's "Wired City" campaign, says that Tacoma has already attracted such businesses as El Gaucho restaurants, REI, and Best Buy. Krispy Kreme is also in the planning stages of securing a spot in the region.
Tacoma's three-year campaign has dangled what it thinks are its choicest pieces of bait for commercial enterprise. First, advertisers have spread the word on the new "eight weeks or less" guarantee for building permits. Tacoma promises to refund all of a company's money if the permit is not issued by the deadline. Second, the city wants businesses to be aware of its citywide fiber-optic and cable infrastructure, which allows cheap, easy access to high-speed Internet and telecommunications. Tacoma's Click! Network designed the fiber-optic system that encourages open access and competition with local cable/Internet provider AT&T.
It should be noted, however, that Tacoma's economy isn't exactly clicking along. Pierce County's jobless rate rose sharply to eight percent in 2001.
So what does Seattle have to say about Tacoma's hard sell?
Richard Chapman, who serves on the Economic Development Council of Seattle's chamber of commerce, told The Stranger that the Tacoma campaign and its success have actually helped Seattle, if only to encourage it to begin developing its own business recruitment strategy.
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