By Fred Stabbert III
HIGHLAND – “Job creation is a team effort,” Mike Oates, President and CEO of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp. HVEDC), said. “We are competing in an incredibly competitive environment.”
And to that end, HVEDC launched its new “Choose NY Hudson Valley” campaign early Thursday morning along the high banks of the Hudson River at the Ulster County side of The Walkway Across the Hudson.
A national marketing effort designed to attract attention – and businesses – to the region, Choose NY Hudson Valley will specifically focus on site selectors, property management companies and businesses looking to relocate to the region.
“This campaign will certainly help attract investment into our seven counties,” Oates said. “We have to be ready.”
The campaign was designed by advertising agency Focus Media and identified nine business sectors poised for growth in the region:
• Biotech & Pharmaceutical;
• Data Centers;
• Distribution
• Film Production;
• Financial Services;
• Food & Beverage;
• Green Tech;
• Semiconductors; and
• Tourism & Hospitality.
Over the next nine weeks, each sector will be unveiled individually using a variety of print and online media, including mailers, targeted e-mails, and the launch of a website with multimedia videos.
“Today’s major companies and site selectors are technology savvy and extremely focused on the facts,” said HVEDC Board Member Josh Sommers, also President/ CEO of Focus Media. “Our goal is to create the buzz which drives leads [to our region].
“This campaign will feature very, very targeted ads,” Sommers said. “This campaign will continue through 2012.”
As an example, Oates and Sommers showed the Tourism & Hospitality video, which included clips of the Hudson River, Villa Roma’s General Manager Paul Carlucci as well as Sullivan County Partnership President and CEO Allan Scott.
“Tourism destinations in the Hudson Valley attracted 2.3 million visitors last year,” Carlucci said. “With $4 billion in revenues and 60,000 jobs.”
Oates said tourism is healthy in the Hudson Valley with the Walkway Across the Hudson already topping one million visitors.
“HVEDC is going on the offensive in a tough economy with this proactive and comprehensive economic development campaign,” Oates said. “We are… on a mission to show the rest of the rest of the country that New York’s Hudson Valley is truly where business works.”