Tools For Thought - Intelegia

YouTube is a very powerful online marketing vehicle if used correctly.  To some, throwing on a video without clear descriptions, nor well defined tags seems to be sufficient enough as apart of economic development 2.0 strategy however; it is not effective.  Economic development officers and  marketers of cities, regions and countries for investment attraction must remember that an increasing amount of site selectors and advisers are turning to the web as a part of their site location search process.

According to the report, “A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing” by Development Counsellors International (DCI), the frequency of the use of internet by site selectors and advisers in the site location search process increased from 55% in 2005 to 63% in 2008.  Based on this fact, this investment decision makers have learned to search the web including social networking sites efficiently with their own methodologies.

Just for the fun of it, Intelegia conducted a search of YouTube to see what is available in terms of investment attraction promotional videos as of November 13th, 2009.  To conduct the search for the “best in class” videos, the following keywords were used:

• “Invest In”
• “Economic Development”

Intelegia considered results that were listed within the first 5 pages in the “All” and “Channel” sections for each of the keyword queries.  The videos were evaluated and selected for this blog post on the basis of convincing the viewer that their region is the best place to invest in.

“Invest in”

Invest in Ontario

This promotional piece discusses the key locational factors to consider when selecting Ontario as a place to invest.  It stresses the competitive advantage of selecting Ontario in regards to how companies can benefit from the province’s innovation-driven business environment.

Invest in Columbia

This video is used to position Columbia as the best place to invest in Latin America.  It provides information that addresses concerns such as the country’s debt and inflation.  In addition, it discussed trade related issues and locational factors.

Both videos above were found on the first page of results and has descriptions attached to them.

“Economic Development”

Portland’s Economic Development Strategy

Portland’s Economic Development Commission’s YouTube  video is very compelling to investors.  Through the use of testimonials from existing companies in the city, the commission demonstrates Portland’s manufacturing and innovation-driven environment for a green economy.

After conducting this exercise, it is apparent that some agencies or departments that are responsible for marketing their territory for investment attraction are not using YouTube at all or not to it is full potential.  Agencies and departments that are in both cases must remember that it is not good enough to have a convincing video but it must be easy to find on the Web 2.0 application.

Did we miss anything?

Does your organization have a video on YouTube specifically for site selection or investment attraction purposes?  Do you think it is better than the videos presented above?  Post the link in the  comments’ box and we will make it the subject of a future blog post.