Ben Wright of Atlas Advertising presents What Would Google Do if it Were in Charge of Economic Development? At the Arkansas Economic Developers Conference in Hot Springs, Arkansas

1. WHAT WOULD GOOGLE DO?
Rethinking Economic Development
In the Internet Age
August 27, 2013
AED Annual Conference

2. About Atlas
• Niche economic development marketing and technology
firm, providing branding, websites, GIS
• Worked with 100+ economic development clients
• Pioneered the use of benchmarked outcome metrics in
economic development
• IEDC’s official High Performance Economic Development
Marketing Partner
• 20+ people based in Denver, CO in the (haunted) former
Governor’s Mansion
• Invited by Bryan Barnhouse, Jefferson County

3. A Word About The Book
and “Google Rules”

4. About this presentation
• Originally delivered in 2011 at the
International Economic Development Council’s
(IEDC) Annual Conference in Columbus, OH
• In December 2009, I read the book, “What
Would Google Do?”
• One of its key themes was “Middlemen are
doomed.”
• I had to ask the hard questions:
• “Is my company a middleman?
• “Are economic developers middlemen?”

5. Why Should We Study Google?
A share bought for $102 in 2004 is worth $869 today
$102
$869
$-
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
$700
$800
$900
$1,000
August 2004 August 2013

6. Over the Same Period, What has Been
Happening in Economic Development?
• Vast growth in the availability of information
• Dramatic downturn that froze company and workforce
mobility, then a gradual economic recovery
• More global competition for business and jobs
• With the recession, declines in public sector funding
• More scrutiny from private sector investors
Has your organization become 8 x more valuable
since 2004?

7. Introducing Google Rules
1. Everybody Needs
Google Juice
2. Middlemen Are
Doomed
3. Do What You Do
Best and Link to the
Rest
4. Be A Platform &
Listen
5. Join a Network &
Think Distributed
6. Answers are
Instantaneous
7. Your Customers Are
Your Ad Agency
8. Make Mistakes Well
9. Be Performance
Driven

8. Google Rule #1
Everybody Needs Google Juice
“It isn’t what you say about yourself. It’s
what Google says about you.”
Chris Anderson, Author,
The Long Tail

9. WHAT’S GOOGLE JUICE?
• The magic elixir that
makes Google value you
more because the world
values you more
• If your website can’t be
found, you might as well
not exist

10. DO I HAVE GOOGLE JUICE?
Log-in to Google and search for:
• Your Community Name + “Economic Development”
• Your Community Name + “Business,” “Business
Expansion,” “Business Relocation,” “Demographics,”
“Foreign Direct Investment,” “Incentives,” “Maps,”
“Office Space,” “Site Selection,” “Workforce”
• Your Organization Name (including variations and
misspellings)

11. Google Rule #2
MIDDLEMEN ARE DOOMED
“For all middlemen the clock is ticking and
the question of value is looming.”
Jeff Jarvis, Author,
What Would Google Do?

12. Do you get value for what you pay
these people? Are they worth it? (page 74)
• Car salesmen
• Insurance brokers
• Head hunters
• Advertising agencies
• Travel agents
• Real estate agents

13. Google Rule #3
DO WHAT YOU DO BEST AND
LINK TO THE REST
“…the link forces specialization.”
Jeff Jarvis, Author,
What Would Google Do?

14. From general to specialized
• Linking is changing the structure – moving
generalization in media to specialization
• Specialization creates:
– Stronger USP’s
– Mass of “niches”
– Opportunities for collaboration

15. Mapping =
GIS Using Cloud
data
Real Estate =
Third Party
Examples of ED’s leveraging what
others do best

16. Google Rule #4
BE A PLATFORM & LISTEN
“Stop callin’, stop callin’,
I don’t wanna talk anymore.”
Lady Gaga
“Telephone”

17. PLATFORMS

18. IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
flickr
Orlando Rocks

19. LISTEN

20. Google Rule #5
JOIN A NETWORK &
THINK DISTRIBUTED
“We can’t expect our customers
to come to us”
Quincy Smith, President
CBS Interactive

21. Expecting Customers to Come to You

22. Be Distributed: Where the Customers Are
© GIS Planning Inc.

23. Result: More Customers Come to You
© GIS Planning Inc.

24. How To
• Make sure your websites are linked from/to
the right partners.
• Grow your social network.
• Join online industry and economic
development networks.
• Grow where the networks are largest.
• Be where the networks are specialized.

25. Build a Digital Ambassador Program
• Identify savvy executives in
your community with social
media followings
• Provide with frequent
updates that they can
tweet, blog and share to
their networks

26. Why Digital?
• The average economic development
organization nationwide gets 10 times the
interactions on their website than all of the
following forms of communication combined:
• Phone calls
• Email
• Drop in visitors
• Trade show conversations

27. Google Rule #6
ANSWERS ARE
INSTANTANEOUS
“Fast is better than slow.”
- AT&T

28. This week in ED…
• Site Selectors reviewed hundreds of Cities, in
less than an hour. They threw out 95%.
• They then did deep dives in less than 5
percent of the Cities they considered.
• To do those deep dives, they did an average
of 20 Google searches
• If they didn’t find your website, they went to
someone else’s.
• If they came to your site and didn’t find
what they wanted in 10 seconds, they left.

29. “Comprehensive List of Major
Private Sector Employers
with Headcount”
ED Organization
Website
Easy to
Find
Difficult to
Find
Not
Found
Airdrie Economic Development
Athens County Economic
Development Partnership
Iowa City Area Development
Kilgore Economic Development
Corporation
Metro MSP
The Indy Partnership
Dennis Donovan
WDG Consulting

30. Google Rule #7
YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE
YOUR AD AGENCY
“In the 20th century, we did monologue
marketing. In the 21st century, we’ve
moved to dialogue. Customers…will not
tolerate not being heard”
Source: John Hayes,
CMO, American Express

31. SHARE

32. Your Customers are varied – use
them to develop and tell the story
• Real estate developers/brokers = inventory
experts
• Local bloggers = local insight and color
• Local CEO’s = your sales team
• Site Selectors = the translators of your
message

33. Testimonial Example

34. Google Rule #8
MAKE MISTAKES WELL
“Oops. I did it again.”
Britney Spears
“Oops. I Did It Again”

35. AN OUTSTANDING MISTAKE

36. Google Rule #9 (Provided by Ben)
MAKE YOUR ORGANIZATION
COMPLETELY PERFORMANCE
DRIVEN
“What do you mean I didn’t impact jobs?
Look at all the meetings I went to!”
- Former economic
development CEO

37. GOOGLE’S DEFINITION OF BEING
PERFORMANCE DRIVEN
• They don’t get paid until a user clicks on an ad
when interested (95+% of their revenue)
• If their tools are not available = $0 revenue
• If they don’t serve ads someone wants = $0
revenue
• If a product does not hit critical mass =
canceled (Google Reader)
• If a user has a bad experience = $0 revenue

38. A review of the Google rules
1. Everybody Needs
Google Juice
2. Middlemen Are
Doomed
3. Do What You Do
Best and Link to the
Rest
4. Be A Platform &
Listen
5. Join a Network &
Think Distributed
6. Answers are
Instantaneous
7. Your Customers Are
Your Ad Agency
8. Make Mistakes Well
9. Be Performance
Driven

39. How can you measure what
impact following Google rules
will have on your community?

40. A guide to be a performance
driven EDO: High Performance ED
• It is the first measurement of
the outcomes (Inquiries, jobs,
capital investment) that EDO’s
create on this scale.
• It proves the ways we make a
difference, and in some cases,
the ways we don’t.
• It can help drive your strategic
and marketing planning using
actual outcomes, instead of
activities, using national
benchmarks as your guide.

41. The framework:

42. The results, from 300 +
communities

47. Benchmarked Results by
Population Size
POPULATION YEARLY WEB
VISITS
INQUIRIES
PAST 12
MONTHS
JOBS LAST 12
MONTHS
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
LAST 12
MONTHS
Less than 25,000
8,418
20
98
$28,333,333
25,001 to 100,000
8,324
46 576 $63,750,000
100,001 to
250,000
22,412 65 1,198 $149,376,418
250,001 to
1,000,000
28,374 208 2,422 $365,923,077
1,000,000 to
2,500,000
45,543 228 2,646 $447,794,260
Over 2,500,000 23,445 170 5,359 $399,630,000
Average for all
Sizes
29,181 148 1,768 $244,629,502

48. Which one of these is
not like the other one?
ORGANIZATION
YEARLY
WEB VISITS
INQUIRI
ES
JOBS WON
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
WON LAST 12
MONTHS
JOBS PER
INQUIRY
ANNUAL
OPERATING
BUDGET
Ohio Community 43,618 169
4,171 $875,700,000
25
Over
$2,500,000
Indiana Community 25,572 107
2,329 $424,082,780
22
$500,000 to
$999,000
Tennessee Community
338,388 400 14,415
$2,232,616,082 36
Over
$2,500,000
Virginia Community
50,236 101 3134 $418,200,000
31
Over
$2,500,000
Florida Community 67,440 621
4033 $43,600,000
6
Over
$2,500,000
Average for Above
Communities
105,051 280 5,616 $798,839,772 24

49. Summing It Up – What Google’s
Version of High Performing ED is
1. Everybody Needs
Google Juice
2. Middlemen Are
Doomed
3. Do What You Do
Best and Link to the
Rest
4. Be A Platform &
Listen
5. Join a Network &
Think Distributed
6. Answers are
Instantaneous
7. Your Customers Are
Your Ad Agency
8. Make Mistakes Well
9. Be Performance
Driven

50. To get this presentation, drop your card with me,
or view it at www.atlas-
advertising.comcommunity-marketing-
presentations.aspx
To Continue the Conversation:
• Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AtlasAd
• Tweet questions using hashtag #AskAtlas
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continents:
• Next Gen Economic Development Marketers LinkedIn Group
Thank You!