The Client

Kannapolis is a 40,000-resident municipality in North Carolina that was deeply rooted in the textile manufacturing industry. Due to the decline in manufacturing and loss of the town's largest employer, the city needed to evolve from a single-industry manufacturing town to a diversified, pro-business community.

The Challenge

Walker Marketing was tasked with enhancing the town's brand image and generating, qualified economic development leads within the region.

The Strategy

Walker Marketing developed a multi-media marketing campaign to generate leads and enhance the town's image. The Breaking New Ground for Business campaign was launched utilizing the advertising, public relations and digital channels to target specific vertical industries, such as automotive, motorsports, healthcare, distribution and retail.

Because of its past, there were common misperceptions about the town's ability to serve new economy businesses. To dispel those myths, the town's favorable demographics and existing economic diversity were highlighted in all communications, including a new website, which featured a dedicated portal for economic development.

The creative strategy communicated a new era in Kannapolis by promoting the town's forward-thinking approach to new development and progressive, can-do spirit by leveraging its proud heritage.

An aggressive public relations program targeted at key trade publications was also engaged to update site selection consultants and developers on the city's greenfields, including the city-owned Kannapolis Gateway Business Park and other hot-growth areas within the city.

The Results

The campaign exceeded lead generation goals and successfully began to build a new brand image, which was advanced by the launch of the $1.5 billion North Carolina Research Campus in 2005. New firms and investments in other areas of the city, especially the Kannapolis Parkway Corridor, resulted in an additional $1 billion of investment. Part of this success included the full-build out of the Gateway Business Park which is now home to several high quality firms.