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New BNE Campaign Targets Businesses

Region’s Top Executives are Featured on Video

By Matt Glynn

September 10, 2011
 
Buffalo Niagara Enterprise has just launched a marketing campaign, “A Million Reasons to Expand Your Business to Buffalo Niagara,” with a video promoting the region’s selling points.

The five-minute video, available on YouTube, includes comments from a host of business executives, including John Koelmel of First Niagara Financial Group, Jeremy Jacobs Jr. of Delaware North Cos., and Robert Brady of Moog Inc.

The video was produced by First+Main Media and was sponsored by National Grid and National Fuel. It emphasizes the region’s work ethic, proximity to Canada, the quality of life, and the roster of companies located here, themes that BNE uses in its business-attraction pitch. The campaign draws its “Million” name from the region’s population.

In one clip, Delaware North’s Jacobs says: “We could be anywhere we want to be. We choose to be in Buffalo Niagara because we love it.”

BNE plans to roll out other videos along with print and online ads, also sponsored by National Grid, to support the campaign. One element is a 24- foot-long banner at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Canada has become an important target for BNE for business attraction. In its just-released annual report, the organization said 10 of its 14 “wins” for the fiscal year that ended in June involved Canadian companies. The Buffalo airport is already a major draw for Canadian travelers, and BNE hopes to capitalize on that cross-border exposure.

“We think we understand that marketplace a lot better than we did even a couple of years ago,” said Thomas Kucharski, the BNE’s chief executive officer.

The new campaign debuts amid continued uncertainty in the U.S. economy, leading many businesses to put expansion plans on hold. But Kucharski said the BNE continues to work with a number of prospects considering projects.

“Things are tough, but our pipeline is still pretty healthy,” he said.

The BNE is marketing the region’s advantages “to minimize the perceived or real risk of going forward with a new plant or expansion,” he said.

The prospects are weighing questions such as how secure they are in their financing, the risk of going forward, and whether it is a project they need to do right away, he said.

BNE will target specific industry sectors in the United States and Canada, including data centers, back-office services, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, agribusiness and logistics. BNE worked with Block Club Creative on the campaign.

The new video can be seen at youtube.com/user/buffaloniagara.

mglynn@buffnews.com