The results of a 2009 survey of Canadian Economic Development professionals, conducted by On Three Communication Design Inc., in partnership with the Economic Developers Association of Canada.

1. Economic development
marketing in Canada.
2009 Member Marketing Survey Results
Economic Developers Association of Canada

2. Dear Colleague,
This report contains the results of the 2009 EDAC Member Marketing Survey, the
most current, comprehensive look at Canadian economic development marketing
practices available.
The survey was conducted in the third quarter of 2009 by On Three Communication
Design Inc., in partnership with EDAC, and this report summarizes data from 98
completed and 15 partial surveys. It looks at attitudes, budgeting, marketing
techniques, and ambitions for the future.
This report was created for EDAC members to use in planning, benchmarking and
garnering support for their economic development efforts.
We hope you find it useful.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

3. Why are you marketing?
We asked survey participants to rank the following marketing objectives, with 1 being most important and 10
being least important. The results are shown below. How do your individual ranking compare with your peers?
Rank Objective
1 Attract new business
2 Retain and build existing businesses
3 Increase awareness about our municipality or region
4 Increase awareness about our economic development services
5 Develop a specific sector or sectors
6 Build relationships with developers and realtors
7 Increase awareness about specific programs or incentives
8 Create a competitive advantage over other municipalities or regions
9 Report on progress and achievements
10 Promote tourism
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

4. Marketing in your economic
development organization...

5. The basics.
Where are you located? Who do you work for? How many dedicated marketing and
Ontario 39.8% Municipality 55.8% communications staff do you have?
Alberta 24.8% Region 18.6%
British Columbia 8.8% Other 8.0%
Saskatchewan 8.0% Fed/Prov/Municipal Partnership 6.2%
Manitoba 5.3% Federal Government 1.8% 49%
New Brunswick 5.3% Regional Government 1.8%
44%
Newfoundland and Labrador 3.5% Community Futures 1.8%
Quebec 1.8% Private-sector organization 1.8% 7%
0
Nova Scotia 0.9% Self-employed 1.8% 1-3
More than 3
Prince Edward Island 0.9% Provincial Government 0.9%
Yukon/NWT 0.9% Territorial Government 0.9% Half of EDAC members are marketing
Nunavut 0.0% Business Development Centre 0.9% without a single dedicated staff member!
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

6. The support from above?
How does senior management view
How do Mayor and Council view them? How about your Board of Directors?
your marketing activities?
11%
4% 22%
35%
2% 49%
21% 44%
64%
32%
16%
They are very supportive They are very supportive They are very supportive
They are somewhat supportive They are somewhat supportive They are somewhat supportive
They are not supportive They are not supportive They are not supportive
Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable
Note: There was no significant relationship between support levels and marketing spending allocations.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

7. Now, let’s talk budgets...

8. Overall budgets and marketing allocations
Overall economic development operating budget:
• The most popular marketing allocation was between 5-10% of EDAC
members’ overall operating budgets (31% of responses), followed by less
Less than $200,000 27.4%
than 5% (26.5% of responses).
$200,000 to $600,000 46.9% • 20.4% of EDAC members allocate more than 20% of their entire
operating budget to marketing.
More than $600,000 25.7% • Those with overall operating budgets of less than $200,000 were the
least likely to outsource.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
% of overall budget allocated to marketing: Marketing allocations by overall operating budget level:
40%
40%
31.0% 30%
30% 26.5%
Value Title
22.1% 20.4% 20%
20%
10% 10%
0%
0%
5-10% 11-20% > 20% $200-600k overall budget > $600k overall budget
< 5% < $200k overall budget
<5% 5-10% 11-20% >20%
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

9. Changes in spending over time
Compared to 2008, our 2009 marketing budget has: Looking ahead to 2010, we will likely:
49.6% 56.6%
25.7% 24.8% 32.7%
10.6%
Stayed about the same Make no significant changes
Increased Increase our marketing budget
Decreased Decrease our marketing budget
For about half of EDAC members, marketing budgets aren’t experiencing much change.
• 49.6% saw little change from 2008 to 2009, and 56.6% anticipate the same for 2010.
• While increases and decreases to budgets were roughly equal from 2008 to 2009 (25.7 and 24.8 respectively),
32.7% anticipated increasing 2010 budgets, compared to 10.6% who predicted decreases.
• Regionally, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Quebec and the Yukon/NWT are most likely to increase 2010
spending.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

10. Changes in spending over time
Planned 2010 spending based on 2009 behaviour
100%
75%
Will make no change in 2010
Will decrease in 2010
50%
Will increase in 2010
25%
0%
Increased in 2009 Decreased in 2009
...but those that are spending more will continue to do so in 2010.
• 62.1% of EDAC members who increased marketing spending in 2009 plan to do so again in 2010.
• In contrast, only 25% of 2009 decreasers plan to increase 2010 spending. Almost 30% plan to decrease
budgets further in 2010.
• Only 10.3% of 2009 increasers will bring their 2010 marketing budgets down.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

11. Specific expenditures and outsourcing
% of marketing budget allocated to 50%
print and advertising buys
38%
25%
Advertising
Printing
13%
More than 20%
11-20%
0% 5-10%
Less than 5%
Print and advertising are generally less than 10% of marketing budgets each
• 73.7% spend less than 10% of their marketing budget on printing, while the same is true of 66% of EDAC
members when it comes to advertising.
• Both print and advertising show a declining trend as the % allocation increases, with the exception of a jump
back up in advertising in the category of over 20% of marketing budget allocation. This may be indicative of
larger media buys or national campaigns, which have significant advertising costs associated with them.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

12. Specific expenditures and outsourcing
What activities do you outsource? If you outsource, do you have an agency of record?
Graphic Design 61.9%
7%
Website design 54.9%
Advertising and Media buys 31.0% 16%
45%
Marketing strategy or plan 23.9%
Website updates 15.0% No, we tender to various agencies
N/A - we do not outsource our marketing
Email campaigns 6.2% 32% Yes, we deal with the same agency
Other (please specify)
Other (please specify) 4.4%
Canadian economic developers carry out much of their marketing in-house
• Although 54.9% outsource website design, only 15% outsource web updates, which is reflected later in the
survey by the high proportion of EDAC members using a web content management system in-house
• 32% of respondents indicate that they do not outsource any marketing whatsoever
• Only 16% have a consistent marketing agency that they employ on projects, 45% tender opportunities to
various agencies
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

13. What marketing
techniques do you use?

14. Prevalence of techniques & perceived effectiveness
Website 91.9%
Print collateral 80.8%
Events 73.7%
Newspaper ads 67.7%
Newsletters 65.7%
Email campaigns 50.5%
Radio spots 31.3%
Social media 27.3% Most used does not equal most effective.
• The colours of each bar represent the perceived effectiveness of
Direct mail campaigns 24.2%
that technique. See legend below.
Television spots 16.2%
Blog 7.1%
Paid search engine 6.1% • Although print collateral is the second most popular marketing
technique, it was seem most often as “somewhat effective”.
• In contrast, two of the most effective techniques - events and
email campaigns - are 3rd and 6th in prevalence respectively.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

15. What will you stop, start and continue in 2010?
We asked survey participants what activities they planned to continue and discontinue in 2010, as well as what
new activities they would be undertaking. Trends from the individual responses are summarized below:
STOP
When asked what would be discontinued in 2010, two prominent themes emerged: 1) reducing investment in
print collateral (often paired with a plan to repurpose that printed content in an electronic format instead) and,
2) reducing paid advertising in newspapers and on radio.
START
The prominent theme here was social media. When asked what new marketing activities they would be
undertaking in 2010, over 70% of responders identified social media or blogging as a planned initiative.
Website development was also mentioned frequently.
CONTINUE
When asked what activities would be continued going into 2010 there were no specific marketing techniques
that stood out in the responses, which were quite varied. Most respondents indicated satisfaction with their
current marketing mix with responses such as “continue with all of the above”, “the same”, and “those currently
in use.”
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

16. What are economic developers
up to online these days?

17. Are you online?
EDAC members communicate with their audience: EDAC members feel their online presence is:
Very important 91.9%
32%
Somewhat important 7.1%
58%
10% Not important 1.0%
Primarily electronically
Primarily through printed materials
Through both print and electronic equally Absolutely!
• Only 10% of respondents communicate primarily
through printed materials with their audience.
• 91.9% felt that their organization’s online
presence was “very important”.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

18. How do you manage your content?
Does your organization have its Do you use a content management Does your organization have a blog?
own website? system to update your website?
6%
16% 4%
7%
19%
3%
59%
22%
75% 89%
Yes
Yes, and we update it frequently
No Yes, and we update it frequently
Yes, but it is not updated frequently
We do not have our own website Yes, but it is not updated frequently
No
Don't know what a content management system is No
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

19. How do you manage your content?
We saw a real difference between EDAC members who use a content management system (CMS) for website
updates and those who do not update their own content:
Does your organization have its own website?
100% Control over web content is correlated with
greater online activity overall
75%
• 93.1% of those using a CMS deliver frequent
website updates to their audience, compared with
50% 40.9% of those that do not use a CMS.
• An online presence was seen as more important
25%
among CMS users - 94.8% versus 86.4%
0% No CMS
• CMS users were also more likely to have a blog -
Use CMS
17.3% versus 4.5%
Yes, and we update it frequently
Yes, but it is not updated frequently
No
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

20. Are you using email?
Do you use email campaigns to communicate with your audience? If yes, do you use an email reporting tool that allows you to
measure things like open rates and click-thrus?
59.6%
35.4%
40.4%
32.3% 32.3%
Yes No N/A
No Yes
EDAC members are using email, but most don’t know if it’s working.
• Almost 60% of respondents are utilizing email to communicate, but only 35% use an tool that allows them to
measure the effectiveness of their email campaigns.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

21. How social are you?
What are your preferred social networking sites?
Myspace 1.0%
Youtube 15.2%
Facebook 30.3%
LinkedIn 16.2%
Twitter 15.2%
58.6%
We do not use social networking
Other (please specify) 1.0%
EDAC members are not exploiting the social web... yet.
• Facebook is the most popular social networking platform among EDAC members at 30.3%. YouTube, Twitter
and MySpace are roughly half as popular.
• Overall, social media is not being embraced by EDAC members, but is a planned activity for many in 2010 as
indicated earlier in the survey.
• Respondents with dedicated marketing staff were far more likely to be using social media.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

22. The printed goods.

23. How do you use print?
Do you print newsletters, brochures and annual reports? Do you use outsourced direct mail campaigns?
57.6%
60%
50.5%
45.5%
40.4% 45% 12%
32.3%
30.3%
30%
24.2%
15%
10.1% 9.1%
88%
0%
Brochure Newsletters Annual Report
No
Yes
Yes, and they are also available electronically
Yes
No
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

24. Do you advertise?

25. Where do EDAC members advertise?
Do you buy advertising?
In newspapers? 74.7%
In printed periodicals? 53.5%
On the radio? 36.4%
Online? 18.2%
On television? 11.1%
Nope! 10.1%
Other (please specify) 8.1%
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

26. Marketing support for
EDAC members.

27. EDAC White Paper Series
How helpful do you find the EDAC
White Paper Series?
33.7% 33.7%
30.6%
Very helpful
Somewhat helpful
2.0% Not helpful
I did not read the white papers/Not applicable
Topics for future white papers
• When asked to provide desired topics for future white papers, the responses were varied, but common
themes identified were: 1) getting support/buy-in/business case for marketing, 2) social media and
3) measuring marketing effectiveness
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

28. EDAC Marketing Awards
Have you ever submitted an entry to How valuable do you find EDAC’s
EDAC’s Marketing Canada awards? Marketing Canada awards?
60%
45%
40%
30%
60%
15%
Yes
No 0%
Not valuable
Somewhat valuable
Very valuable
More feedback please
• Many members left comments in the “what else should we know” field indicating a desire to better understand
the judging process and how they can improve their submissions in future
• Members also expressed a desire for a showcase of successful marketing initiatives
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

29. Conclusion
The 2009 survey reveals that Canadian Economic Developers are actively engaged in marketing activities, with various levels of
financial resources and scope. Some of the key takeaways are:
• Big operating budgets do not necessarily equate to large marketing allocation percentages. Smaller communities are just
as likely to spend on marketing relative to the size of their budget.
• Half of EDAC members are marketing without a single dedicated staff member.
• Most members report that they receive good support from senior management, mayor and council.
• Although print collateral is the second most popular marketing technique, it was seem most often as “somewhat
effective”. In contrast, two of the most effective techniques - events and email campaigns - are 3rd and 6th in prevalence
respectively.
• EDAC members have not adopted social media techniques widely to date, but it is the top activity planned for 2010.
Facebook is the preferred social networking site of EDAC members.
• Although 91.9% of respondents felt their online presence was “very important”, only 75% update their website frequently
and only 11% maintain a blog.
• Almost 60% of respondents are utilizing email to communicate, but only 35% use an tool that allows them to measure the
effectiveness of their email campaigns.
• Newspapers, printed periodicals and radio are the most popular paid advertising venues.
• Those that have increased their marketing spending plan to continue to do so in 2010.
Looking forward, we will conduct this survey on an annual basis and make it available free of charge through EDAC. Marketing
is critical to our profession, and sharing our practices, ideas and attitudes strengthens economic development organizations
across the country. Please feel free to reproduce this study in whole or part, with credit to the original source.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca

30. About On Three Communication Design
On Three is a marketing and communications agency specializing in promoting places, not
products. We are the only creative agency in Canada that focuses exclusively on economic
development marketing. Visit us at www.onthree.ca or blog.onthree.ca.
About EDAC
The Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC) is Canada's national organization of
Economic Developers pursuing excellence in the field since 1968. For more information about
EDAC contact Penny A. Gardiner, Ec.D. Executive Director @ 905.689.8771 or admin@edac.ca.
On Three Communication Design Inc. www.onthree.ca