Columbus 2020 won digital marketing awards from fDi in: #6 Top Overall Digital Marketing Strategy #2 Top Website #7 Top City Digital Marketing

1. 18 www.fDiIntelligence.com December 2012/January 2013

2. GLOBAL Outlook
Digital
Marketing
Awards 2012
fDi recognises the best digital marketing campaigns from
agencies around the world. COURTNEY FINGAR reports
The business world went digital locations are the leading performers
long ago, but investment promo- in this field. A process of informa-
tion agencies (IPAs) in many cases tion-gathering that first began this
have been slower to fully utilise summer has culminated in the
online platforms to market the announcement of the results of fDi’s
locations they represent. But digital first-ever awards for digital market-
marketing is essential to being ing excellence, with IDA Ireland
competitive in the FDI arena, and capturing first prize. New York City
IPAs are now racing to develop their Economic Development Corpora-
online presence and embrace social tion, Invest Victoria, Scottish Enter-
media. At a time of reduced govern- prise and CINDE (the Costa Rican
ment budgets and pressure to lower Investment Promotion Agency)
expenditure, the clever IPAs are rounded out the overall top five.
looking to maximise online advan-
tages. But what makes for a success- Innovation
ful digital marketing strategy? What IDA Ireland was also cited as the best
innovative approaches by IPAs are country-level IPA for digital market-
bringing results? Which cities, ing, as well as the most innovative (of
regions and countries are out front any type of IPA), and its website was
in the online marketplace? Which rated number one globally. Another
locations are doing the best job at Irish organisation, ConnectIreland,
digital marketing? a government-led incentivised jobs
fDi set out to find out which referral programme that was
Top overall digital marketing strategy
RANK Agency LOCATION TYPE
1 IDA Ireland Country
2 New York City Economic Development Corporation City
3 Invest Victoria Region
4 Scottish Enterprise Country
5 CINDE (Costa Rica) Country
6= Columbus Region City
6= Greater Halifax Partnership City
8= Calgary Economic Development City
8= Invest Hong Kong City
10= Nova Scotia Business Region
10= World Business Chicago City
December 2012/January 2013 www.fDiIntelligence.com 19

3. Global outlook
Cover story
Top WEBSITES
RANK Agency and WEBSITE LOCATION TYPE
1 IDA Ireland Country
www.idaireland.com
2 Columbus Region City
www.columbusregion.com
3 Scottish Enterprise Country
www.sdi.co.uk/invest
4 Calgary Economic Development City
www.calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com
5= Invest Hong Kong City
www.investhk.gov.hk
5= New York City Economic Development Corporation City
www.nycedc.com IDA Ireland’s top website for digital marketing
7 ConnectIreland Country
www.connectireland.com
8 Nova Scotia Business Region appointed by IDA in an effort to
www.novascotiabusiness.com attract investment though the use
9 Invest Victoria Region of the global diaspora, placed among
www.investvictoria.com the top 10 websites and came third
10 World Business Chicago City for most innovative.
www.worldbusinesschicago.com New York City’s economic devel-
11 Liverpool Vision City opment agency also performed
www.liverpoolvision.com well, not only coming second over-
12= Ohio Aerospace Hub EZ all but also coming top for its use
www.ohioaerospacehub.com of social media, placing fourth for
12= Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone EZ most innovative and ranking first
www.rakftz.com among cities.
14= CINDE (Costa Rica) Country Australia’s Invest Victoria was
www.cinde.org rated the best region as well as third
14= Vasterbotten Investment Agency Region overall, while its website placed in
www.viavasterbotten.se the top 10.
16 Richardson Economic Development Partnership City Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone
www.telecomcorridor.com/international Authority triumphed in the category
17 Greater Halifax Partnership City for special economic zones, with
www.greaterhalifax.com Daegu Gyeongbuk Free Economic
18 Proexport Colombia Country Zone Authority coming second, Ohio
www.proexport.com.co Aerospace Hub third, Lodz Special
19= Berlin Partner City Economic Zone fourth and Klaipeda
www.businesslocationcenter.de Free Economic Zone fifth. Ohio Aero-
19= London Economic Development Corporation City space Hub and RAK FTZ both had
www.ledc.com websites rated in the top 20.
Invest Hong Kong was another
strong performer, coming third
among cities, joint eighth overall,
joint fifth for best website and joint
10th for most innovative.
Canadian triumphs
Canadian organisations were well
Best use of SOCIAL MEDIA represented at both the city and
provincial level in the awards. The
RANK Agency LOCATION TYPE Greater Halifax Partnership came
1 New York City Economic Development Corporation City sixth overall followed by Calgary
Economic Development at joint
2 Proexport Colombia Country
eighth and Nova Scotia Business
3 Greater Halifax Partnership City at joint 10th. The London Economic
4 London Economic Development Corporation City Development Corporation, from
5 Liverpool Vision City Ontario, ranked fourth for its use
6 City of Hamilton City of social media and its fellow
7= IDA Ireland Country Ontarian city Hamilton was sixth
7= Invest Victoria Region in the same category.
And, proving that size is no
9 Calgary Economic Development City
barrier to a successful showing in
10 WestHolland Foreign Investment Agency Region the online arena, Richardson,
20 www.fDiIntelligence.com December 2012/January 2013

4. Global outlook
Cover story
Top city digital marketing website visitors into potential leads
for investment. We have also noted
RANK Agency Country
that there exists great disparity
1 New York City Economic Development Corporation US between the participating IPAs,
2 Calgary Economic Development Canada indicating how recent the realisa-
3= Invest Hong Kong China tion of the immense importance
of the online world has been and
3= World Business Chicago US
the varying extents to which indi-
3= Greater Halifax Partnership Canada
vidual IPAs have been able to react
6 London Economic Development Corporation Canada to this realisation.”
7 Columbus Region US
8 Liverpool Vision UK Engaging online
9 Berlin Partner Germany However, IBT Partners predicts
10 Invest in Bogota Colombia this disparity will lessen as more
and more agencies realise the effec-
tiveness and importance of a success-
ful digital marketing strategy.
Top REGIONAL digital marketing Anatalio Ubalde, CEO of GIS
Planning, a provider of online
RANK Agency Country economic development solutions,
1 Invest Victoria Australia felt that cities put in the best efforts
2 Nova Scotia Business Canada with their websites. “The websites
for cities were a distinct cut above
3 Vojvodina Investment Promotion Serbia
those for any of the other entrant
4 Vasterbotten Investment Agency Sweden categories, mostly in terms of design
5 WestHolland Foreign Investment Agency Netherlands aesthetics, but also often in terms
of the content presented,” he said.
He singled out Invest Hong Kong’s
website for particular attention,
Top Country digital marketing saying it was his top choice for its
RANK Agency Country “top-notch” design, “informative
and stylish” videos, varied informa-
1 IDA Ireland Ireland tion and logical layout.
2 CINDE Costa Rica He was also impressed by Invest
3 Scottish Enterprise UK in Bogota’s “simple and effective
4 Proexport Colombia Colombia website design”. He said: “It was
5 Agence Marocaine de Développement des Investissements Morocco very clear about what it wanted
to communicate. There were other
websites that may have had more
content, but that did a poor job
Top economic zone digital marketing of prioritising what the location
wanted to present first and foremost
RANK Agency Country
about itself.”
1 Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone UAE He considered ConnectIreland
2 Daegu Gyeongbuk Free Economic Zone South Korea to be the most innovative because of
3 Ohio Aerospace Hub US the intriguing idea behind its incen-
tive-based ambassador programme.
4 Lodz Special Economic Zone Poland
“The video explaining how this
5 Klaipeda Free Economic Zone Lithuania programme works was particularly
well done,” he added.
He also offered some advice to
Texas, with a population of roughly [which is marketed] through search organisations in need of a digital
100,000, appeared among the top engine optimisation and with clear marketing upgrade. “Many websites
20 websites. information and ease of contact. used slideshows on their homepages
Some of the independent judges Those that are most active in these to effectively communicate key
who helped score the competition criteria have scored highly, notably points as to why a location is a good
weighed in on what they discovered IDA Ireland which we ranked top of place to invest. This is a best practice
during the assessment process. the Overall Best Digital Marketing that some of the lower ranking loca-
“In our analysis of the digital award,” economic development tions should really consider,” he
marketing strategies, we have consultancy IBT Partners stated in a said. “Several of the websites that
observed that the most successful summary of its findings from the had an English version had linkable
IPAs are very active in the key crite- judging exercise. pages that were not in English,
ria for successful digital marketing: “We have observed that the which was very frustrating. Several
visitor tracking, innovation, effec- quality and originality of the IPAs’ also had links that [didn’t work],
tive use of social media, and a marketing strategies determine which reflects very poorly on a
modern and professional website whether they are able to transform location’s professionalism.”
22 www.fDiIntelligence.com December 2012/January 2013

5. Global outlook
Cover story
Most innovative digital marketing strategy Methodology
fDi Magazine invited representatives
RANK Agency LOCATION TYPE of investment promotion agencies,
1 IDA Ireland Country economic development organisa-
tions and others charged with
2 Nova Scotia Business Region
attracting FDI to complete a 15
3 ConnectIreland Country question survey on their digital
4 New York City Economic Development Corporation City marketing strategy and initiatives.
5= Proexport Colombia Country We received over 50 entries from
5= Ventspils City Council City all regions of the world; and from
7 World Business Chicago City organisations representing locations
8 Invest Victoria Region at all levels (city, region, country and
special economic zone). A panel of
9 CINDE (Costa Rica) Country
internal and external judges inde-
10= Greater Halifax Partnership City pendently reviewed and ranked the
10= Invest Hong Kong City entries across eight categories.
Each judge submitted lists of
their chosen top 10 overall digital
marketing strategies (including
investment promotion agencies of
all geographies and location type);
top websites; top social media strate-
gies; most innovative strategies; as
well as their preferences for best
among cities, regions, countries
and economic zones,
The fDi Benchmark research
team devised a scoring system based
on a scale of 0 (lowest ranking loca-
tion) to 100 (highest ranking loca-
tion) and applied this to the judges’
ranking of the respondents to give
the final results.
The ranking was based purely on
the survey the entrants submitted.
The judges then came to their own
findings by assessing that informa-
tion, and by visiting any relevant
organisation websites and social
Ireland’s investment promotion agency has topped fDi’s Digital Marketing Awards media profiles provided. ■
JUDGING
PANEL
Courtney Fingar Aaron Reid Anatalio Ubalde
Editor, Online marketing manager, CEO,
fDi Magazine Global finance, GIS Planning and
The Financial Times ZoomProspector.com
Jake Hird Dino Ribeiro John Worthington
Director of research and Marketing manager, Partner,
education, fDi Intelligence IBT Partners
Econsultancy
Daniel Nicholls
Senior consultant,
OCO Global
24 www.fDiIntelligence.com December 2012/January 2013