If the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce’s ASmartPlace® branding campaign could get any smarter, it just did brilliant with a revitalized logo using bright, eye-catching colors that better reflect Huntsville as a dynamic, tech-savvy hub where the nation’s smartest people want to relocate.
The chamber also unveiled a more streamlined website that seeks to tell Huntsville’s story to businesses considering an expansion, or individuals who may be considering a move and will be attracted to the North Alabama region.
The new look is also representative of Huntsville’s booming population growth making it the biggest city in Alabama, years ahead of projections; its thriving economic development with its massive capital investment; its low unemployment and strong job creation; and expanding recruitment efforts nationwide.
The updated website combines economic development and recruitment efforts into one portal with two primary tracks. One of those tracks appeals to site selectors. The other track is for job seekers.
Furthermore, the information is organized into four sections, including Locate & Expand Here, Economic Overview, Career Opportunities and Call Huntsville Home.
“The first version of asmartplace.com launched 15 years ago,” said Lucia Cape, the Chamber’s senior VP of Economic Development, Industry Relations and Workforce. “We created ‘A Smart Place’ using a slogan developed to support the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process. We strongly feel it captures the essence of the Huntsville metro, then and now, from being named one of the world’s smartest cities by Forbes in 2009 to retaining our ranking of highest concentration of engineers year after year.”
However, much has changed about Huntsville since 2005, and according to the press release, the chamber needed a new site capable of supporting their 2022 workforce marketing campaign. That campaign will use social media and digital marketing outreach to drive traffic to the updated website. The analytics from these campaigns will provide valuable feedback about what generates traffic to asmartplace.com.
According to Cape, the campaign will have two audiences, defined by the 2019 Deloitte Labor Market Analysis for North Alabama.
The first is talent across the United States that meets the needs of existing and future employers. The second audience is students across the region and their parents to share the high-demand careers available to them right here.
“One of the top recommendations of the Deloitte labor study was to develop a nationally branded affinity marketing campaign about the Huntsville region,” explained Cape. “We have been running trial campaigns to test messaging and geofencing parameters during local and national events, such as the Space and Missile Defense Conference and the National Space Symposium.”
With talent as one of the top reasons companies locate and expand in the Huntsville metro, growth has created even more demand for educated, skilled workers. The chamber is committed to supporting new and existing companies by attracting more talent into the community and increasing “smart career” awareness among students to ensure Huntsville remains ASmartPlace well into the future.
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