When city leaders in Goose Creek looked at the explosive population growth that their Lowcountry community has recently experienced, they decided that a rebranding project would help them more accurately reflect what the city has come to offer. The results of that effort, including a refreshed logo and style book as well as a "Creek Rising" campaign, won Goose Creek a 2019 Municipal Association of SC Achievement Award.
The City of Goose Creek created new branding for itself in 2018. Photo: City of Goose Creek.
"We think the change alone got us some attention, and it got us in some conversations that we may have not been in before," said Matt Brady, economic development director for Goose Creek.
Goose Creek has an economic development web landing page, www.creekrising.com, that features city-based business incentives, site selection and relocation data and information on the Goose Creek Local Branded program, which has an interactive map of local businesses.
Brady also spoke of the value of emphasizing the city's role in proactively pursuing economic development. He stressed the importance of having something to say "every time you get a win — if you get a new company, you get an expansion or something like that, [it's important to push out] your press releases and social media, amplifying if however you can."
Brady described the project as part of a panel discussion on economic development messaging during a Communications Workshop at the Municipal Association. He was joined by Anna Huffman, communications and technology director for the City of West Columbia and Christopher George, communications manager for the City of Spartanburg.
Huffman described the city's communication pushes at a time when it opened multiple quality-of-life projects, including its Interactive Art Park as well as the Art on State project. For communications, she said the city capitalized on every aspect of the projects from groundbreaking to the actual opening. The projects aim to further the economic development of West Columbia by making it a more attractive place to live and work.
Public art, including this alleyway mural and the new Interactive Art Park, are part of the
redevelopment of West Columbia's riverfront. Photo: City of West Columbia.
"All the parks have art installations that are interactive. So, we keep pushing the message out, 'come, check out our parks, interact with the art, things are always changing,'" Huffman said.
The art installations have been opening at the same time as new private development and parking expansions in the city's riverfront area, and Huffman said that areas on Meeting and State streets as well as Triangle City are ready for infill development.
"We're seeing a lot redevelopment and restaurant investment and nightlife, so we're really promoting that on our social media, trying to get people over the river to see what's going on in West Columbia, to eat here, to hang out," she said.
The redevelopment of the Montgomery Building has been a major topic of discussion in the redevelopment of downtown Spartanburg.
George described Spartanburg's development-focused projects receiving attention from his department including streetscaping, recreational trails and parking. Sometimes, he said, messages really need repeating. A major development of a downtown hotel caught the attention of detractors, he said, and so the city repeatedly made the case that market growth really created demand for those hotel rooms. The city even has residents who he said are "active defenders" of specific efforts on social media, and hearing from neighbors on social media does create authenticity.
"Residents take it a lot better if it comes from the neighbors, but I don't think we would have gotten that if we hadn't been pretty assertive and aggressive in the beginning in saying, 'hey, good stuff is coming,'" he said.
Spartanburg has a website, www.seespartanburgrise.com, with an interactive map that tracks downtown development projects and cumulative investment amounts since 1996. George said the city works with outside partners on communicating about projects, giving the example of the restoration of the historic high-rise Montgomery Building. The city published videos of the project in various stages and had the developers come on as guests for the city podcast.
"We made it our business to tell that story in all sorts of ways," George said.
Tom Finnagan, left, and James Bakker, center, discuss the development of the Montgomery Building for a podcast with Spartanburg Communications Manager Christopher George.