(Nicholas Pantaleo and Daniel Silverman accepting the Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award)
WASHINGTON, DC (October 03, 2018) – Toronto Global received a Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award for its UXTO (You Experience Toronto) for Amazon HQ2 social media campaign, a project in the category of Paid Ad Campaign from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).
The honor was presented at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 2, during the IEDC Annual Conference, which was held September 29 – October 3, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
“Our UXTO social media campaign was an awareness campaign that spoke to a millennial tech audience in their language,” said Toby Lennox, CEO of Toronto Global. “With a play on ‘UX’ or ‘User Experience,’ we identified and targeted 110,000 Amazon employees on LinkedIn across North America to experience what it is like to live, work and succeed in one of the top tech hubs in the world with an outstanding quality of life. With over 210,000 impressions and a 400 percent increase in traffic to our website, the engagement we saw throughout this four-week campaign was exceptional. We would like to thank the IEDC for this recognition today, as there was some excellent competition from our peers.”
When Amazon announced that it was looking to create a second headquarters, they called on cities across North America to submit proposals. This would be the start of hundreds of cities submitting bids for HQ2.
Knowing that employees were likely to be key decision-makers – and that Amazon might poll them to see which city they would prefer, Toronto Global saw this as a phenomenal opportunity. At the time, the media discussion was about potential U.S. locations for HQ2. Cities were heavily engaged on social media – but none were talking directly to Amazon employees about life in their city. Toronto wasn’t a part of the discussion – and Toronto Global saw an opportunity to change that by using LinkedIn to target Amazon employees with content that would inspire excitement about Toronto’s proposal.
The Toronto Region was the only Canadian region that made Amazon’s twenty-city shortlist, and through this process Toronto Global saw over 16,800 downloads of its bid book to date, which was also made publically available on the day it was submitted to Amazon.
“This year our judges reviewed some extraordinary projects that advanced both communities and businesses. We congratulate all the award winners, and thank everyone who nominated their projects for sharing their success with fellow IEDC members. What we learn from each other helps us to grow and advance as a profession. We look forward to even greater participation from economic developers across the globe in the 2019 awards program.” -Craig Richard, CEcD, FM, President and CEO, Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation located in Tampa, Florida, and 2018 IEDC Board Chair.
About The International Economic Development Council
The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) is the world’s largest membership organization for economic development professionals. Economic developers promote economic well-being and quality of life in their communities by creating, retaining, and expanding jobs that facilitate growth and provide a stable tax base. From public to private, rural to urban, and local to international, our members represent the entire range of economic development. Learn more at iedconline.org.
About Toronto Global
Toronto Global is the investment promotion agency that attracts foreign direct investment to the Toronto Region. Toronto Global represents the Cities of Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton, as well as the Regions of Durham, Halton and York.
Contact:
Julia Sakas, Director, Marketing & Communications
Toronto Global
647-729-0735
[email protected]