By Skip Foster, Red Tape Florida
When Red Tape Florida launched, the mission wasn’t simply to criticize local government.
The mission was to encourage better local government.
That’s why it’s worth recognizing when public agencies move in the right direction.
This week, the Office of Economic Vitality issued a Request for Proposals seeking a marketing firm to promote Tallahassee as the “Magnetics Capital of the World.” The initiative would build a multimedia campaign centered on one of the community’s greatest economic assets — the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory — and its potential to attract companies, investment and talent.
The timing is noteworthy.
In April, Red Tape Florida published an analysis questioning why OEV’s marketing efforts largely overlooked the MagLab while emphasizing more generic quality-of-life messaging. The argument wasn’t that Tallahassee needed more marketing. It was that Tallahassee needed to market the right thing.
This RFP suggests OEV is doing exactly that. And that’s great news.
Tallahassee-Leon appears to be placing greater emphasis on one of its most distinctive competitive advantages. For more than three decades, the MagLab has been the world’s premier magnetics research facility. Communities across America would gladly trade places with Tallahassee if they could.
Yet the region has struggled to build the kind of private-sector ecosystem that often grows around world-class research institutions.
Marketing alone won’t solve that challenge.
But it’s an important place to start.
The RFP calls for a comprehensive campaign to improve brand recognition, increase awareness of Tallahassee’s magnetic technologies, market targeted industries and position the community as the “Magnetics Capital of the World.”
It also asks that this newly developed creative be marketed, through paid digital channels, among others. This is an important change from prior marketing efforts that led to award winning creative sitting on a shelf.
Perhaps most importantly, the project would tie marketing efforts to growing the local magnetics industry cluster — not simply creating a new slogan.
The real measure of success won’t be impressions, clicks or social media engagement.
It will be whether more magnetics companies relocate here. Whether more startups commercialize MagLab research. Whether more suppliers choose Tallahassee. Whether more high-paying private-sector jobs follow.
Those are the outcomes that matter.
Red Tape Florida will continue asking difficult questions when warranted. But credibility also requires acknowledging progress.
When government makes decisions that better position Tallahassee for long-term economic success, those decisions deserve recognition as well.