The DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation is celebrating its 35th year of operation during 2022. For much of this period, DCEDC’s focus has been industrial development, the foundation of most economies.
However, despite success in business development and job creation, DeKalb County has lost population, particular young and mid-career professionals. Opportunity Unbound is a branding initiative created to enhance economic and community development by attracting talent to work and live in DeKalb County, as well as continuing to expand and attract business investment.
During the initiation of the Opportunity Unbound over the past two years, DeKalb County attracted $1.1 billion of investment in the development of 5.2 million square feet of industrial space and the creation of 1,850 jobs.
This development included the expansion of local industries like Custom Aluminum Products, Conserv FS, Innovative Growers Equipment, Proven Winners, The Suter Company and Wehrli Custom Fabrication, as well as the attraction of new companies such as Facebook (META), Ferrara Candy and Syngenta.
Promotion of this success has generated more than 80 new development prospects, more than doubling the annual average, and ensuring a solid pipeline of new development for this and future years.
The Opportunity Unbound branding initiative is designed to attract talented workers, young professionals and families to work and live in DeKalb County by creating awareness of our local amenities, attractions and communities. It is a communications platform to promote all that DeKalb County has to offer particularly, the lesser-known assets of the county, and to promote new initiatives.
In development of the brand, DCEDC assembled focus groups from throughout DeKalb County to help determine how to best characterize our community, including residents, employees, business and community leaders. All identified “opportunity” as what best describes their community and DeKalb County. The word “unbound” was chosen to acknowledge that while DeKalb County has always had a lot to offer, we’re taking it to the next level!
Opportunity Unbound conveys feelings of adventure, excitement and optimism about what’s to come.
We’ve developed brand positioning, creative design, messaging and marketing strategy designed to: retain and expand local businesses; attract professionals to strengthen our workforce; recruit business to locate in DeKalb; and increase the population of young professionals and families ages 25 through 40.
Last year, DCEDC collaborated with its marketing consultant, DCC Marketing, and the DeKalb County Convention & Visitors Bureau to begin executing the Opportunity Unbound comprehensive promotional program. This included developing collateral marketing material and ads, setting up social channels, created content calendars, preparing feature videos and setting up a “SWAG” store for marketing premiums like polos and fleeces. Ads have been run at the Egyptian Theatre and Site Selection magazine. Social media placement in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter has been ongoing
The OpportunityUnbound.com website, developed with OC Creative, will launch later this month. It will be a resource for community members, visitors and current or new businesses to find everything they need to know about DeKalb County all in one place.
DCEDC Presents (a look at upcoming events):
Benefits Beyond The Paycheck: Exploring What Matters Most To Employees, a virtual workforce development panel discussion will be held via Zoom at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24. For details visit www.dcedc.com.
Stay tuned for details about DCEDC’s 2022 Annual Dinner featuring a nationally-known speaker on workforce development. It will be held in person on Thursday, April 28 at Faranda’s Banquet Center in DeKalb.
Later this month, DCEDC will kick off its 2022 economic development fundraising campaign for operations, as well as the public portion of the 3-year Opportunity Unbound branding and communication campaign. Watch your emails for DCEDC’s fundraising request and be as generous as possible in your support. For new contributors and more information, contact Karen Hoyle at hoyle@dcedc.org or 815-508-2427.