Nevada dreamin'

Nevada's effort to woo California companies, an effort supported by an aggressive advertising campaign, continues to build momentum.

In a fiscal year that still has about six weeks to run, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada says it's worked with 15 California companies that brought 504 jobs to northern Nevada.

That compares with six companies and 168 jobs a year earlier and four companies representing 37 jobs in the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2002.

That trend, economic development officials say, follows the success of two sharply pointed advertising campaigns in the past 18 months that targeted California businesses.

The first campaign asked California companies if they could survive the Golden State's high costs of business.And a follow-up campaign this year cautions that California companies may be terminated unless they deal with the costs of doing business in the state.

This year's campaign is budgeted at roughly $560,000, about the same as the first year.

It's financed by three of the state's economic development authorities EDAWN, Nevada's effort to woo California companies, an effort supported by an aggressive advertising campaign, continues to build momentum.

In a fiscal year that still has about six weeks to run, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada says it's worked with 15 California companies that brought 504 jobs to northern Nevada.

That compares with six companies and 168 jobs a year earlier and four companies representing 37 jobs in the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2002.

That trend, economic development officials say, follows the success of two sharply pointed advertising campaigns in the past 18 months that targeted California businesses.

The first campaign asked California companies if they could survive the Golden State's high costs of business.And a follow-up campaign this year cautions that California companies may be terminated unless they deal with the costs of doing business in the state.

This year's campaign is budgeted at roughly $560,000, about the same as the first year.

It's financed by three of the state's economic development authorities EDAWN,Nevada's effort to woo California companies, an effort supported by an aggressive advertising campaign, continues to build momentum.

In a fiscal year that still has about six weeks to run, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada says it's worked with 15 California companies that brought 504 jobs to northern Nevada.

That compares with six companies and 168 jobs a year earlier and four companies representing 37 jobs in the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2002.

That trend, economic development officials say, follows the success of two sharply pointed advertising campaigns in the past 18 months that targeted California businesses.

The first campaign asked California companies if they could survive the Golden State's high costs of business.And a follow-up campaign this year cautions that California companies may be terminated unless they deal with the costs of doing business in the state.

This year's campaign is budgeted at roughly $560,000, about the same as the first year.

It's financed by three of the state's economic development authorities EDAWN,the Northern Nevada Development Authority in Carson City and the Nevada Development Authority in Las Vegas along with the state Commission on Economic Development.

"It's one of the best things that we've done together," says Ron Weisinger, executive director of NNDA.

While executives of about half the California-based companies with which NNDA works say they've seen Nevada's advertising, direct action isn't the point,Weisinger says.

"The marketing campaign is not to solicit, but to bring up to the forefront of their thoughts," he says.

While the campaign runs advertising only in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, business people throughout the state and the rest of the nation, for that matter are hearing about it.

Since October,Nevada's campaign has been the subject of 380 newspaper articles, says Julie Ardito, director of public relations for EDAWN.And the advertising message is amplified because many of those articles appear in California newspapers.

"This has been a very successful publicity generator," says Ardito, who describes public relations as "gentle pressure, relentlessly applied."

Since the campaign targeting California began, it's been the focus of more than 600 newspaper articles.

If those articles were converted into paid advertising, Ardito estimates their value at $18.6 million.

The advertising drew that kind of attention because its straight talk is highly unusual in the economic development business.

More typical is economic development advertising that Jeanie Ashe, director of marketing for the state's Commission on Economic Development, calls "sunsets and golf courses." Those typically run in magazines targeted toward site selectors or economic development professionals rather than individual business owners.

"They don't really tell a story,"Ashe says.

"They don't grab your attention."

Now, she says, a few states and localities are beginning to follow Nevada's lead with advertising that's a bit more edgy.Among them: California, which just rolled out a campaign starring Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a series of "Arnold Says" ads aimed at retaining California companies.

Nevada officials,meanwhile, say they're planning to refresh the campaign with a new version later this year, but they don't yet know what direction the campaign will take.