New round of ads from Nevada targets companies in California

In early 2004, Coca-Cola introduced an ad campaign in which Sharlene Hector sang "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free," a tune the soft drink maker hoped would supplant "I Want to Buy the World a Coke."

It's long forgotten.

About the same time, Nevada economic development groups rolled out a gritty campaign spotlighting California's lousy climate for business and encouraging companies to migrate east.

It's still running.

In fact, another rendition of the campaign hit the media last week with print ads, wallscapes and Webcasts targeting Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco.

This time around, the campaign features missing California icons the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign that migrated to Nevada.

Economic development officials in Nevada decided to roll out a new version of the campaign for a simple reason: It works.

But even though 65 companies and more than 2,300 jobs have migrated to Nevada from California since 2004, economic officials don't measure the campaign's effectiveness that way.

Instead, they watch how much news coverage the campaign generates in media in California and elsewhere, hoping to leverage a relatively modest amount of paid advertising into a good-sized chunk of publicity.

This time around, the campaign carries a budget of $560,000, and Nevada executives hope to generate $6 million to $8 million worth of news coverage, said Chuck Alvey, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.

The campaign is funded by EDAWN, Northern Nevada Development Authority in Carson City, Nevada Development Authority in Las Vegas, the state Commission on Economic Development and Sierra Pacific Power Co.

The $6 million to $8 million in free coverage that backers hope to generate with the new ad campaign compares with coverage worth about $12 million in the campaign's first year and $10 million the next.

"We keep hearing about it," Alvey said.

He said economic development officials in Nevada think they have a fresh and strong message to deliver to California businesses.

This time around, the campaign makes a point that California businesses are tired of waiting around for slow changes in the Golden State's business environment.

And it refreshes the pitch that workers compensation costs and taxes are lower in Nevada. Those were important elements of earlier campaigns that warned California businesses that their home state's business climate threatened their very survival.

Important as those factors may be, research by Nevada officials finds that quality of life and affordability also are an important incentive for companies to move, said Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, chair of the Commission on Economic Development.

The campaign strategy and creative elements were developed by KPS|3 Marketing of Reno.