New image for the Twin Cities: Prosper

The Twin Cities is about to get an image overhaul. Saying the region needs to dump its militant modesty to attract companies, the area's new regional economic development group has unveiled a global brand marketing campaign that trumpets the region's virtues.

"Get a closer look," goes one of the proposed slogans. "Prosperity is alive and well in the northern heartland."

The group, now called Greater MSP, rolled out its new "prosper" brand identity for the Twin Cities at the Pantages Theatre in downtown Minneapolis Tuesday night.

"We've got to get this region off the best-kept-secret list," Ecolab CEO Doug Baker told the high-power crowd of about 500 people.

The marketing campaign will include television, radio and print advertising as well as social media and a new website set to be a one-stop shop for site selectors. It's all geared to promote the message that the area's workforce, quality of life, education system and culture lead businesses here to prosper. Sample ads that were flashed to the crowd spotlight local Fortune 500 companies such as Medtronic and Target.

Greater MSP was created by the Itasca Project, a high-level group of dozens of local CEOs, elected officials and nonprofits who are concerned that the Twin Cities has been falling behind in the jobs competition.

A good chunk of Greater MSP's first-year budget of $2.8 million came from the private sector, but about 30 percent came from local governments such as the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul and Burnsville. Hennepin County put in $150,000 for Greater MSP's first year.

In an interview, Langley said the campaign took six months and about $1 million to develop. Most of Greater MSP's second-year budget of between $4 million and $5 million will go to marketing.

The campaign is aimed at attracting companies in five key business sectors: headquarters and business services; health and life sciences; financial services and insurance; innovation and technology; and food and agriculture.

Langley said Greater MSP will track results by measuring new capital investment in the region, both from inside and outside the state, as well as job growth.

"We are going to challenge our region to increase the number of jobs by 100,000 in the next five years," Langley said, or about 25 percent more than the economy might grow on its own.

The "prosper" pitch may feel a bit off-key, with governments slashing budgets and more than 200,000 Minnesotans out of work. Not everyone is sold on Greater MSP.

"It's the redundancy of these efforts that I think is the most frustrating," Krinkie said.

Scott Burns, CEO of GovDelivery Inc., a St. Paul software company, said he's supports Greater MSP's overall mission. But he's concerned it risks becoming another expensive organization. He also doesn't think it should replace local economic development efforts.

"When you look at this from the east-metro perspective, I don't think it's enough to say 'Let enough people sitting high up with a global view decide what the next step is,'" he said. "I think we need to craft our own plan.

"You better prove that wiping out the Capital City Partnership is worth it."

Greater MSP enters the scene as the Capital City Partnership, a 15-year-old nonprofit economic development group in St. Paul, exits. Capital City Partnership is shutting down at the end of the year and its executive director, Joel Akason, has joined Greater MSP.

Dane Smith, president of Growth and Justice, a policy research group in St. Paul, said there's been too much bad-mouthing of the state's business climate.

"We need positive, aggressive marketing of this great progressive state," Smith said.