State Advertising and Marketing Efforts to be Consolidated For Maximum Efficiency

Frankfort, KY: Governor Ernie Fletcher today announced the selection of New West, a Louisville-based public relations, advertising and marketing agency to create a statewide image campaign, or "brand," and to develop a comprehensive marketing and advertising plan for all state cabinets, plus the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

"We want to have one state, one vision and one brand," said Governor Fletcher.  "For too long, state government has been operating 'in silos,' with cabinets and agencies all pursuing separate agendas and delivering different messages.  We will now deliver one common message.  Our goal is to harness the pride and the passion Kentuckians have for our state, and showcase that pride to the rest of the world, so more businesses will want to locate here, more visitors will want to vacation here, more people will want to live here, and more business will be conducted here."

State government has taken a scattergun approach to advertising and marketing, said Commerce Secretary Jim Host. For instance, the state currently uses more than 100 different logos, each one a visual identity for a state service. In the Commerce Cabinet alone, there is one logo for each of 14 agencies.

"When Economic Development Secretary Gene Strong and I sat down to discuss how we were going to actively promote Kentucky to improve economic development, including tourism, the first thing that struck me was the lack of a single strategy and theme between Economic Development and Tourism, even though we are both about jobs,” Host said.

 "That made no sense,” Host said. "No business would operate that way.”

The fragmentation also has led to state government spending more than they should have, he added.

"When we added up the advertising and marketing budgets across state government, it came to more than  $15 million last year,” Host said.  Individually, the budgets weren’t large enough to negotiate lower commissions and fees nor to leverage the state's buying power to secure better media rates.  Each agency has gained the standard 15 percent commission on advertising media buys as well as hourly creative and public relations fees of up to $155.

The state will save at least $3.5 million with the new contract on an apples to apples comparison.  The state has negotiated lower fees, no media commission, one hourly rate of $95 and 25 percent additional in value-added services in either cash generated by the agency with approved corporate sponsor fees or money saved in efficiencies on media placed.

"We will now be one state with one vision and one brand,” Host said. "The power of this collaboration will move us ahead as we recruit business, tourists, and new citizens.”

The two-year contract with New West will take effect July 1, 2004. 

The selection of New West comes after a comprehensive process during which state officials issued a request for proposals, reviewed qualifications from 18 applicant firms, and received oral presentations from seven of them. The final decision was based on scoring from judges in each cabinet in accordance with the RFP.  Host and Secretary of Finance, Robby Rudolph, then negotiated the final contract with the firm that scored best by the judges. The final contract will now go to the state government LRC committee for review and approval.

"Our intent in this process was to find an agency that could showcase Kentucky's unique qualities, and give the state 'more bang for its buck,'" said Host. "By combining our efforts, we communicate with one theme, we create synergies among cabinets, and we get better advertising rates and more options than would otherwise be available. "

An added benefit to the new contract is the fact that Kentucky is the first state ever to employ a unified, one-brand campaign.

"From the beginning, we have said that this administration was going to bring fresh ideas to Frankfort to operate more efficiently,” Governor Fletcher said. "This one-brand campaign is precisely that.”

"We are excited to have the opportunity to show the rest of the world that Kentucky is the ideal place to live, work and vacation," added Becky Simpson, CEO of New West. "Having a single 'brand' for Kentucky makes a lot of sense.  Branding leads to an efficient use of time and tax dollars. It also allows leadership to track meaningful outcomes like attitude changes among prospective businesses and visitors."

Founded in Louisville in 1971 as the Wenz-Neely Public Relations firm, New West is a full service marketing communications company and Kentucky's largest public relations firm. New West will utilize the services of Fitzgerald & CO of Atlanta to assist with branding and national media buying. Both New West and Fitzgerald & CO are affiliated with the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the world's largest advertising and marketing services organizations.

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