Mindset
Recommendations Strengthen the city’s public relations by either contracting with an experienced marketing firm or hiring a city marketing staff position (in addition to the Public Information Officer). Responsibilities should include:
• Develop a strategic marketing plan to properly communicate the brand/ image of the area both internally and externally.
• Prioritize developing relationships with local media to better communicate success stories on a regular basis.
• Coordinate and leverage existing marketing activities throughout the community. Increase the access and use of alternative media sources: upgrade website, fund community portal, train key officials on the possible use of blogs. Work with local stakeholders to develop a comprehensive strategy, welcome kit, and other tactics to embrace newcomers to the Fresno area. Provide a cohesive and concise message to key state and federal policy-makers that reflects the Valley’s regional goals. Create a contract or staff position for a film ombudsman, a role that requires successful industry experience and is tasked with selling our region to appropriately-sized productions and assisting the production while here to make the process easy. The person in this role would be involved in putting together a database of all locally available equipment, crew, and talent, and they would work with the local educational institutions to develop a qualified, reliable workforce. Once the film ombudsman is retained, develop a film festival for independent filmmakers where they arrive on a Monday and show their short film on Sunday. We provide a producer and DV camera for each filmmaker. They spend the week shooting and editing, and then the films show the following weekend.
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