By Steve Brawner

Let’s start with two assumptions. One is that we live in an attention-based economy where having a message isn’t enough if no one notices it. The other is that what’s good for Little Rock is generally good for Arkansas.

Which brings us to the capital city’s “rejection” of Amazon.

You may be familiar with the story. The Seattle-based tech giant announced it is opening a second headquarters and invited communities to apply. (Which of course would include offering generous tax breaks and government subsidies). The company promised to hire 50,000 workers, many of them highly paid, and invest $5 billion. The winner will be transformed, as Seattle has been, which is why 238 cities have submitted applications.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, facing a tough re-election campaign against two credible opponents so far, initially said his city would apply. But Little Rock didn’t meet some of Amazon’s specifications, and it was obvious the city couldn’t compete against places like Boston and Austin, Texas, that are bigger and cooler.

So Stodola and others decided to go the opposite direction. The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, funded partly by city money, published a “breakup” letter in the Washington Post. It’s owned by the same guy, Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon. Headlined, “It’s Not You. It’s Us,” the letter touted Little Rock’s offerings, reassured Amazon that the company would “find what you’re looking for,” and was signed “Love, Little Rock.” The Chamber also paid for an “It’s not you. It’s us.” banner ad flown over Seattle with the same message.

A solid base hit

It wasn’t a home run marketing ploy, but it was a solid base hit. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Little Rock earned a mention in 725 media outlets, including the online version of the Post. Cision, a company that measures the effectiveness of marketing efforts, valued the publicity at $1.7 million and said all those media mentions potentially could reach a billion people.

That’s a pretty good investment for whatever was paid for the ad, which the Chamber has not disclosed. Stodola and Chamber President Jay Chesshir will take a victory lap and tell the inside story at the Clinton School of Public Service Nov. 6.

The Democrat-Gazette reported that less than 10 percent of the initial feedback was negative, much of it originating in Arkansas, which figures. But regardless of what the scorners say, this was a pretty good idea.

The attention economy

It’s often said we live in an “information economy,” but that’s not true. We live in an “attention economy.” In a 1997 article in Wired magazine, theoretical physicist Michael Goldhaber explained that economies are based on scarcity, and if there’s a glut of anything these days, it’s information. What’s scarce is attention. No matter how many gadgets humans own, they have only 24 hours in a day and only one brain. Whoever breaks through all the clutter wins the moment. Little Rock broke through.

There’s long been somewhat of a division between Little Rock and the rest of Arkansas, most notably in the Legislature where the urban-rural divide is often more important than the Democrat-Republican one. That divide is self-defeating. Little Rock’s struggles of late – the state takeover of its schools and a mass shootout at a nightclub – affect us all. Its problems are Arkansas’ problems and affect the state’s image and vibrancy, as well as the distribution of yours and my tax dollars. In the same way, Seattle’s success has been good for Washington, while Detroit’s collapse has been bad for Michigan.

Good marketing requires more than a clever ad. The city is following up with a website, lovelittlerock.org, which brags on its offerings and has a cute video version of the Amazon letter. More important would be regaining control of the schools and reducing crime.

But those are home runs, and home runs are hard to hit. Regardless of where you live in Arkansas, you might as well cheer this base hit and pull for the capital city to put some runs across the plate. When it scores or strikes out, so do the rest of us.

© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.