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toonkee

Is This Weird?

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Reno has been paying money to convince us it's better than we think in the "news" media. 

 

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2017/07/11/renos-looking-like-silicon-valley-you-helped-pay-headline-bloomberg/103590526/

The national news stories began popping up about two years ago, celebrating Reno's economic revival, touting the city as "actually pretty cool" and ruminating on the region's Silicon Valley-esque potential.

Just two weeks ago, a Bloomberg story titled "Reno Is Starting to Look More Like Silicon Valley" hit social media with great fanfare, continuing the trend of celebratory Reno articles appearing nationally about twice a quarter since 2015.

But the positive press isn't a coincidental timing of national publications suddenly realizing Reno is shedding its image as a tired casino town.

In fact, the coverage has been carefully orchestrated at local taxpayers' expense to help rebrand the region in an effort to boost economic development — a cost to date of $110,000. Taxes used to pay for the campaign include the gas tax for roads, room taxes, sales tax and the city's general fund revenue — which is needed for such things as police officers, firefighters and parks.

The public relations campaign also has opened up an ethical quandary for Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve.

In early 2015, shortly after Schieve was elected on promises to establish Reno as a mecca for tech companies, the Reno City Council joined with three other government agencies and the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada to pay a public relations agency to begin pitching the region's comeback story to the national press.

The Regional Marketing Cooperative, as the partnership has come to be known, was spearheaded by Abbi Whitaker, president and founder of the Abbi Agency. Whitaker was also Schieve's chief campaign consultant during her 2014 bid for mayor and is helping her to launch her 2018 re-election bid.

But as Schieve enters her campaign cycle, the city of Reno has decided not to continue paying for the marketing cooperative. The reason, according to Schieve and former Assistant City Manager Kate Thomas, is for the city to save money.

"This budget cycle we're doing everything we can do to pinch pennies to get more police officers," Schieve told the Reno Gazette-Journal last week.

The remaining partners, however, laud the cooperative's success in convincing national reporters to write kindly about the Biggest Little City, arguing the stories by journalists are much more valuable than any advertisement or billboard in helping to define the region.

 
 

A screenshot of a recent Bloomberg.com story comparing Reno's economic revival to Silicon Valley. 

(Photo: RGJ)

 

Sharing the bill

GAS TAXES, SALES TAXES AND ROOM TAXES GO TOWARD THE MARKETING EFFORT

Whitaker said she developed the idea of the cooperative with EDAWN president Mike Kazmierski, who believed the region needed to rescue itself from negative stories and punchlines from the likes of Amy Schumer and Seth Meyers.

In short, Reno continued to be the butt of the national joke, and that stood in the way of continued economic development, Kazmierski said.

So, Whitaker began approaching various government agencies asking if they would chip in for the cooperative.

She won over the city of Reno, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, the University of Nevada, Reno and the Regional Transportation Commission. Each entity would pay $10,000 a year to participate in the cooperative.

Washoe County and the city of Sparks declined to participate.

"It's not one entity's responsibility to do PR for the region, and that's really expensive for one agency to do," Whitaker said. "What we were talking about seemed like a fiscally responsible idea. It shouldn't be one person paying for it."

The money from the four partners doesn't go directly to the Abbi Agency. Instead, the city, RTC, RSCVA and UNR write checks to EDAWN, which in turn pays the Abbi Agency.

"We serve as a conduit if they choose," Kazmierski said. "Our goal, ultimately, is to raise some money to market the community in a positive way."

 
 

Abbi Whitaker, left, and Hillary Schieve attend the RGJ's Twenty Under 40 awards Thursday Nov. 1, 2012 at the Atlantis. Twenty outstanding young professionals were honored. 

(Photo: Lisa J. Tolda, Lisa J. Tolda)

 

A question of disclosure

SCHIEVE'S CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT IS DOING THE WORK

Having EDAWN act as a conduit for the government agencies' money simplifies the financial administration of the cooperative. It also allows Whitaker and Schieve to escape a murky ethical situation.

Because she is the mayor's campaign consultant, Whitaker said she makes a point not to bid on any city of Reno contracts.

"I am super cognizant of never bidding on accounts the city touches," Whitaker said. "Hillary and I know when I work on the campaign, I cannot bid on any city business. I am very good at what I do and I would love to bid on that business, but it means more to me to work on her campaign."

If the city does do business with one of Schieve's political consultants, Schieve typically publicly discloses the relationship. Schieve, for example, repeatedly discloses her relationship with former campaign manager Jessica Sferrazza, who now lobbies the council for private clients.

In the case of the regional marketing cooperative, however, Schieve did not disclose her relationship with Whitaker.

As mayor, she voted twice to approve Reno's $10,000 annual payments to EDAWN for the marketing cooperative. Although Schieve also sat on the boards of the RSCVA, RTC and EDAWN when the cooperative was formed, she never voted on the expense for those agencies.

When first asked about her failure to disclose the relationship, Schieve was adamant that she knew nothing about the Abbi Agency's involvement in the cooperative. In an initial interview with a reporter and again in a meeting with RGJ editors, Schieve said repeatedly that she didn't know the Abbi Agency was involved because the agency's name was not in the staff reports presented to council.

But when Schieve was confronted with evidence of her own involvement with the cooperative — for example, she is featured in the first national story generated by the Abbi Agency and is quoted in the press release announcing the cooperative's creation — Schieve changed her story.

"I knew the Abbi Agency was working on it, but (the contract) was through EDAWN," Schieve said. "That's my point. The contract was through EDAWN. I'm not saying I didn't know who was working on it."

"When voting on that, I wasn't putting two and two together," Schieve said. "The contract was through EDAWN."

While the staff reports did not mention the Abbi Agency, the supporting material given to council members to make their decision did. That material included a Powerpoint presentation put together by the Abbi Agency in 2016 to showcase the cooperative's work.

The Reno Gazette-Journal found no evidence that Schieve helped Whitaker obtain the contracts with the various agencies Schieve helped lead.

Kazmierski said he worked directly with former City Manager Andrew Clinger on the project. Reno's former communications director, Deanna Gescheider, who was the city's point person for the cooperative, said she also worked directly with Clinger, not Schieve, on the project.

The contract between Reno and EDAWN requires the Abbi Agency to provide each partner with monthly recaps, a monthly accounting of agency hours spent on the cooperative and an annual report on stories generated by the agency's efforts.

That reporting appears to have been haphazard based on public records requests submitted by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The RTC was able to provide periodic emails from Whitaker announcing certain stories. The RSCVA provided a spreadsheet of story "placements." The Reno city clerk, however, could provide only the 2016 annual recap Powerpoint.

"We don't have record of them," Reno City Clerk Ashley Turney said of the required monthly recap reports.

The lack of reporting troubles Councilman David Bobzien, who requested quarterly updates when he voted to approve the cooperative. After the Reno Gazette-Journal began working on this story, he asked EDAWN to produce the reports.

"If you made pitches to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, you should be able to document that and draw a clear line to the work you did and the coverage received,” Bobzien said. "If I don't see that, I'm not buying it. Just by being a big booster and loving the region doesn't mean you should get a contract."

Kazmierski said he's hopeful that Reno will rejoin the cooperative if the city's budget situation makes it feasible. And Schieve said she is a huge fan of the cooperative's work.

"Just like in my business, if I don't do branding and marketing, no one walks through my door," said Schieve, who owns two franchise clothing stores. "It's the same way with the city. What we are selling at Reno is a quality of life. That is our product."

Reno City Councilman Paul McKenzie, who is openly antagonistic toward EDAWN, also defended the marketing program, saying he hopes it attracts companies to town that don't need tax incentives to make the move. He also defended the Abbi Agency.

"I don't think that the mayor's friendship with Abbi or anything else is the reason we use them," McKenzie said. "She's very effective at what she does. If you are going to pay money for something, you pay for the best you can get."

 
 

Abbi Whitaker of the Abbi Agency. 

(Photo: Provided to the RGJ)

 

Return on investment?

EXPOSURE WORTH $5 MILLION IN ADVERTISING, AGENCY ESTIMATES

Whitaker and the remaining cooperative partners said they are proud of the results from their efforts. Although the reporting to the cooperative partners appears to have been lax, the agency has tracked each story they worked on.

"Since the Regional Outreach Co-Op was created in early 2015, the partnership comprised of regional entities has generated articles in 26 national publications including the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Bloomberg.com and Entrepreneur," the co-op partners said in a prepared statement. "Audiences have learned about the growth of technology-based industries in the Reno-Sparks area, and they have learned about the remarkable lifestyle and cultural opportunities available to the region's residents and visitors."

Whitaker estimated this "earned media" coverage is worth more than $5 million in paid placements.

"Reports written by respected journalists carry more credibility than paid advertising," the co-op statement said.

Whitaker, who has built a thriving agency with offices in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas, has long been a fierce champion of the region who is always ready to combat a negative stereotype of Reno.

"Earned media is so much more important than buying an ad, and Reno was not doing a good job of that," Whitaker said. "I, more than anyone in this community, believe earned media is so important to change hearts and minds."

Whitaker's client base spans from public tourism agencies to local tech companies and food companies. Many of her private clients also are featured in the stories her agency said it generated for the government cooperative.

For instance, Whitaker represents local drone delivery company Flirtey. The agency helped Flirtey get coverage in Fortune and Popular Science of its inaugural Slurpee delivery. Those stories also wound up on the agency's list of deliverables for the cooperative.

Whitaker's former client Mark Estee, a local restaurateur, was featured in five of the stories generated for the cooperative, and former client Peppermill was featured in three of the stories.

"I have a lot of clients," she said. "Sometimes, because I'm pitching my client, it then turns into an opportunity to talk about Reno. That’s what a good PR person does, she leverages her relationships to create good clients."

Whitaker doesn't exclusively pitch her clients while pitching stories about the region. Many of the stories don't include her other clients, including the most recent Bloomberg story.

 
 

Give a Dog a Bone Week runs Aug. 10-16 to collect pet food and supplies for homeless people who have pets. 

(Photo: Provided to the RGJ)

 

Not everything is rosy

GROWTH HAS BROUGHT THE REGION SERIOUS CHALLENGES

Reno is not alone in its quest to convince the world of its Silicon Valley-ness. States, cities and regions from Utah, to Chicago, to Ohio to the Twin Cities to Orlando have made similar pitches. In fact, a recent issue of Wired decried the strategy as a clichéd economic development ploy that is actually hurting cities.

"New incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces are a solid start," the magazine said. "But pretending to be the 'next Silicon Valley' is like comparing the local Walgreens to the Mayo Clinic."

While many agree the positive press is good for the region, others believe more coverage scrutinizing how well the region is coping with the growth is called for.

Mike Van Houten, creator of the popular blog Downtown Makeover, recently came to that realization. His blog has charted the revival of downtown and Midtown over the years, highlighting exciting developments that have characterized the very story the Abbi Agency is trying to get out to the national press.

At the same time, however, Van Houten said he began to notice that the developments he wrote about did little to alleviate the burgeoning lack of affordable housing. Instead, the developments seemed to be doing the opposite—pricing the working class out of the housing market.

"I bought my house (near Midtown) in 2003 for $137,000," he said. "There's no way I could afford to buy a house in this neighborhood now."

Worse, he said, very low-income individuals are losing their housing altogether.

"I noticed nobody was actually building housing that could make up for the displacement that's happening of people being pushed out of weekly motels and nobody was actually constructing affordable housing projects in areas that would serve those people well."

Van Houten stopped posting about developments in April. He's in the process of remaking his site to focus on "smart growth" and solutions to problems posed by the city's gentrification. He no longer wants to be solely a cheerleader.

"I became kind of disillusioned that my site was just there as a cheerleader without digging into fixing some of Reno's issues," he said.

That's not to say that Reno shouldn't work to generate positive national press, Van Houten said.

Whitaker also acknowledged that the marketing cooperative's work would start to evolve along that line as well. But those stories also can exacerbate conflict, which isn't necessarily the mission of the cooperative.

For example, a recent Wall Street Journal article, which Whitaker said she didn't pitch but acted as a resource for, highlighted Reno's housing shortage, creating some strife among the cooperative partners. The story pinned the responsibility on the city of Reno's permitting process, which Schieve took issue with.

Still, Whitaker doesn't disagree, necessarily, with the shift in coverage angles.

"Currently, there are a lot of reporters who are taking a harder look at what is happening in Reno and how we are dealing with growth," Whitaker said. "I think you will see a switch, as seen in the WSJ story, from more feature type stories to stories taking a deeper look at how we are coping with growth."

 
 
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How is it weird?

Its no different than what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. 

thelawlorfaithful, on 31 Dec 2012 - 04:01 AM, said:One of the rules I live by: never underestimate a man in a dandy looking sweater

 

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I only skimmed through the OP but if Reno received $5M in publicly for $110K spent, that's pretty damn effective if they've been able to attract companies to relocate. With this context, I'm speaking as a marketing professional as opposed to a libertarian. 

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The campaign consultant getting the contract may, or may not, be dirty.  Would have to know the city's letting process.

Although hell, it was just two 10k contacts.  It's not like it was some windfall.

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16 hours ago, mugtang said:

How is it weird?

Its no different than what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. 

Hmmm...yes they are both "advertising" but the Reno thing is an attempt to seed news sources with some dubious facts to include in fluff pieces. The Vegas thing is just an advertising slogan and everyone recognizes it as such. 

It was unusual enough to write a story about it anyway.

 

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Interesting article, and the publicity definitely seems to be working. As mentioned though, housing is getting out of hand. The median home price in Reno is now $317k according to zillow. Compare this to our peers in the MW:

Reno: $317k

Las Vegas: $216k

Albuquerque: $215k

Boise: $213k

Fresno: $212k

 

Now I love Reno, but there's no reason that we should be this much more expensive than our peers. I read somewhere that Reno rents have increased by more than almost any other city in the past few years. Hopefully the builders are able to keep up with demand, as I feel bad for people who need to buy and rent. 

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12 hours ago, CPslograd said:

The campaign consultant getting the contract may, or may not, be dirty.  Would have to know the city's letting process.

Although hell, it was just two 10k contacts.  It's not like it was some windfall.

I think Anjeanette had the appearance of quid pro quo, but couldn't quite prove it. She hedged, which is why the story seems a little disjointed.

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6 hours ago, toonkee said:

Hmmm...yes they are both "advertising" but the Reno thing is an attempt to seed news sources with some dubious facts to include in fluff pieces. The Vegas thing is just an advertising slogan and everyone recognizes it as such. 

It was unusual enough to write a story about it anyway.

 

The fact that journalists are stupid and can be fed promotional stuff, because they are fucking stupid.  Isn't the fault of an economic development authority.

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14 hours ago, bluerules009 said:

The fact that journalists are stupid and can be fed promotional stuff, because they are fucking stupid.  Isn't the fault of an economic development authority.

Most everyone in the PR and marketing world knows that reporters are amongst the laziest fcuking people on the planet. 95% of what you read in trade pubs and specialty mags is furnished by PR and marketing departments. 

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19 hours ago, bigd said:

Interesting article, and the publicity definitely seems to be working. As mentioned though, housing is getting out of hand. The median home price in Reno is now $317k according to zillow. Compare this to our peers in the MW:

Reno: $317k

Las Vegas: $216k

Albuquerque: $215k

Boise: $213k

Fresno: $212k

 

Now I love Reno, but there's no reason that we should be this much more expensive than our peers. I read somewhere that Reno rents have increased by more than almost any other city in the past few years. Hopefully the builders are able to keep up with demand, as I feel bad for people who need to buy and rent. 

Reno hit $360k last month. 

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7 hours ago, NMpackalum said:

Reno hit $360k last month. 

I saw that, but that is only including single family homes. The numbers I provided include the city average on zillow for all units.

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2 minutes ago, bigd said:

I saw that, but that is only including single family homes. The numbers I provided include the city average on zillow for all units.

Whatever it is, Reno is getting pretty darn expensive. Are there that many people moving in? Have incomes risen that much?  Is it just becoming a California suburb?  What's the deal, Reno peeps?

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7 minutes ago, toonkee said:

Whatever it is, Reno is getting pretty darn expensive. Are there that many people moving in? Have incomes risen that much?  Is it just becoming a California suburb?  What's the deal, Reno peeps?

It's a combination of a lot of things, but the Tesla hype combined with the lack of new building in Reno/Bay Area/Sacramento is driving prices way up. The housing market in northern California/Nevada is just nuts, it has to be a bubble. 

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15 minutes ago, Joe from WY said:

When the tech bubble inevitably bursts again, things will go back to normal. 

It's probably driven after all by Bay Area people dumping their houses and moving to "cheaper" places up the hill. 

Bay Area housing prices have skewed and screwed up a lot of things.

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Guest RoscoesDad

Just to clarify, a puff piece is not an advertisement.  An ad is a paid ad.  A puff piece is an editorial that is usually tied into paid advertising.  So for example, if Reno Chamber of Commerce buys X amount of ads in say LA Times, they will typically be willing to throw in some feature stories in say the Travel or Business section ( i.e. puff pieces) as part of the package in order to attract the ad dollars. In TV maybe you get some feature stories on the news or one of you as the 'go to' quote machine under certain circumstances i.e. defense attorneys or in radio maybe you get some free on-site remotes.  Otherwise known as payola (buying good press with ad dollars), but it's pretty much industry standard.  Ad dollars=positive press.

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On 7/13/2017 at 1:45 PM, BSUTOP25 said:

Most everyone in the PR and marketing world knows that reporters are amongst the laziest fcuking people on the planet. 95% of what you read in trade pubs and specialty mags is furnished by PR and marketing departments. 

As someone who has spent significant time on both sides, lazy +++++ers are on both sides. 

 

10 minutes ago, RoscoesDad said:

Just to clarify, a puff piece is not an advertisement.  An ad is a paid ad.  A puff piece is an editorial that is usually tied into paid advertising.  So for example, if Reno Chamber of Commerce buys X amount of ads in say LA Times, they will typically be willing to throw in some feature stories in say the Travel or Business section ( i.e. puff pieces) as part of the package in order to attract the ad dollars. In TV maybe you get some feature stories on the news or one of you as the 'go to' quote machine under certain circumstances i.e. defense attorneys or in radio maybe you get some free on-site remotes.  Otherwise known as payola (buying good press with ad dollars), but it's pretty much industry standard.  Ad dollars=positive press.

No. Not true.

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On 7/13/2017 at 1:45 PM, BSUTOP25 said:

Most everyone in the PR and marketing world knows that reporters are amongst the laziest fcuking people on the planet. 95% of what you read in trade pubs and specialty mags is furnished by PR and marketing departments. 

I've never in my life talked to a former reporter in the PR or marketing world say that their new job was  had to be as much work or as difficult as their job at the newspaper.

Edit: I know a lot of hard working people in PR who do a lot of good work. Most of those people are former reporters. 

Planning is an exercise of power, and in a modern state much real power is suffused with boredom. The agents of planning are usually boring; the planning process is boring; the implementation of plans is always boring. In a democracy boredom works for bureaucracies and corporations as smell works for skunk. It keeps danger away. Power does not have to be exercised behind the scenes. It can be open. The audience is asleep. The modern world is forged amidst our inattention.

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