Tag Archives: Think Vermont

Fishing for answers: VT Commerce and Community Development survey

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This June the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development ran an online survey that reached out to gather residents’ and non-residents’ opinions and for “insights on living, working and doing business in Vermont.” The idea, they say, was to measure the strengths, opportunities, and challenges the respondents faced and how the ACCD can help. 

Of course you can’t source everything in state but I found that two out-of-state companies are prominently involved in the survey. The ACCD contracted with Qualtrics.com — an “experience management company” co-headquartered in Provo, Utah; Seattle, Washington; and with offices in Dublin, Ireland — to run the roughly 20-question (fewer for non-residents) poll. Separately, the agency’s Think Vermont Ambassador website is powered by a second out-of- state company: socialtoaster.com out of Baltimore Maryland. Their list of services offers a variety of plans (named like healthcare plans) called Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum; fees start at $1,500 per month and run to $5,000 monthly for Platinum.

The agency’s survey contained a variety of questions along the lines of: name what you like and don’t like about Vermont lifestyle/business climate, and a series of multiple-choice rating questions about who is the most important audience for economic development marketing. But not too far in it feels as if they’ve baited a hook. Can you spot the prompt and possibly the ACCD’s preferred response here on question number four? 

At the end of the Vermont residents’ version of the survey participants were asked if they would care to join the “Think Vermont Ambassador Program.”

Think Vermont Ambassadors can, they say, “share national rankings and news coverage of Vermont’s thriving industries, game-changing entrepreneurs, socially responsible companies, vibrant communities, world-class outdoor recreation opportunities, education, culture and so much more. For anyone curious about getting an ambassadorship to Think Vermont by all means follow the link.

When launching Think Vermont, Governor Scott said the Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s “Think Vermont will tell unique and positive stories about Vermonters and Vermont businesses.”

And, as we all know, nothing says “Think Vermont” more than hiring plenty of out-of-state businesses for prominent jobs.

Free Flannel & Half-truths: Vt Commerce and Community Development Fall Foliage Guide:

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VTDigger.com has partnered with politifact.com and are now using their honesty lantern to check the state’s facts. In their latest fact-check, looked into a statement made by Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Michael Schirling (formerly Burlington’s top cop) in response to a Saturday Night Live TV comedy sketch that parodied Vermont as “a Caucasian paradise.”  In his press release to Boston.com about the skit, Schirling said: “We invite SNL viewers to Vermont to see all that we have to offer, including our increasingly diverse communities and wide array of tourist destinations including the African American Heritage Trail.

Now is a perfect time to visit or to consider a move here. The leaves are changing and so is Vermont,” he said.leavesRturning

He also noted it was true “we do lack a good hip-hop channel,” plugged real Vermont maple syrup, and even generously sent a free (tax-payer-funded) load of Vermont flannel shirts to the cast of the NYC-based show.

Vtdigger.com dug into that response: The statement that Vermont is becoming increasingly diverse needs further clarification. Schirling does not explain that the increase in Vermont’s racially diverse populations is slight.

[…] The U.S Census information Shirling used showed that Vermont as of 2017 was 94.2 percent white [while] it had been 95 percent white in 2013. Vtdigger explained: From 2013 to 2017, the increase in the African-American population from 1.1 percent to 1.3 percent was not statistically significant. But the percent change in the Asian and Hispanic populations was: Asians went from 1.2 percent of the Vermont population to 1.8 percent, a 0.6 percentage point increase; Hispanics went from 1.5 percent to 1.9 percent, a 0.4 percentage point increase.

They rate his statement Half True.

One commenter on Vtdigger.com’s fact check  wondered:  “Who really cares what SNL spoofs? […] It’s a C-O-M-E-D-Y show, too bad people feel the need to defend VT from a comedy skit.”

Good question. Well, I wonder if the administration’s sensitivity can be traced back to an opinion piece early this summer during Gov. Scott and Sec. Schirling’ splashy roll out of their $10,000 move-to-Vermont scheme. The plan, part of Scott’s Stay to stay and Think!Vermont  promotional programs, targeted young professional people and planned to pay them to move to Vermont and work remotely out of state.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jeff Yang wrote the following in a criticism of the scheme for CNN titled The Problem with Vermont’s bright idea: What’s ironic is how inside the box its “outside the box” thinking really is. Because while Vermont could be taking this moment to bring new diversity to a state that’s the second-whitest in the United States, it’s instead investing in initiatives that could easily end up maintaining the state’s culturally monolithic status. If Vermont had aimed this policy at explicitly encouraging new Americans to migrate to the state (the policy does not), it would be redressing a significant shortfall in the state’s demographics.” [added emphasis]

Sure seems like the SNL joke touched a nerve in the image-conscious Scott administration over their expensive glossy promotional schemes. But if they are still into giving out free flannel shirts — I could use a couple, size large please — I’ll stay right here in Vermont.

“Visitors are an ideal captive audience” VT. Commissioner of Tourism and Marketing

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Stay to Stay — the Vermont state tourism agency’s planned series of four weekends in different locations designed with the intent of turning tourists into full-time residents — got off to a “chilly start” this weekend according to Vtdigger.com: Like the recent weather, the first-blush level of commitment for the state’s campaign to entice nonresidents to move to Vermont has been cool.

Organizers note, however, that this is but the first of four scheduled weekends for people interested in becoming Vermonters to be formally welcomed as part of the Stay-to-Stay initiative.

Think! Vermont, Scott’s Department of Economic Development promotional webpage slogan, describes the events in terms not unlike a vacation timeshare real estate sales pitch weekend. Vermont commissioner of Tourism and Marketing Wendy Knight says her inspiration for the promotional campaign happened when: “I got to thinking; visitors are an ideal captive audience,”

Sure sounds like timeshare pitch, only (befitting the Vermont brand) a bit more refined — sweetened with real maple syrup: [Stay to Stay] gives tourists the opportunity to relax and also to network with business leaders and tour Vermont communities with real-estate experts to learn more about relocating to Vermont.

It is all part of Governor Scott’s unproven million-dollar effort to boost Vermont’s population and address the state’s worker shortage. But attendance at the Department of Tourism’s weekend premier in Brattleboro, Bennington, and Rutland is expected to be less than even the modest numbers hoped for. Half of the dozen potential visitors signed up for the Rutland and Brattleboro areas cancelled and no one who signed up will be visiting Bennington.

Undaunted by the dismal turnout Knight noted one positive — the free media she had gotten nationally for the first event. Bloomberg.com does indeed have nice blurby press release style bit about “Stay to Stay” headlined:This Weekend, Aging Vermont Will Try to Make Tourists Into Residents.

But the thing about free media is you give up a certain amount of control of the whole message.Vermont taps tourists

The U S News piece about Stay to Stay starts with what I hope is unintentionally a funny headline: Vermont Taps Tourists to Bolster Workforce. That headline sounds to me as if Governor Scott, desperate to boost our workforce, intends to force visitors to pick apples, milk cows, turn cheese curds, or tend sugar houses.Vermont taps tourists2

But the “great” thing about the US News bit is the targeted sidebars, as you can see from the two screen shots, which all tout other states — Massachusetts best for women and children, Connecticut high school record graduation rate,  and a list of the U S News top five states not including Vermont.

Maybe it was just the weather that ruined this Stay to Stay, so spin it however you want. But you can’t spin away from the out-of-proportion amount of taxpayer-funded effort it took to get a half dozen out-of state “captive” visitors to sit still for a Think!Vermont sales pitch in April.

Maybe some nice sticky sugar-on-snow painted on the seats would help.

Vermont Life Magazine & Governor Scott’s disaster marketing

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WCAX reports the Scott administration will keep Vermont Life Magazine rather than continue recent efforts to sell the state-published regional lifestyle magazine. According to Vtdigger.com the state turned down nine bids from outside businesses for the magazine. Vermont Life, in publication since the late 1940’s, is now in debt and struggling with declining circulation numbers, as many periodicals are.

I have fond memories of Vermont Life from over fifty years ago – the outhouse attached to woodshed at the back of the barn at my grandfather’s farmhouse was wallpapered with pictures he cut from the magazine. So in one sense, I am pleased with the news. But I wonder about the Scott administration’s overall marketing scheme.

The magazine will now be put to use as one part of the administration’s plan to market Vermont to out-of-state businesses and people. Speaking to WCAX, Governor Scott’s Commerce Secretary (and former Burlington top cop) Michael Schirling explained that Vermont Life now has a “bright future” as part of the plan to market the state around the country.  Another element of the plan – the administration wants people displaced by hurricanes last summer to move to Vermont. “There are folks from all over that – whether it’s in one of those areas affected or elsewhere – that are looking for opportunities,” mailboxVTlife1

When Vermonters were digging out from hurricane Irene-our own climate disaster that devastated large parts of the state, do you suppose many Vermonters would have packed up for the Lone Star state if a free  issue of Texas Highways popped up in the mailbox?

Perhaps inadvertently Scott may have previewed his out-of-state disaster marketing plan a couple weeks back. In remarks to reporters Scott spoke about his hope that climate change could prove an “economic boon” for Vermont. Said the Governor: “When we look across the U.S. and see that climate patterns have changed dramatically — we’re seeing wildfires in California — it makes Vermont look pretty good.”  He expressed his belief that the in Northeast “we’re in a pretty good position” and compared to other states “we could be the Mecca,”

And the notoriously penny-pinching Scott administration has asked for $3 million to be budgeted for the overall effort. But do state-run “move here” ad blitzes such as  Think ! Vermont even work? Could Gov. Scott or  Sec. Schirling or any of the Mad Men (or women) at Vermont’s  Agency of Commerce and Community Development cite any studies that show what kind of results to expect ? Commenting on an efforts by northern cities to entice millennials to move there, Joe Cortright, an economist and director of City Observatory (a think tank funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation) noted: There’s little research tracking such marketing efforts, and it’s difficult to gauge the subtle influences of media on personal decisions like where to move. And it is a crowded field: mid-west states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and back to Maine and New Hampshire are all working on variations of “move here” campaigns.

One sidebar to Gov. Scott’s marketing Vermont as “Mecca”: we’re not immune to climate damage. Remember hurricane (post-tropical storm, officially) Irene?  For the last three years all the lower 48 states and Alaska had above-average annual temperatures. And sure, it is cold now according to NOAA: Despite cold seasons in various regions throughout the year, above-average temperatures, often record-breaking, during other parts of the year more than offset any seasonal cool conditions.

Couldn’t $3 million of our tax dollars be spent more wisely on the people that already live here and not on this “move here” advertising scheme? So we ask again, Governor Scott: affordable for whom, the regular folks who live here, or the digital-native millennials with high-end incomes you hope to entice here?

 

Did they “Think!Vermont” ?

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Think!Vermont  is the slogan of a new marketing campaign scheme and website designed to be catchy enough to lure businesses and employees to the Green Mountain State. Governor Scott and his team rolled it out this week in  Burlington. The VT. Agency of Commerce and Community Development says the new website is part of an effort to support existing Vermont businesses.It will also act as a hub for inspiring stories, encouraging statistics and lots of links to useful information for businesses.  img_3489

“We only use red tape for ribbon cuttings,” declares the Think!Vermont  website based campaign which reportedly draws a quaint picture of the state according to SevenDays’ story

“Our Vermont brand is powerful,” Scott said at a press conference at the Vermont Tech Jam at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction. “Think!Vermont will tell unique and positive stories about Vermonters and Vermont businesses.”

[…] Scott, who often says that Vermont loses an average of six workers every day from its workforce, said he hopes Think!Vermont will lower that number.

Well, sure Phil — maybe. Earlier, on a much smaller budget, then-Lt. Governor Scott created a tie-dye sticker that read: “Buy local! It’s not just for hippies anymore!” But right off the mark Scott’s latest effort looks like businesses in Utah and Virginia will be benefiting from the Gov’s efforts.yathinkvt

The host Network Solutions LLC is located in Hendron, Virginia (where they employ 2,000 people). And the thinkvermont.com IP address according to whois.com is actually based in Provo Utah.

Imagine some out-of-state tech biz doing the minimal checking I did, and what conclusion they’re likely to draw: “um, it’s catchy, and it’s a pretty state, but obviously they don’t have the in-state talent we would need to move there or even do significant business there …”

I suppose it is quaint to think you should source everything from within the state, but I’ve got to wonder how much Phil Scott and his team Thought!Vermont  when contracting it out. They say they Think!Vermont, but Scott’s team’s first step was sending our tax dollars out of state for the latest Vermont branding campaign.