Chief marketer working to sell Denver to visitors and entrepreneurs

Aside from the loan of one part-time staffer from another office, Angela Baier is Denver’s marketing department.

The job of the city’s first chief marketing officer is to help private and quasi-public entities sell the city to prospective visitors and companies.

By Janet Forgrieve, Rocky Mountain News

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_2600837,00.html

One of her biggest expenses so far was $30 for the rights to use the Web address Denvermilehigh.com.

Baier wasn’t looking to leave her marketing post at the Denver Zoo last year, but new Mayor John Hickenlooper offered her an opportunity that was too intriguing to pass up.

Baier, who professes to not having a "political aspiration bone" in her body, said one reason she found the job attractive was because she liked Hickenlooper’s vision for the city.

Another selling point was the chance to start something from scratch, much as she did when entering the marketing side of zoos in Kansas 15 years ago.

"In the zoo and aquarium industry (then), looking at it as a business was rare," she said. "There’s a parallel here – now we’re looking at government as more of a business."

A Kansas native who turns 40 at the end of the month, Baier joined the Denver Zoo in 1994 after moving here with her veterinarian husband.

While at the zoo, she helped raise its profile, doubling the number of special events, adding a Web site to raise awareness and beefing up group- sales offerings. As a result, zoo attendance grew by 35 percent during her tenure.

"With a limited budget, she did an amazing job of communicating what the zoo had to offer," said Hickenlooper, who, along with his transition committee, chose Baier from a field of a half-dozen local marketing professionals.

"At the city, she doesn’t have a budget to speak of, so she has to find ways of creating things."

Hickenlooper and Baier want to work to create a unified message, to sell Denver as more than mountains and sunshine to potential new businesses, tourists and convention organizers.

"For years, I’ve always recognized, long before I considered politics, that most people in Denver and almost everyone outside Denver don’t really recognize so many of the great things about the city," Hickenlooper said.

From the world’s most valuable pastel in the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection to the metro area’s highly educated work force, the city holds many messages that would be attractive to potential visitors and to businesses looking to relocate, he said.

Key to getting the message out is coordinating efforts between the city and private-sector organizations with similar missions, he and Baier said.

"I love the idea of looking for efficient and effective blendings of economic development, tourism and the city together," Baier said. "So many people out there are doing great work."

Efforts toward creating a common message began late last year, with an 11-member think tank consisting of members of Denver’s marketing, advertising and corporate worlds. The group met for a full day in November.

"We focused on the best ways to position the city – as well as poking holes in things" in hopes that the ultimate message that gets out is one the city can live up to, said think-tank member Leanna Clark, a principal in Schenkein, a Denver public relations firm.

"All the different groups that market Denver do a good job," Clark said. "They’re all on target about what they’re saying, but none are saying the same thing."

The group came up with three basic themes. One focuses on the city’s can-do pioneering spirit – the entrepreneurial spirit of its past, present and future.

Another stresses the active and healthy lifestyle of the city, in the state with the lowest obesity rate in the country.

And a third centers around the Denver area’s potential, including its abundant natural and cultural resources as well as the ease of access to them.

The themes are being tested, and on Feb. 18, in an invitation-only session, a larger group of local economic development, marketing and advertising folks will fine-tune the message and devise concepts to get the message out.

The need to create a more unified message is clear from an item sitting in Baier’s office. A large piece of posterboard holds many brochures, all from city offices or other Denver-marketing entities, and all looking like they’ve got nothing to do with each other. Another board boasts ads and articles, some from the same publications, all selling Denver and none looking like they have the least in common.

Hickenlooper, who knew Baier for years when she worked at the zoo, said he believes she’s the best person for the sometimes delicate job of bringing everyone into the discussion.

"She moves at light speed and is very inclusive," he said. "If someone raises an issue or feels left out, she makes sure that person gets incorporated into the process. It takes some unique talents to be able to make people feel welcome and that their opinions are validated."

Baier’s role is never to replace any of the current efforts, she stressed, just to help coordinate all the efforts already under way.

One idea percolating in Baier’s brain is creating a Web portal that would hold links to everyone with a Denver marketing mission.

Baier said the actual marketing efforts will be largely up to private and quasi-public entities including the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce.

"It shouldn’t be about being heavy-handed," she said. "If it’s done right, people will do it because it’s the smart thing to do and because it helps them do their job better and more easily."

[email protected] or 303-892-5191