Cape economic development office wins marketing awards

The Cape Coral Economic Development Office has won top honors in marketing for its new interactive Web site and its new business attraction advertisement. The awards - known as the Stellar Awards - are presented each year by the Florida Economic Development Council, the state's only economic development professional organization. The awards recognize innovation in marketing and promotion.

The city's economic development Web site, www.bizcapecoral.com, is designed to be customer-focused and highly interactive, with portals linking to research tools that benefit both existing and incoming businesses. The tools include the "Cape Coral Prospector," a searchable database of available commercial land and buildings that also generates demographic and workforce wage reports; and "ConnectCapeCoral," a searchable database of Cape Coral businesses.

"Businesses begin their site searches online," says Cape Coral Economic Development Director Mike Jackson. "Cape Coral is now a leader in making that online search efficient and effective. The Economic Development Office encouraged spec development, and now the Web site is helping fill available space."

The new economic development advertisement, which also won top recognition, explains that Cape Coral can be a global business location, where "At the end of the day, you're off work and on vacation." The ad features a photo of the city's yacht club, with copy that describes the city's proximity to Southwest Florida International Airport and access to broadband connectivity.

The city is targeting closely held companies in IT and life sciences, whose owners can make decisions that link lifestyle as well as business considerations.

This is the second time Cape Coral's advertising has won this award. A previous business attraction advertisement, which introduced the trademarked brand "Growth Engine of Southwest Florida," won the same award three years ago.