Constructing a Winning Economic Development Case Study

FDI success stories are a core pillar of content that we recommend to our investment promotion clients trying to build location credibility, but doing so in a way that offers true insights is challenging.

Companies can often remain mum about the actual decision factors that led them to a location and, even if they are willing to share, getting approval through all the layers of communication departments can also be daunting.

Place marketers can be left with watered-down quotes from a press release and minimal information that communicates the value that the IPA provided along the journey. Below, we dive into how to get information for the case study and which content to include.

How to get great information for a case study?

One of the most difficult pursuits for economic development marketers is chasing down case study information after the fact. Once a decision has been made, companies can go dark as they focus on mission critical activities to successfully scale.

The best way to prevent this is to play offense and build it into the FDI recruitment process. It is a perfect scenario for marketing and business development to collaborate, as capturing true insights from these projects requires someone on the inside who can ask the right questions, build the right relationship and seek the necessary approvals in advance.

IPAs provide critical information and assistance to companies. The least that can be expected in return is information that can help the current project positively impact future ones by offering meaningful quotes and reasoning for the final selection.

Peer-to-peer dialogue is always a top influencer for executives, as captured in C Studios’ Winning Strategies in Investment Promotion Marketing decision-maker report, as well as DCI’s U.S. version. Well-executed case studies are a way to tap into that impact.

What information makes an ideal success story?

Getting the approval to use a quote or project information is one thing. Getting truly insightful details is another, but it doesn’t have to be overly complex. The formula for a great case study usually includes:

• We worked with X.

• We provided Y services.

• The company chose our location for Z reasons.

• Ideally an insightful quote about the decision.

• Bonus: Timeframe of scaling and/or follow-on investments.

It is simple, but powerful. The X factor is the company, and these success stories should ideally be done with companies that are representative of the future clients your agency is chasing. Many IPAs use the biggest of names, which is not necessarily a bad idea for recognition.

However, we find that the best case studies come from “everyday” examples, such as mid-size or more obscure companies that better represent the profile and needs of potential clients rather than Google, Microsoft or Siemens, which have offices almost everywhere.

The Y factor is the service and value your IPA provided. This could be very specific or quite broad based on the needs of the company, but should be clear based on the project progression. Sometimes this can seem obvious to an IPA that is doing this every day, but it is not as obvious to them.

The more specific you can be (considering confidentiality, of course), the more effective this becomes.

That leads to the Z factor, or why the company chose your location and is often related to the quote. Most comments about a project in a press release are stale and generic – they could probably stand in for any announcement across an entire year.

The trick is securing a reasoning and quote that could not be used by just any other company – what was unique to that project that made your location stand out?

The last step is a timeframe for scaling or follow-on investments that suggest the initial decision was a good one. For example, showing that a company scaled to 500 workers in less than a year (or frankly, less than two years) is quite impressive.

Similarly, if 2-3 years later, the company added a new operation or expanded the existing one, that speaks to a happy customer and is case study gold. This shows that the company reached the “future state” that the current prospect is seeking.

Examples to consider

With the content above gleaned from a project, there are multiple ways to use it—pitch deck slides, videos and social, lead form content and more. In any form, when the packaging remains simple, the story shows through best.

Here are a few examples of well done case studies from around the industry:

·         Greater Zurich Area’s profile of Align Technology

·         Invest Lithuania’s summary of Rocket Software

·         Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency’s profile of DoubleDutch

·         Invest Northern Ireland’s recap of Rapid7

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