|
How fDi Atlas works Executives
and professional advisors can easily find comparable presentations by
sponsors about potential business locations by:
 | Any part of the sponsor organization name |
| Map navigation links to zoom in on the location |
| Selection from a list of regions |
| Industry sector |
| Alphabetical list of sponsors |
There are also links to highlight new listings and
relevant articles in fDi magazine or the Financial Times (FT.com).
Advertising banners, skyscrapers, or buttons are also available to call the
attention of visitors to a location or professional service. |
 |
|
The fDi Atlas presentation structure
Each presentation consists of six tabs on topics of common
interest so that a visitor can navigate quickly to such topics.
| Why Us?
 | This is the default tab as a succinct overview of
what differentiates the area as a place to do business, including a
summary of key benefits. |
|
| Fact File
| This tab provides basic facts for benchmarking or
comparisons of locations, with room for explanatory notes to call
attention to the most important facts. |
|
| Sector Strengths
| Each area can specify up to 8 business sectors as the
focus of investment attraction efforts, and summarize the attractions
for those sectors. |
|
| Lifestyle
| Quality of life issues are often of interest and may
differentiate between otherwise similar locations. |
|
| Media Centre
| Highlight success stories, new developments, or other
news of likely interest to executives - or to business journalists who
may refer to fDi Atlas too. |
|
| Contact Us
| Economic development organizations are sometimes
large, or are part of larger government offices or chambers of commerce
with many staff and roles unrelated to new business attraction.
This simple tab makes it easy to reach the right initial contact person
designated by the sponsor. |
|
|
 |
Map navigation or direct links
It is intuitively easy for users to zoom in from the global
map to any geographic region of interest.
Alternatively, as shown above, the user can select a
continent and country or region from the map navigation tool at the bottom
of the map to go directly to the specific place of interest.
This example shows how the user zooms through Europe and
Germany to reach the presentation about the Bavaria region.
This can link further, such as to a local presentation for
a major city like Munich or elsewhere within Bavaria.
A small map with each presentation also provides
geographic context for the visitor - to see at a glance where it is relative
to other regions which may also be of interest for comparison. |
|
Flexibility in fDi Atlas presentation content
Presentation sponsors can easily set up and edit the content
about their areas at any time.
Typically, the sponsors already have prepared other
content for marketing purposes which can be readily adapted into the fDi
Atlas presentation structure as above.
This means that new presentations can be set up within a
day or two, and then refined over time to improve their effectiveness.
The fDi Atlas was designed to be very easy for sponsors to update.
As demonstrated by many of the existing fDi Atlas
presentations, it is also easy to include graphic images - photos, graphs,
tables, etc. as appropriate.
These can make the presentation design more appealing, but
with the caveat that the intended audience of C-level executives and
professional advisors should be kept in mind. They may not want to
spend their time scrolling through presentation images which don't add
significant value to the content.
A good way to think about the fDi Atlas presentation
design, in that regard, is to envision having something like a placemat on
the desktop of an executive to highlight the key points about the area at a
fairly quick glance. It isn't intended to tell them everything which
they might want to know. The purpose is to arouse enough interest to
take a closer look at the local website links, or to simply get in touch
directly to discuss their current interests. |
 |
|
Examples of fDi Atlas presentations
The list at right includes some of the initial fDi Atlas
presentations to visualize the flexibility of this tool as an easy way to
highlight the benefits of business locations anywhere. This shows the
diversity of local content within the consistent global framework. |
Flanders
Wallonia
Netherlands
Utrecht
West Holland
Scotland
Dundee
Wales Northern
Ireland
Southeast England
East Midlands
Germany
Bavaria
Berlin
Ukraine
Slovenia
Valencia
Andalucia
Lazio
Bologna
ESBAS Turkey
Tunisia
Gunsan
Gwangyang
Colombia
Nevada
Toronto
|
|
Sector Search This is a simple
but valuable tool. As sponsor areas identify the sectors which they
are targeting, this becomes a path for users to find those areas which are
relevant to their own business sectors in any region of the world.
This makes it very easy to consider potentially relevant locations which
might otherwise be overlooked. |
Benchmarking the facts and other content
Some economic development organizations have already
discovered the value of easily benchmarking their own presentations against
competing areas. The tools for factual comparisons between locations
are designed for executives, but can also help to refine and differentiate
the presentations. |
|
Media Centre The Media Centre
tab is also valuable as a globally consistent way to quickly find
significant stories about the sponsor areas.
Most economic development organizations have some sort of
newsroom feature on their website, but these are often full of minor press
releases aimed at other audiences (upcoming local meetings, staff
promotions, etc.) of primarily local interest.
The idea behind the Media Centre is to focus on topics
which are most likely to be of interest to executives elsewhere who want to
see at a glance why this area merits their closer consideration. |
Suggestions for the Media Centre
The Media Centre is designed to be very flexible, with links
available to various sources. Some effective ideas for use of the
Media Centre include links to:
| major press releases - big success stories or other
news |
| significant business media coverage about the area |
| independent research reports about the area |
| testimonials by top executives in the area on key
issues |
| special tools - property search, GIS data tools, etc. |
| unique services, explanations of special incentives,
etc. |
| additional information resources about the region
(local business news media, professionals, or partner organizations) |
|
|
fDi Atlas - Sponsor Cost and Setup
Process The cost of a sponsor presentation is
$6600 per year in 2008.
Multiple years can also be purchased in advance at a discount to avoid any
future rate increases during that period.
Contact us for details.
A simple login process is used to enable sponsors to set
up and edit their own content, including any images and links. |
Promotion of fDi Atlas in 2008
The fDi Atlas tool is heavily advertised through fDi magazine
and the Financial Times newspaper, as well as online, to attract the
attention of executives and professional advisors who may need to research
business locations.
The 2008 ad campaign planned for fDi Atlas is estimated to
have a value in excess of $4 million, and will repeatedly reach the
roughly 500,000 Financial Times readers worldwide through many
prominent ads during the year.
A
similar FT ad
campaign in 2007 accompanied the fDi Atlas launch in Europe. |
