Westchester County honored by NYSEDC

The Westchester County Office of Economic Development took top honors for its groundbreaking "Intellectual Capital" marketing campaign at the New York State Economic Development Council's (NYSEDC) annual meeting held May 26. The County Office of Economic Development won the top prize in its class for each of the three categories in which it was entered, including Best Development Brochure, Best Printed Advertising Material and Best Website. The annual awards recognize achievements in business marketing among the state's leading economic development organizations. Under the leadership of Laurence Gottlieb, the county's director of Economic Development, the Westchester County Office of Economic Development initiated an innovative branding campaign last fall that is focused on Westchester's highly skilled and educated workforce. At the center of the branding platform is the trademarked slogan "Westchester County - New York's Intellectual Capital." The print ads feature elements of people's everyday lives - a picket fence, a coffee cup, and someone's own hand - adorned with complex mathematical, chemical and engineering formulas. In the ad featuring the coffee cup, the headline reads "In Westchester, brilliance happens all the time." The marketing campaign was created and implemented by Thompson & Bender, a full service public relations and advertising agency in Briarcliff Manor. "We are very proud and honored to have received this prestigious award and statewide recognition for our marketing and branding campaign. The campaign has clearly positioned Westchester County as 'New York's Intellectural Capital' and plays to our strengths in today's hot growth sectors of biotech, finance, health care, information technology and green technologies," said Gottlieb. "Economic development remains a cornerstone of my administration, so these awards - judged by our peers from across the state - reaffirm that Westchester is taking a bold, aggressive approach to retaining and attracting businesses to the county," said Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino. "Congratulations to Economic Development Director Larry Gottlieb, and the creative agency Thompson & Bender, for a job well done."