The City of Stonecrest announced today it is launching a digital campaign targeting Amazon employees in Seattle.
Workers at Amazon’s headquarters will start seeing ads on their cellphones pushing for the company’s second headquarters to come to the city about 20 miles east of Atlanta.
The ads use geofencing, which identifies where a person is based on the location of their cellphone, to reach some of the 40,000 employees in the northwest.
Mayor Jason Larry said this type of campaign should set Stonecrest apart.
“We’ve seen one town from Pennsylvania that was running ads on the different sides of buses in Seattle, that’s great,” he said. “But we’re offering a digital education campaign for a digital company that represents the future.”
The city is teaming up with Smart Reach Digital to run the campaign. Larry wouldn’t say how much the ad campaign will cost other than it is covered in the city’s marketing budget.
Stonecrest’s City Council has already voted to set aside 345 acres in the city that they will call Amazon, Georgia, if the company decides to operate there.
Larry said being close to Atlanta helps Stonecrest become more attractive because of the available labor pool, but he still sees them as a competitor.
“I don’t think we’re in their shadow,” he said. “I think that we have brought more light to Georgia with regards to bringing Amazon here as anyone else.”
Amazon officials have yet to announce when they will begin site visits but those are expected to start in 2018.
