Nevada plans new campaign to lure California firms

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004 | 10:43 a.m.

State economic development leaders are preparing to fire the next volley in the battle to win over California businesses contemplating moves to Nevada.

Responding to a publicity stunt staged by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this month in which he personally drove a moving van for a business relocating an office to California from Nevada, state leaders say they plan a high-profile event on Oct. 13 to launch a new advertising campaign.

Somer Hollingsworth, president and chief executive of the Nevada Development Authority, said today the goal is to garner national publicity for the state and plant some seeds for the future and not necessarily to encourage businesses to make immediate relocation plans.

Hollingsworth was tight-lipped about what exactly is planned Oct. 13, but he said "it's probably the most intense campaign we've ever had."

"It'll probably send Arnold over the edge," Hollingsworth said of the actor-turned-California governor.

Schwarzenegger was center stage earlier this month when California-based Lynch Sign Co. took the governor up on his offer to send a moving van to bring its manufacturing facility back to California from Las Vegas. Schwarzenegger pulled up in the van in La Verne, Calif., claiming an economic development victory for his state.

Hollingsworth chalked the incident up as a publicity stunt, saying that only 10 employees returned to California and that it was more of a consolidation of offices for Lynch Sign Co., and not a major move.

Now, Hollingsworth and other economic development leaders will kick off a $650,000 advertising campaign with a coordinated event occurring simultaneously in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He would not describe the nature of the event.

Jeanie Ashe, director of marketing for the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, said most of the campaign is funded by the state, but $172,000 is coming from the NDA, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and Sierra Pacific Power Co., the Reno-based parent of Nevada Power Co.

"We want to create controversy with something really visual," Hollingsworth said.