Annual international conference The Place Marketing Forum has recognized Rally Saint Louis, the first-of-its-kind crowdsourced and crowdfunded regional marketing platform, for best practices in regional marketing and citizen engagement.
Rally Saint Louis was cited as “Best Case” in the category of “New Place Marketing & Citizenship.” Co-founders Aaron Perlut and Brian Cross, partners in St. Louis-based digital marketing and public relations agency Elasticity, will present a case study at the international Place Marketing Forum October 14-15 in the Congress Center of Aix-en Provence, Southern France.
“We are honored that the Place Marketing Forum has recognized Rally Saint Louis and hope this shines a brighter light on the grassroots transformation that is underway in the St. Louis region,” said Perlut about Rally Saint Louis.
The program launched in November 2012 that allows consumers to submit, vote for, and help fund ideas that drive progress in greater St. Louis, has successfully funded four diverse citizen-driven regional improvement projects.
The Place Marketing Forum is the first international conference that presents, shares and rewards best regional marketing practices worldwide. It features, during two days, some 30 French and international thought leaders as well as more than 300 professionals from public, private and not-for-profit organizations committed to advance knowledge in the area of regional development and place marketing.
“Rally Saint Louis stood out of the crowd for its unique combination of creativity, story-telling, social media and e-participatory techniques — crowdsourcing and crowdfounding,” said David Aboulkheir, chief of the chair’s expert committee. “We also very much liked its mixed bottom-up/top-down approach, aimed at developing and boosting the image of a whole city. We believe it is an exemplary and pioneer approach that could inspire other places in the world.”