CASE STUDY
REAL AZ
“Economic development isn’t about selling land or buildings. It’s about creating confidence, telling a region’s story, and inspiring businesses to invest where they can thrive.”
Building the Marketing Engine Behind Northeastern Arizona's Economic Future
CLIENT
REAL AZ
Life of Project
5+ Years
Type of Project
Branding & Dev
Website
realaz.org
The Challenge
Northeastern Arizona is rich with opportunity.
Apache and Navajo Counties offer abundant land, strategic transportation corridors, skilled labor, expanding broadband infrastructure, renewable energy resources, manufacturing opportunities, and communities committed to responsible economic growth.
Yet despite these strengths, the region faced a challenge common among many rural areas.
The story wasn’t being told.
Communities often promoted themselves independently.
Economic development efforts were fragmented.
There was no unified regional identity capable of competing with larger metropolitan markets for business recruitment, workforce development, and private investment.
Regional leaders recognized that attracting the next generation of employers would require more than traditional economic development.
It would require a compelling brand.
A unified strategy.
A powerful digital presence.
And a marketing platform capable of positioning Northeastern Arizona as one of the Southwest’s most promising places to invest, manufacture, innovate, and grow.
Services Provided
- Economic Development Marketing Strategy
- Regional Brand Development
- Website Design & Development
- Custom Website Programming
- Search Engine Optimization
- Professional Photography
- Video Production
- Business Recruitment Marketing
- Site Selection Marketing
- Community Storytelling
- Public Relations
- Digital Advertising
- Content Development
- Stakeholder Communications
- Ongoing Strategic Consulting
Our Solution
Razor Thin Media partnered with REAL AZ to build far more than a website.
Together, we helped create the public face of Northeastern Arizona’s regional economic development initiative.
Our role has been to develop a comprehensive marketing platform capable of communicating the region’s competitive advantages while supporting business recruitment, workforce attraction, stakeholder engagement, and long-term economic growth.
Every element supports one mission:
Position Northeastern Arizona as one of the premier places in the Southwest to live, work, manufacture, invest, and do business.
Creating a Regional Identity
One of the greatest challenges facing rural economic development organizations is that communities often compete against one another instead of promoting the strength of the region as a whole.
REAL AZ was created to change that.
Rather than marketing individual communities independently, Razor Thin Media helped develop messaging that presents Apache and Navajo Counties as one connected economic region.
The strategy highlights shared strengths while allowing each community to showcase its unique advantages.
Together, the region offers:
- Strategic transportation access
- Industrial development opportunities
- Available commercial properties
- Skilled workforce
- Community colleges and workforce training
- Expanding broadband infrastructure
- Renewable energy potential
- Manufacturing opportunities
- Outdoor recreation
- Exceptional quality of life
- Affordable operating costs
The result is a stronger, more compelling story than any one community could tell alone.
Communities may compete for investment, but regions win by telling one unified story.
The Results
01
Economic developers don't need brochure websites.
They need tools that help businesses make investment decisions.
Razor Thin Media designed and developed a modern website engineered specifically for site selectors, corporate executives, developers, entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders evaluating Northeastern Arizona.
The platform includes:
- Community Profiles
- Property Search Tools
- Workforce Information
- Industry Profiles
- Infrastructure Resources
- Transportation Assets
- Business Resources
- Incentive Information
- Economic Development News
- Regional Success Stories
- Interactive Mapping
- Search Engine Optimized Content
Rather than simply describing the region, the website gives decision-makers the information they need to evaluate Northeastern Arizona as a viable location for business investment.
02
One of the greatest challenges in economic development marketing is maintaining accurate data.
Site selectors expect immediate access to current information regarding demographics, workforce statistics, labor availability, wages, transportation, utilities, available sites, education, taxes, and quality of life.
Unfortunately, much of that information changes constantly.
Keeping hundreds of data points current through manual updates would require significant staff time and would quickly become outdated.
Razor Thin Media recognized that the solution wasn't simply displaying data.
It was creating a smarter way to deliver it.
Working closely with Arizona Public Service (APS) and leveraging the powerful ZoomProspector® economic development platform, Razor Thin Media engineered a sophisticated custom integration that allows the REAL AZ website to present comprehensive regional economic data directly within the website experience.
Rather than directing visitors away to a third-party platform, we designed and programmed the website so that ZoomProspector data appears seamlessly throughout the REAL AZ website as though it were built directly into the platform itself.
The experience is intuitive.
Professional.
Easy to navigate.
And always current.
As APS and ZoomProspector update regional economic information, those updates are automatically reflected throughout the REAL AZ website without requiring manual intervention.
This innovative programming solution provides several key advantages:
- Continuously updated demographic information
- Current workforce and labor market statistics
- Interactive property and site-selection resources
- Utility and infrastructure information
- Improved user experience without leaving the website
- Reduced maintenance for REAL AZ staff
- Increased confidence for site selectors evaluating the region
The result is an economic development platform that combines compelling storytelling with dynamic, continuously updated business intelligence—giving investors and site selectors immediate access to the information they need to make informed decisions.
03
Business recruitment begins long before a company visits a community.
It begins with awareness.
Razor Thin Media developed a long-term marketing strategy designed to continually position REAL AZ as the economic development leader for Northeastern Arizona.
Our ongoing work includes:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Website Content Development
- Professional Photography
- Video Production
- Public Relations
- Social Media Strategy
- Economic Development Storytelling
- Stakeholder Communications
- Business Success Features
- Workforce Promotion
Every article...
Every photograph...
Every video...
Every website page...
helps reinforce one message:
Northeastern Arizona is open for business.
04
Today's communities don't compete only with neighboring towns.
They compete nationally—and often globally—for jobs, investment, talent, and opportunity.
Winning that competition requires far more than available land or tax incentives.
It requires a compelling story.
A trusted regional brand.
Professional marketing.
Current data.
Innovative technology.
And a clear vision for the future.
REAL AZ has become that unified voice for Northeastern Arizona.
By bringing communities together under one regional identity, the organization is helping attract new opportunities, strengthen local economies, support workforce development, and improve quality of life throughout Apache and Navajo Counties.
05
REAL AZ has established itself as the unified voice for economic development throughout Northeastern Arizona.
Together, Razor Thin Media and REAL AZ have created:
- A recognizable regional economic development brand.
- A modern business recruitment platform.
- A fully customized economic development website.
- A seamless integration with APS and ZoomProspector®.
- An automated system displaying continuously updated economic development data.
- Eliminated the need for manual updates of demographic, workforce, and site-selection information.
- An intuitive user experience that keeps business prospects engaged without leaving the website.
- A scalable platform supporting long-term business recruitment.
- A unified voice for Apache and Navajo Counties.
- Professional photography and video assets.
- Search engine optimized content.
- Public relations and stakeholder communications.
- Marketing tools supporting workforce recruitment and private investment.