Client

The City of Kannapolis is a rapidly transforming community located just outside of Charlotte. It is home to the 350-acre North Carolina Research Campus which is intended to bring investments of $1.5 billion, create 5,000 technology jobs, 30,000 supporting jobs and attract 100 biotechnology companies.

Challenge

The City needed to make the statement that the expansion of mass transit was important to its future. Moreover, the Mayor of Kannapolis had been asked to provide comments at the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Transportation Summit, a major event each year for the Chamber. The Mayor turned to Walker PR to write the remarks, and Walker PR used the opportunity to help vault Kannapolis into a role in the regional debate. At the time, the City of Charlotte was facing a referendum on the sales tax that was being used to fund increased transit service, including the first light rail corridor in the region.

Solution

Using research, Walker PR developed a speech based on historical trends in mass transit in Kannapolis – once a regional employment center – and tied these trends to the debate that was occurring within the region about expansion and in some cases reintroduction of comprehensive mass transit. Walker PR developed a speech that hit the right tone, and then used the opportunity to expand the speech into an opinion column from the Mayor to stake the City’s position on the importance of regional mass transit.

Results

The speech itself was well received by the audience and helped remind business leaders that regional bus service was not a new concept. In fact, the speech recalled the expansive bus system put in place by Cannon Mills in the middle part of the 20th Century to provide transportation to workers in outlying cities and get them to their jobs in Kannapolis.

Not only did the speech tie this historical use of transit to the current regional need, but Walker PR pitched the The Charlotte Observer and won a placement on the editorial pages for the speech, thus expanding the reach of its important message and helping stake the City’s position on regional mass transit.