Knapp: ‘Creative Capital’ campaign accurate, aspirational

A new campaign by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber to brand the city as “Creative Capital of the South” is both accurate and aspirational, says Adam Knapp, chamber president and CEO. Knapp told the Baton Rouge Press Club today that the best campaigns are tied to reality and have a bit of civic striving. After all, he says, Austin, Texas, has more concerts now than it did in the early 1990s, when it started billing itself as the “live music capital of the world.” “With the ‘Creative Capital’ campaign, we have an opportunity to be one of the leading growth regions in the entire South, and perhaps the nation,” Knapp says. Knapp cited a recent AOL report that ranked Baton Rouge as one of the top eight cities for job growth in 2011, behind cities such as San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C. BRAC is set to hold a launch party Wednesday night for the new “Creative Capital” campaign, which has six principles: job creation, international investment, entrepreneurship and innovation, talent development, global branding and regional competitiveness. As part of the innovation principle, BRAC has helped form a new “regional innovation organization” that will work with local assets such as LSU, Southern University and Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Knapp introduced the first head of the organization, Terry Jones, who was appointed to the job last week. For more information about the new BRAC campaign, read the Business Report story here. —Timothy Boone