Case Study
Telling America That Colorado Springs Is Open for Business
At a Glance
- Client
-
Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC
- Company Type
- Nonprofit
- Headquarters
-
USA - Campaign Period
-
1Year
(Ongoing)
The Outcome
The Value We Created
-
67
Placements across 30+ national, trade and regional outlets
-
229M+
Combined unique monthly visitors (UVM) across all coverage
-
7 Tier-1
National and international outlets, including Axios, Politico, Sports Illustrated and NBC
-
$4B
Space Force contracting office that moved to Colorado Springs, a win the Chamber tied to its new message
-
10+
Media sectors reached, from defense and site-selection trades to sports, government and lifestyle press
-
4 of 4
Major AI engines describe Colorado Springs as a place to relocate or grow a business
The Challenge
The Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, Southern Colorado’s largest business organization, recruits companies and talent to a city with five of Colorado’s six military installations and more than 150 aerospace and defense companies. Since 2022, it has brought in 35 projects, 5,902 jobs and $1.8 billion in investment. But national outlets rarely told that story, and earlier promotion leaned on consumer angles that trade reporters ignored. The Chamber needed companies and job seekers nationwide to see Colorado Springs as open for business.
Where CVM Came In
CVM made “open for business” the city’s national economic message, turning every industry gathering, federal investment and hosted event into evidence that Colorado Springs is a place to build a company and a career. Even the move of U.S. Space Command’s headquarters, days after we began, became a story about where the city was headed.
Here’s How We Did It
We gave the whole city one economic story to tell.
We built a messaging framework that put the city’s economic case at the center of every story, from defense and space to sports and culture. Each story we pursued had to show why Colorado Springs is a good place to build a company or a career. Tourism stayed in as a way to recruit future residents, so even a rodeo story had to say something about living and working in the city.
We kept Colorado Springs at the center of national security through a year of change.
We positioned Colorado Springs as a forward-looking partner in national defense, and within weeks that framing put the mayor and a local business leader in Politico and the Washington Examiner. When local leaders opposed a state lawsuit over U.S. Space Command’s headquarters, we built their message around partnership over partisanship, and the coverage followed. When more than 50 city leaders later visited Huntsville, Ala., we pitched the two cities’ joint defense plans, part of a trip that produced 26 stories, seven of them ours, including SpaceNews.
Source Colorado Springs
We turned the city’s biggest annual conference into national coverage of the city itself.
Space Symposium, a global industry conference, brings 12,000 attendees from more than 60 countries to Colorado Springs each year, yet in 2025 none of its coverage traced back to the Chamber. We positioned the conference as proof that Colorado Springs is a year-round home for the global space industry and put the Chamber and a retired four-star general in front of reporters covering it. That produced 19 articles, including The Washington Times and French business daily Les Echos, and the Chamber’s “Davos of Space” description of the event now appears in ChatGPT and Perplexity answers.
We tied the city’s biggest economic win to its forward-looking message.
In a major win for the city’s economy, the Pentagon announced that a federal contracting office overseeing $4 billion in military contracts would move from Los Angeles to Colorado Springs, bringing a $250 million facility and 2,500 jobs with it. The Chamber’s president and CEO tied the move to the forward-looking message we built for the city, writing that communities like it “continue earning opportunities like this one.” We carried that message to the defense industry and business press, earning nine stories across defense, aerospace and site-selection outlets, including an Axios headline calling it a “big economic development win.”
We used the city’s events and leaders to show what living and working there looks like.
We framed each of the city’s marquee events around the people, businesses and places behind it, so the coverage spoke to the companies and job seekers the Chamber wants to attract. That approach turned polo, rodeo, lacrosse and a 110-year-old mountain race into 14 national stories, including Sports Illustrated on the city’s polo and $1 million summer rodeo, NBC Sports calling it “Olympic City USA” and luxury and auto outlets featuring its hotels and restaurants. The Chamber’s president and CEO made the same case on the business side, telling Route Fifty why Colorado Springs is “open for business” as cities weighed AI data centers.
How This Coverage Directly Shaped AI Engine Narratives
These earned media placements didn’t just reach readers, they trained the AI engines that inform the companies, site selectors and job seekers who ask about Colorado Springs. This is the new frontier of PR measurement.
“Premier destination for business relocation and expansion.”
“One of the most important U.S. space cities outside Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.”
“Considered a strong place for businesses to relocate or expand.”
“The city is known for its business-friendly conditions, specialized workforce and affordable cost of living”
Where Colorado Springs Showed Up
National & Business Press
Aerospace & Defense Trade
Economic Development, Lifestyle & Regional
Related Case Studies
Pantheon Electric
Launching a $2 Billion U.S. Copper Giant into the Mainstream Market
CVM introduced Pantheon Electric, a newly merged, $2 billion copper infrastructure manufacturer, to U.S. audiences. The campaign reached more than 27 million people with placements in national, trade and local media, including an exclusive feature in Bloomberg.
Interledger Foundation
Translating a Non-profit’s Vision Into Global Fintech Impact
CVM transformed the Interledger Foundation from a do-good nonprofit into a viable, industry-recognized payments protocol, bringing the organization into mainstream fintech conversations.
Heimdall Power
Breaking Heimdall Power Into the U.S. Energy Market
CVM introduced Heimdall Power to the U.S. energy market and made them synonymous with energy innovation, garnering 71 media placements across outlets like The Economist, Forbes, and CBS News, a White House panel invitation, and inbound interest from U.S. utilities.
FAQs
What can economic development PR do for a city?
How do you measure PR results for an economic development organization?
Can PR change what AI engines say about a city?
How can a city use its events to attract business attention?
Who is economic development PR for?
Want the nation to see your city as a place to live and work?
Whether you lead a chamber, an economic development organization, a city, a state or a country, we turn your economic wins and events into a national story that site selectors read and AI engines repeat.