City, school districts invest in young families in Chandler

By Jason W. Brooks
Mail | X: @JasonWBrooks2

A year ago, the Chandler City Council was all-in and its largest local school district was almost all-in on a combined contract.

On Oct. 15, Council finally picked a vendor to execute that contract.

The firm Eddy Alexander was chosen to lead the city’s young family and professional attraction campaign. The one-year contract pays $190,000, with the option of up to four one-year extensions.

Chelsey Faggiano, economic development project manager for the city of Chandler, spoke to the City Council at an Oct. 12 study session earlier this month about the contract.

“The city is experiencing demographic changes, so this multi-channel campaign is meant to proactively address that,” Faggiano said. “An aging population is affecting our labor force, our consumer spending, municipal revenue and enrollment at local schools.”

The city has partnered with Chandler Unified, Kyrene, Mesa Unified and Tempe Union school districts, each agreeing to chip in $10,000 to help fund the campaign.
Chandler Unified’s Governing Board approved its $10,000 contribution by a 4-0 vote. The Chandler Unified school board member who abstained in voting to approve CUSD’s $10,000 contribution to the marketing,

Ryan Heap, said he feels high costs of housing and interest rates are main factors in school enrollment dropping, and the campaign isn’t intended to address those factors.

A staff report describes Eddy Alexander as a “full-service marketing agency” that will develop and execute the campaign. The firm was chosen from about 19 firms that submitted competitive proposals for the contract after the city issued a request in January.

An evaluation committee went through each proposal and recommended the contract be awarded to Eddy Alexander.

Faggiano said the campaign performance will be measured using key performance indicators, including website analytics such as traffic, leads, and traffic by source advertising performance, video engagement and referral data from participating school districts.

Demographic shifts will be tracked as a long-term indicator of impact over multiple years, a staff report states.

Council member Matt Orlando asked how and when the goals of the campaign will be determined.

“Eddy Alexander hasn’t been privy to all the demographic data we and the school districts have seen,” Faggiano said. “So within the first 10 weeks, we’ll be sharing that data with them and we’ll be identifying what those (goals) will be, and we can report those to Council.”

Faggiano said even though the contract is for one year, the vision is that the process is meant to take multiple years.

“This first year will be developing those assets to help us promote, with year two really amplifying that through media buys and year three looking at maintaining this campaign,” Faggiano said.

Vice Mayor Angel Encinas asked if real estate professionals and their multitudes of data will be incorporated.

“We do plan to get them engaged,” Faggiano said. “A real estate agent is often someone’s first point of contact in a new area. So we plan to do some road show presentations and get them involved and help explain why people should choose the city.”

Councilmember Christine Ellis, a career nurse and nursing director, mentioned the large amount of medical training that takes place in the city and East Valley.

“We’ll definitely reach out to multi-industry partners to help us amplify this campaign,” Faggiano said. “I see this campaign as really crawling with different legs and attacking different issues in the community.”

Jason W. Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments through yourvalley.net/letters or email them to azopinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

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Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.