We at VEDP are proud to congratulate our advertising agency, Elevation, for winning Best in Show in the Promotional Design & Advertising category at the Richmond Ad Club’s annual awards show.

Elevation helped us develop a unique presentation for the executive team at Stone Brewing Co. as part of our marketing process to win their East Coast location for Virginia.

During a meeting among Stone Brewing Co., the Governor, his administration, and other key members of the Virginia marketing team, VEDP organized a surprise visit from a character actor portraying Thomas Jefferson.

Agriculture was one of Jefferson’s greatest passions, and at Monticello he grew the ingredients to make his own ale, continuing Virginia’s more than 400-year brewing legacy.

Elevation developed a script for Jefferson to describe Virginia’s plentiful natural resources that would make an excellent home for Stone Brewing’s East Coast location. They also developed a kit filled with Virginia brewing ingredients for Jefferson to present to the Stone executive team — pure Virginia water, wheat, hops and molasses.

As everyone knows, the pitch was successful and Stone Brewing announced their plans to invest $74 million to construct a brewery, packaging hall, restaurant, gardens, retail store and offices in Richmond this past fall.

Virginia successfully competed against more than 20 states, and winning this competitive project from the country’s 10th largest craft brewing company has furthered the Commonwealth’s position as a serious player in the craft beer industry.

Food and beverage companies continue to find Virginia has the recipe for success. To learn why food processing companies have invested more than $2.1 billion in Virginia since 2004, click here.

An actor portraying Thomas Jefferson holds the Stone Brewing kit for a marketing presentation that won Best in Show at the Richmond Ad Club awards.

VEDP’s YesVA mobile app and in-app advertisement for The Wall Street Journal were both recognized at the 2012 Richmond Ad Club’s Richmond Show.

Judged by a panel of nationally-recognized advertising and design professionals, VEDP’s advertising agency of record, Elevation, won the silver and bronze awards in the interactive category for its VEDP work.

VEDP launched the YesVA mobile app for iPad, iPhone and Android devices in the fall of 2012. This interactive tool allows clients to perform property searches and compare Virginia to other states in major business categories.

The app is available for free download at http://www.yesvirginia.org/App, or through the AppleApp Store and Google Play store.

The YesVA mobile app is part of VEDP’s digital marketing campaign targeting C-level executives and site selection consultants in selected geographies across the U.S., Europe and Asia, including native language advertisements in the German and Chinese markets.

The campaign, which began in 2012 and continues into 2013, is expected to generate more than 23 million impressions on the websites of leading business and site selection publications. The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Site Selection, Area Development, Financial Times Asia and Financial Times Germany were among the selected media outlets. The campaign also incorporated pay-per-click search engine marketing via Google AdWords.

By helping companies make the most informed decision on business locations, the YesVA mobile app is yet another example of an innovative tool developed by VEDP to market Virginia as a top state for business.

To learn why Virginia’s unique combination of resources has encouraged businesses to prosper here for more than 400 years, click here.

A view of the Virginia ad from The Wall Street Journal app.