The Alabama Department of Commerce is launching a digital marketing campaign, including an online site, that focuses on rural Alabama as a great place for doing business and the source of valuable products in demand around the world.

The centerpiece of the “RurAL” campaign is a content-rich website that showcases the business advantages of the state’s rural communities and shares the success stories that energize their economies.

Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, is launching the ‘RurAL’ campaign to assist rural areas in the economic development process. (Made in Alabama)

The RurAL online platform will be a hub for information and resources to assist economic developers working in Alabama’s rural counties, adding a new dimension to the department’s strategic effort to enhance the competitiveness of those areas for job-creating projects.

“Alabama’s rural counties are home to many of the world’s best-known companies and thousands of skilled workers and talented artisans creating first-class products,” Gov. Kay Ivey said.

“The state’s rural communities are primed for business growth and economic development. I am firmly committed to helping rural Alabama realize its growth potential,” she said.

The RurAL campaign represents an extension of the Department of Commerce’s “Made in Alabama” branding campaign, which launched in 2013 to chronicle economic development announcements and elevate awareness of the state’s attractiveness for investment and job creation.

“While economic developers working in rural areas often face a specific set of challenges, we know that these communities offer advantages that are sometimes overlooked,” said Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce.

“We think the RurAL campaign will help us highlight the business opportunities to be discovered in these communities.”

Visit the RurAL website.

Unlocking potential

The overall objective of the campaign is to help corporate decision-makers and site selection consultants understand that growth potential. Rural Alabama is already home to the operations of many high-profile manufacturers and a growing network of auto suppliers from around the globe.

Brenda Tuck is the Alabama Department of Commerce’s first rural development manager.

Foreign direct investment in Alabama’s rural counties approached $1.5 billion between 2015 and 2019, according to commerce estimates. Since the Alabama Jobs Act went into effect in 2015, incentivized projects have brought more than $4 billion in new capital investment to the state’s “targeted” counties.

“One thing that is often overlooked is that rural Alabama is a place of great innovation and industry,” said Brenda Tuck, the Department of Commerce rural development manager.

“Through this new campaign, we can tell the story of what rural Alabama has to offer and shine a light on the industries that are there and the quality of life that exists in these communities,” Tuck said.

In her role, Tuck works with economic developers and others in Alabama’s 40 “targeted” counties (those with fewer than 50,000 people) to help them become better prepared to compete for new facilities and expansion projects.

This story originally appeared on the Alabama Department of Commerce’s Made in Alabama website.