Marion County: Choose Your Pace
County & Municipal Marketing
A County Gone Quiet: Why County Marketing Can’t Stay Silent
When Dan Nieland stepped in as Marion County’s Economic Development Director, it was clear right away: the way the county was presenting itself had gone quiet. And quiet can be surprisingly expensive. Marion County, like everywhere else, is competing for workers, businesses, and visitors all at the same time, and a county that stops talking loses people to places telling a better story. Dan and his board were revved up and ready, and a light refresh wasn’t going to cut it. What they needed was county and municipal marketing with a real strategy to power it, not just a shiny new logo. And at Bing Bang, nothing gets us more excited than a client who’s passionate about their project.
The Brand Film
It Starts With a Brand Workshop
We kicked things off the way a lot of our work does: with a brand workshop, where we figure out what makes you different and get the people behind the logo involved in the process. Our workshops are the foundation for everything that follows, and this one is how we figured out who Marion County really is. Beyond being our neighboring county, it’s a place that offers a more peaceful way of life and, in the same breath, exciting opportunity. Those two things usually feel like a tradeoff. Here, you can find both in the same place, and that versatility is what our whole campaign hinged on.
Pages from the Marion County Brand Book, the foundation the workshop produced.
Back to the Drawing Board
But we didn’t hit the mark on the first shot. We brought Dan and the board what we thought were ideas that would be great for their campaign, but their feedback made it clear it wasn’t quite what they were looking for.
We love it when a client challenges us. So we went back to the drawing board, a place we’re happy to go. It wasn’t just a tweak and resubmit. We started from scratch, with a little friendly competition within the team: a pitch-off. We took several steps out of the box, refined our best ideas, and came back to Dan and his team ten times stronger. With six new directions, they were choosing between several good, bold answers instead of settling for one that didn’t quite fit. That’s the kind of work we love, the kind that pushes us to be better and takes our creativity to the next level. We want the best answer for our clients, and sometimes that takes a second lap. Out of that second round came Choose Your Pace.
Pick a Lane: One Campaign, Three Tracks
Choose Your Pace became three tracks across two websites: Live Here and Work Here on the economic development side, and tourism on the Red Rock Area side, where the choice is Speed Up or Slow Down. We built four new pages to carry them, and each one talks to a different person.
Behind those pages is the work you don’t see: a Brand Book out of the workshop, three dedicated shoots to capture authentic local footage, and 20+ hours of ongoing strategy to keep every piece pointed at the same goal.
Stories That Move People: Videos, Ads, and Results
Anyone can tell you how great Marion County is, but no one can tell you better than the people who call it home. We produced a brand video that introduces the county’s new voice, and a storytelling video featuring a couple in Pella.
The Pella Story
Trisha + Raymond Klok, Pella
Putting the Brand to Work
Then we put the brand to work. A public budget meant every dollar had to be aimed at someone likely to act, and every result had to trace back to something measurable. So we built 15 ad pieces across four channels (geofencing, display, streaming TV, and pre-roll). Economic development ads were geofenced around the county’s biggest employers, like Pella Corp, Vermeer, and 3M, to reach people who already commute here. Tourism ads followed the growth data: visitors from Chicago were up 8.9% and from St. Louis up 12.3% year over year.
Economic Development
Geofencing
Tourism
A sample of the nine display and geofencing ads. The campaign also ran three streaming TV spots and three pre-roll videos.
impressions
visits
July to August
4 channels
Two Months In
In just the first two months of this year’s campaign, July and August 2026, here’s what it looked like:
- 574,900 ad impressions
- 40 tracked in-person visits to Marion County, including two overnight stays
- 2.8x the conversions on the main tourism campaign from July to August (29 to 81), with foot traffic going from 9 visits to 22
- 12 clicks to real estate listings and 3 to local employers’ job pages from the economic development ads
That’s the kind of county and municipal marketing that doesn’t stop at “people saw it.” It shows who came, where they started, and what they did next. And the work is still moving. The campaigns keep running through December, and we’re testing, tracking, and tuning both tracks as they go. We’re looking forward to what’s next for Marion County.
Marketing for Counties and Municipalities: Let’s Find Your Pace
If your county, city, or town has gone quiet, you’re probably losing workers, visitors, and businesses to places telling better stories. County and municipal marketing can change that, and the first step is figuring out who you actually are. Let’s start there. And if our first idea isn’t it, that’s fine. We’ll go back to the drawing board and come back with options.
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