Jeff Buell embarks on a social movement with the launch of his new marketing firm, Knowhere Collaborative
ALBANY – There’s a familiar face out in front of a guerilla marketing campaign aimed at converting keyboard warriors who are invested in the prevailing inferiority complex he finds standing in the way of the Capital District’s growth.
Jeff Buell announced the launch of Knowhere Collaborative last week. It’s a multi-disciplined marketing firm he said will concentrate on small businesses, non-profits, and municipalities. He is bankrolling the new business, calling it “a movement” that germinated nearly a decade ago. He emphasized that the timing for its realization has become clear in the post-Covid era, stressing the necessity for innovative and unconventional measures to reinvigorate urban areas and draw people back into cities.
Buell’s face is often out in front of new ideas. On news feeds, he stands out among a crowd of suits. He’s often the face of Redburn Development Partners, where he stands as one of three principal owners of a firm that has single-handedly converted hundreds of thousands of square feet in commercial property into residential housing. In conversations surrounding millions of dollars, with business partners and politicians wearing suits, he’s in a baseball cap and jeans. He pitches ideas, not threads.
On this Friday morning, he’s pacing the Slip 12 lobby while in the midst of a phone conversation. It’s business; about what, is the mystery. He’s wearing several different hats these days. He stepped back as the face of the firm back in March. As he ends the call, he slumps into one of the lobby’s low-profile chairs. “I’m tired,” he said. It’s 11 o’clock. He has another meeting scheduled in an hour. As the interview goes, he shares how people tried to dissuade from this mix-use property two years ago. Warned that it would be a failure. Last week, he said, it filled to capacity.
Knowhere will concentrate on what Buell perceives as the three most crucial industries in the Albany region for enhancing livability over the next decade. He underscored the importance of revitalizing downtowns by nurturing small businesses, fostering public spaces, supporting restaurants, art venues, events, and various cultural activities.
While the State’s significant investments in companies like Micron and GlobalFoundries contribute to future growth prospects, Buell said the absence of vibrant downtown areas could impede long-term development. He emphasized the need for collaborative efforts to initiate a resurgence.
“We are stuck in a post-Covid doom loop that is threatening all the strides we have made in our cities,” Buell said. “Stuck. That’s the right word. And we need to unstuck it.”
Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla marketing is an unconventional approach to advertising that relies on creativity and imagination rather than a large budget. It often involves surprising and engaging consumers in unexpected ways, aiming to create a memorable impact on a limited budget.
It’s a concept similarly defined by Two Buttons Deep, who often advertises businesses around engaging stories. Buell teamed with the outfit on a few occasions in recent years. To usher new tenants to the Knick Apartments in Albany’s Sheridan Hollow, he handed hosts Jack Carpenter and Taylor Rao free one-year leases, with the agreement the two would focus their attention and content on surrounding attractions. The campaign worked, he said. It brought in tenants to fill its 132 apartments.
Then the pandemic developed the following March, shuddering doors for months before a rolling reopening that summer. Nonetheless, a different behavior ensued. No one wanted to leave their living rooms and that feeling continues into today, Buell said. Restaurants and shopping centers continue to operate with schedules that do not reflect pre-pandemic days.
There are a variety of factors in play. Small businesses have been hit by rising costs, including increases to minimum wages, a supply chain choking out products and driving up prices, and the development of a global market share that caters to a consumer base that’s more comfortable at home.
So when local consumers finally did come out last July to line up for the grand opening of a Chick-fil-A in Clifton Park, Buell pitched his support for a local eatery. He used Facebook to announce that he would pay for the first 100 customers who ordered chicken sandwiches from The Nest in Schenectady. Soon after, news stories about the national food chain shifted to the local joint sporting lines of its own. The impact had a ripple effect.
“Five days later, they had their best Saturday ever. Six days later, they had their best Sunday ever. Why?” he said. “Put it on the front page and The Nest is suddenly in the forefront of everybody’s mind.
“And that’s the value of marketing.”
A Movement
Buell has partnered with sociologist Keila dos Santos in his start-up. The Austin native has moved across the country to work on several community development projects.
“What I really focus on is this connection between the digital world and the real world and how we can bridge that gap,” she said, “and have it so that our digital experience enhances our real-life experience instead of replacing it.”
The burgeoning firm’s first obstacle will be to traverse through a toxic social media environment. Everyone has an opinion, but not always informed with the facts.
Such was the case in March when ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo quipped on air that there was nothing to do in Albany. The on-air gaffe, shared during the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament broadcast, hurt local stakeholders. While Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan invited the Lobo to a tour of her city, others argued that the former basketball star wasn’t wrong. Buell was one who shared how he observed a dearth of open establishments following the basketball games, pointing to opportunities to improve the city’s nightlife and entertainment scene.
“One of the huge gripes and pain points of this region is that people come here, go to school, and then they leave,” dos Santos said. “There’s no capturing of that intellectual value here.” She argues that with the diversity of jobs – government, non-for-profit and technology – there’s potential to keep students here.
“Those are the people that we want to participate,” she said.
Several initiatives were launched immediately after launch, the first of which is an ongoing $5,000 campaign that encourages people to search for a QR code hidden at select locations. There’s another that involves interviewers with community members. Those who pay attention may arm themselves with information that will help them win another money prize.
“There’s just massive, massive things happening here. It’s a quirky little tidbit,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s changing the world, but it’s introducing something that you don’t need a lot of people here to make a change. … I genuinely feel if you had 10,000 regularly engaged people, which is a massive number, with 10,000 regularly engaged people, you could change everything here.”
