The Holmes Report named Fremont’s “Think Silicon Valley” website the winner of the “innovation in owned media” category last month.

When we kicked off the campaign to increase awareness of Fremont’s proposition for business back in September 2012, the City recognized that the goal required more than media coverage. We realized that whether the target audience consists of developers, venture capitalists, realtors, facility managers, CEOs, manufacturing heads or all of the above, in the case of Fremont, everyone conducts some form of online due diligence before making a major buying decision.

With this in mind, we created a website to anchor the campaign and bolster the City’s digital presence with the business community. We affectionately refer to the campaign as “Fremont Crashes Silicon Valley Party” with the illustration below setting up the story.

Before providing context for the illustration, it’s worth exploring why a company in Fremont or a manufacturer evaluating a move to Fremont – or even a developer – should care about this award. After all, they don’t derive any type of direct benefit from the website.

That’s true.

But there’s something bigger at work here.

Silicon Valley runs on innovation.

Of course, the magic of Silicon Valley doesn’t come from a word. When a maker of charcoal claims “innovation” because the bag can be sealed after opening, it seems safe to say the word has lost some meaning.

Instead, it’s the decisions and actions that collectively produce the leaps forward that shape Silicon Valley. It’s an attitude that says we can and will crush the status quo.

Fremont brings such a mentality to its operation. You see this in the long-term urban vision. It comes out in testing a new permitting process for residential solar. And yes, the mantra continues with the “Think Silicon Valley” website and how the City communicates to various constituencies.

That’s why the Holmes Report award matters.

As for context for the illustration, our research conducted Q2 2012 showed most people associate Silicon Valley with the Peninsula cities starting with San Francisco at the top and running through Palo Alto to San Jose at the base. Even though theofficial definition of Silicon Valley from Silicon Valley Joint Venture includes Fremont and parts of the East Bay, our research showed that’s not how the rest of the world viewed it.

And we already knew that a halo surrounds the phase, “Silicon Valley.” I do a fair amount of traveling around the world. When people hear where I’m from, they inevitably pepper me with questions about Silicon Valley (“Did you ever meet Steve Jobs?”).

That’s what led us to recommend a proactive effort to insert the Fremont voice into the Silicon Valley conversation. The illustration reflects the old-school perception from 2012.

Between our digital presence and stories like the ones from The Epoch Times and the San Jose Business Journal calling out Fremont as a Silicon Valley city to watch in 2014, we’re making progress. Building on this foundation, we continue to explore ways to accelerate the building of the Fremont brand.

We’re not big on the status quo either.

The Holmes Report named Fremont’s “Think Silicon Valley” website the winner of the “storytelling in business communications, Lou serves as an advisor on the Fremont campaign.