Buzz Campaigns for Cities

"Dollar for dollar, the best advertising is word of mouth -- as long as the word is good, that is. Handspring's new Treo 600 cell phone/PDA combo, which went on sale in mid-October, is one product that seemed destined to live or die by the buzz." That is what a recent Business 2.0 article has to say about creating demand for a problem by creating a "buzz" for it.

So, how do we apply this thinking to cities or metropolitan areas? What is the buzz campaign for Cleveland, Chicago, Little Rock, Las Vegas, Memphis, or Pittsburgh? How do we create a buzz for suburbs (Beachwood, Ohio, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, or Petaluma, California) of large cities? How do we create a buzz for small independent cities that are the home to a college or university (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University, West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue, Indiana)?

Just remember that you have to deliver on the buzz at some point! Somebody will eventually ask "where's the beef?"