Right on Northeast 45th Street in Seattle's University District, next to The Donut Factory and The Joint, stands a billboard about the Northwest.
The billboard doesn't tout the Cascades, Mount Rainier or Puget Sound, but rather Northwest Arkansas. It shows a handful of young adults sitting in a courtyard, some playing cornhole while others eat lunch. A tagline reads "Where work/life balance is real."
It's part of a more than $1 million campaign by the Northwest Arkansas Council to draw workers away from expensive tech hubs like Seattle to a five-city region that is home to the University of Arkansas and employers like Walmart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt. The campaign, called Finding NWA, is using a cheaper cost of living, an outsize job market and a variety of perks to sweeten its pitch.
"If you're tired of the rat race, and you're tired of spending half your life in your car commuting back and forth, but you're still interested in an exciting job and a lot of the amenities of a big-city lifestyle, you can come here and get your fill," said Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council. "The real differentiator here is the quality of life. Hardly any commutes to speak of at all compared to a city like Seattle, and the cost of living is about 75% less than what you would pay in Seattle."
The recruitment pitch isn't just about numbers, as the region — which has a population of over a half-million and includes the cities of Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale and Siloam Springs — is growing at only about 38 people a day, according to Peacock. Rather, the council wants to specifically attract tech workers and entrepreneurs to create a bustling economy complete with its own startup scene.
Plus, the massive employers in the area need tech talent to fill crucial roles. According to Peacock, Walmart alone has more than 15,000 employees in the area, and the retail giant has about 1,400 suppliers with a local presence. J.B. Hunt and Tyson, he added, are also undergoing digital transformations and need employees that meet their needs.
The Northwest Arkansas Council has adopted the motto of "Life Works Here" for Finding NWA. The website promotes the area's restaurants, music, museums and outdoor activities, which include mountain biking, kayaking and hiking.
If those amenities aren't enough, the council found a way to sweeten the pot during the pandemic: Some applicants could receive $10,000 and a bike to move to the region. Recipients could also take the $10,000 in bitcoin, a move Peacock said could attract blockchain professionals to the supply-chain-focused region. The program targets tech professionals and entrepreneurs, according to the Finding NWA website.
So far, 63,000 people have applied, of which about 75 have been awarded the prize, Peacock said. He added that almost 1,000 applied from the state of Washington, and two former Seattleites have won and moved here.
One is Nate Nead, an investment banker who now owns businesses providing online marketing, software development, web design and media management services. Nead grew up in Maple Valley and spent roughly 30 years in Western Washington. Nead and his wife had family in Northwest Arkansas, however, and were already considering the move before discovering the incentive.
"We've looked in Austin. We've been down to Texas and over to Idaho. We hadn't considered anything this far east before," Nead said. "We came out and visited for the first time and were like, 'This place is actually pretty cool. There's a lot to do.' You've got a lot more amenities because the Walmart money that is here."
After moving away from the Seattle area in March 2021, the Neads found a permanent home in July. The cheaper cost of living works well for the family of six, including four young children. The regional airport is just a 10-minute trip, and Nead said he enjoys the mountain biking, water skiing and museums.
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville "destroys" the Seattle Art Museum, Nead said. One of his favorite restaurants is the Wooden Spoon, a repurposed horse barn that serves smoked brisket and meatloaf sandwiches in the nearby town of Gentry. Nead, meanwhile, used the incentive to get a mountain bike for his wife.
In addition to Seattle, Finding NWA billboards have popped up in Austin and Dallas. The Northwest Arkansas Council is running digital ads in all the cities where it has billboards, as well as in Atlanta, Denver and Minneapolis. The council hasn't targeted the Bay Area yet because it's too expensive to run ads there, Peacock said.
Walmart, a major player on the council, is actually waging its war for talent on multiple fronts. In addition to trying to lure tech workers away from Seattle, the company is seeking to fill almost 200 tech roles in the Seattle area, right in the backyard of e-commerce competitor Amazon.
In Nead's new cul-de-sac, one neighbor used to live in Sammamish and work for Nordstrom, while another used to work for Amazon. Both now work for Walmart.
"There's a little bit of poaching going on," Nead said. "Northwest Arkansas Council is not the only one gunning for Seattle."
