But according to the Tulsans who spent the past few months wooing Tesla, they made the company think twice and put an offer in front of Musk that dwarfed what was proposed in Texas. And they wouldn’t have even been on the radar if it wasn’t for a series of viral, made-to-be-memed ideas like slapping Musk’s face and Tesla’s logo on the Golden Driller or spinning up a website advertising the “Big F------ Field” that was being pitched for development. The group behind the site was a marketing firm called Gitwit Creative. Jacob Johnson, one of Gitwit’s co-founders, told The Verge his team created it on a whim after they saw Musk tweeting in March about scouting factory locations. 

Tesla ended up netting only about $60 million in total tax breaks from Travis County and the local Del Valle school district in the Austin deal. And in a major break from the path it took to choosing Nevada six years ago, the company got zero incentives from the state, the Texas governor’s office told The Verge. Oklahoma, meanwhile, had drawn up a proposal that was said to be “comparable” to the Nevada incentive package.

Musk said way back in March that incentives would play a role in Tesla’s decision on where to build, but so would the local workforce and the quality of life. In early August, after Tesla announced it had chosen the land outside Austin, he told Automotive News that “key members of the team that would need to move to Austin from California in order to get the factory going” had “Austin [was] their top pick, to be totally frank.”

Click here for the full story at The Verge.

Tulsa World gallery: Tulsans make their pitch to Tesla

Tesla + Tulsa promotional video