Knowledge Center
Marketing, Communications and Events
Place managers narrate and communicate the identity and outward facing mission of the place to residents, tourists, businesses, and other stakeholder groups, thereby communicating the place’s unique brand. By expressing the identity of the place, the brand should invoke a sense of place, leaving individuals with the intangible feelings that one gets when engaging with the authenticity of the place.
The brand is used to market the place to these various stakeholder groups, attracting and inviting them to live, work, play and invest in the place. A diversity of tactics are used to market a place ranging from events, messaging, online engagement, street-level activation and more.
Advancing Places: Working with Media and Managing PR Campaigns
Communications is an important part of our work in urban place management. Two experienced practitioners, both downtown leaders with extensive marketing & communications backgrounds, to learn how they are building relationships with media, what the media is looking for in news stories, and how to go beyond traditional media relations to take control of your district’s story. We’ll also dive into crisis communications and some tips on planning and executing an effective PR campaign.
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Building on Recovery for Urban Place Management
As the COVID-19 vaccination rate increases, we are finally seeing more and more activity and vibrancy in our urban cores. What are the actions that UPMOs can take (or continue taking) to ensure that downtowns, city centers, and urban districts can recover more strongly?
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Pinnacle Award Spotlight
Winning an IDA Pinnacle Award is the highest level of recognition for urban place management professionals. We’ll walk through two programs pulling communities through the COVID-19 pandemic: the planning of a gift card program benefiting local businesses and a public space activation offering an outdoor office for flexibility in work and wellness. This webinar highlights The Cincy Card Connection and O2: Outdoor Office in Rosslyn, VA.
Read MoreAdvancing Places: The Virtual Public Realm
In a hybrid era of virtual and physical, how can urban place management organizations showcase their assets and developments? Learn how the Downtown Center BID (DCBID) in Los Angeles developed a virtual tour platform to showcase the downtown real estate market, its most significant properties, public spaces, and development projects, to investors, developers, brokers, prospective commercial and residential tenants.
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Public Private Partnerships for Placemaking and Activations
Activating public space is crucial to bringing people back to the district as we move into recovery mode. Making this happen takes a lot of work developing the right partnerships to make your activations successful. Learn from two seasoned professionals how they approached activations during the pandemic and how they are moving into recovery mode which includes incorporating storefronts to benefit businesses more directly.
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Marketing Your Downtown as Open for Business
Every downtown and district is struggling with how to support the businesses under their purview to provide much-needed foot traffic, sales and revenues, but the fact remains that we’re all “open for business”. From ongoing campaigns targeting locals, tourists and visitors to larger 40,000-foot view strategic planning, in this session you’ll learn from two very different place management practitioners and the strategic consultancy working with both of them to deploy data and
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Holiday and Winter Place Activations
It may be summer but it’s never too early to start thinking about holiday events, lighting and winter activations. Join this webinar to hear how Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. is embracing all seasons to make it a four seasons city. During the pandemic they curated a two-month long activation, “World of Winter.” This 2021 Pinnacle Award-winning project attracted over 400,000 attendees during the cold winter months. Next, learn about holiday and lighting programs from the Georgetown BID.
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Crafting Recovery Messaging
The new year has brought with it many of the same challenges, but that doesn’t mean your outward messaging needs to be doom and gloom. 2021 is bound to be complicated and exciting for districts. How do we bring positive messaging back to cities and districts that are unsure about what is next? What strategies can marketing and communications professionals use to jettison economic anxiety for business owners, residents and visitors? Where do we begin crafting year-long messaging for
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Influencer Marketing
Social media influencers are a powerful link between your district and your target audiences. Successful influencer partnerships that are authentic and adaptive can become an integral part of any marketing and communication strategy. Discover how three organizations with varied budget levels researched, implemented and monitored influencer programs in their district. Hear from panelists on how they utilized emerging social media tactics to build meaningful engagement.
Read MoreAdvancing Places: Creating Customer Loyalty
Now more than ever, downtown and neighborhood district organizations are looking for ways to support local businesses and encourage consumers to shop locally. Communities across the country are implementing “shop local” campaigns. Join this webinar and learn from two practitioners, one who has experience maintaining an existing program gift card program for over ten years and another who is in the process of launching a new district gift card program. Come prepared to learn from their
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