Marketing

Sub Topics: Marketing

Music in the Park 2017 Marketing Campaign

With a newly created Marketing, Communications and Events Director on staff, San Jose Downtown Association took its four-concert Music in the Park series marketing to a whole new level, focusing on on-site digital photo kiosks, email marketing automation and strategic social media. Not only did Music in the Park achieve record attendance and revenues, marketing for the 2018 season and beyond has gathered momentum and general Downtown San Jose marketing capabilities have improved dramatically.

Golden Triangle Neighborhood Plan

The Golden Triangle Neighborhood Plan, unanimously adopted in 2014, outlined a vision, goals, plan framework, and implementation strategies for the eclectic district’s evolution and continued improvement. The Neighborhood Plan set forth a comprehensive, holistic approach, weaving together a nuanced set of strategies that collectively fostered an eclectic, creative, connected, and livable Golden Triangle.

A Creative Placemaking Guide for Business Districts to Work With Local Artists

This creative placemaking toolkit was created specifically for business districts, offering guidance on engagement with local artists to best enhance the experience and vitality of a place. This guide showcases strategies to integrate the talents and ideas of multiple artists to best address the unique opportunities and challenges in BIDs. The toolkit includes case studies of the six unique placemaking projects funded by IDA, Springboard for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nuart Aberdeen

Nuart Aberdeen is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning street art festival that premiered in Aberdeen in April 2017. The festival was delivered through developing a close collaborative approach with Nuart in Stavanger, Norway where it began in 2001 and is widely considered to be the world’s premier celebration of Street Art among its peers. Nuart Aberdeen was delivered by Aberdeen Inspired, the Business Improvement District (BID) organization.

Leeds International Festival (LIF)

Leeds Business Improvement District (LeedsBID) has acted as catalyst and funder for the realization of a vison to create an aspirational, overarching festival to promote the vitality of downtown as a world-class destination. From an initial proposal in September 2016, the inaugural Leeds International Festival (LIF) took place in April 2017; a festival of 35 events over 8 days in front of an audience of 17,000.

201 Portage Canada Day Living Maple Leaf

Since 2011, the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ has been engaging the public by challenging Winnipeggers to help claim the title of largest living flag in Canada. Volunteers from the community are invited to become part of a larger mosaic in various iconic downtown locations. A banner year was in 2012, when Winnipeg’s Canada Living Flag defended its record, while the photo of that year’s living flag was selected to be produced as an official Canada Post stamp, inking over 10 million copies.

London Arts Live

London Arts Live— the first program of its kind in Canada—is a city-wide pop-up art program that places professional artists in urban spaces to reinvigorate local businesses and offer Londoners new opportunities to engage with and experience the arts. With a particular focus on downtown, the program showcases London’s artistic talent across all performative disciplines — including dance, multimedia, music, theatre, and visual arts — artists perform in parks, streets, and buildings.

Westwood Village/UCLA Block Party

Westwood Village is a heavily used and densely populated 25-square block commercial district that shares a border with the UCLA campus. Despite the proximity, many UCLA students remain insulated on campus and are not aware of district businesses, or events and activities that take place in the community. The Westwood Business Improvement District (WBID), understood that they needed to hold a grand event to attract and then entertain thousands of people at once to introduce students to downtown.

Raising BIA Awareness: #BIAweek Twitter Chat

The Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) and the City of Toronto’s BIA Office worked together to declare “BIA Week” in the City of Toronto for January 29 – February 2, 2018. The goal of the event was for Toronto BIAs to educate Councilors, City Staff and the public about what BIAs are and how they contribute to Toronto. This included information displays and decoration in the City Hall rotunda for the week and a reception hosted by TABIA with City Councilors and Staff.

Top Issues Council: Place Branding – How to Brand and Market Your District

Each downtown and urban district is unique and offers different experiences. More than just a logo, tagline or marketing campaign, place branding identifies and distills a district down to its core identity and sense of place. The IDA Place Branding Top Issues Council has developed this report as a guide for urban districts to evaluate different tools and approaches for their own place branding efforts. Learn best practices and strategies to brand and market your district.

Top Issues Council: Maintaining Authenticity of Place

This report defines the various elements that contribute to the authenticity of a place. This report highlights a ten-point authenticity checklist on: engaged and involved property ownership; commercial diversity and independent businesses; built environment; walkability and accessibility; places that are clean, safe, attractive and welcoming; diversity and culture; public spaces; theater, arts and culture; historic preservation; and vibrancy.

Community Building – Creative Placemaking

Place management organizations work at the cross-section of thoughtful development and making culture accessible, increasing the quality of life for our districts. Pola Bunster, Director of Storytelling, Prism Creative Group, talks about the creative placemaking projects she has undertaken in Miami, tapping into the city’s culture to tell a story and create an experience.

Internet VS IRL, and the Power of FOMO

Events can be a significant and reliable strategy for attracting people to downtown. The panelists share their strategies and marketing tactics to put on successful events.

Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership Advisory Panel: Strategy for Housing Growth

IDA’s Advisory Panels are a time-tested way to explore new ideas, solve difficult problems, and rally the board, staff and community around priority projects or topics. This panel was asked to identify the challenges and obstacles for building new housing in downtown, as well as identify resources and tools available for creating new housing. The report details the panel’s findings and recommendations.

South Side Pittsburgh Advisory Panel: Mission Update and Solving Community Challenges

IDA’s Advisory Panels are a time-tested way to explore new ideas, solve difficult problems, and rally the board, staff and community around priority projects or topics. This panel focused on creating a strategic framework for the South Side Local Development Company, assessing the viability of an improvement district, and providing expert insight on best practices for economic vitality. The report details the panel’s findings and recommendations.

Retro Districts: Leveraging Arts, Culture, and Heritage

In the resurgence of downtowns, cultural districts have become a highly effective catalyst for cultivating authentic mixed-use districts that encourage the people who have historically lived and worked in a place to be part of its future. Cultural districts can take many forms, but ultimately are successful because they are true to a place and its people. Learn about cultural districts augmenting the downtowns of San Antonio, Charlotte and Denver.

Place Branding Top Issues Council: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

More than merely marketing campaigns, Place Branding explores the features that make your downtown or urban space unique among others: those quirky spaces and interesting places that define your urban experience. The best practices, lessons learned, and surprising tips can assist planners in defining strategies for physical manifestations of their community’s cultures in public spaces.

If You Build It, They Will Come – Building and Promoting Your Retail Destinations

This session delves into attracting a consumer base in the changing retail environment through the creation of specific economic development initiatives and strategic destination marketing to drive traffic. Using two case studies, the Selden Market and Glebe Spree 150, Speakers will discuss the relationship between building retail spaces and promoting those places to draw consumers again and again.

The Neighborhood Your Brand Built

Managing a brand is just as complex, challenging, and occasionally joyful as managing a place is. In the age of social media and global competition, districts rely on brand to communicate their character and deliver impressions. Though varied in scale, geography, and governance, these districts share a common understanding of the vital role place brands play in expressing the essence of a location.

Engaging Millennials and Shoppers in the Digital Age

Millennials have built a reputation as the digital generation and although convenience and price are critical to keeping these customers, their spending patterns and lifestyle preferences suggest they also place value on personalized experiences and brand authenticity, both, in-store and online. This session brings together experts in the field of downtown marketing, website development, and Facebook marketing science to share best practice on successful downtown and small business marketing.

Trash Talks: Approaches for a Waste-Free Public Realm

The cleanliness of a neighborhood’s streets and sidewalks is one of the most visible metrics by which urban place management organizations are evaluated. BIDs get firsthand experience with the impacts of too much trash on budgets, pedestrian activity, and business retention. Practitioners will share learnings on moving towards a sustainable and waste-free public realm by partnering with property owners and businesses and implementing innovative solutions.

Cultivating Entrepreneurship

As urban district professionals, we are all trying to create the foundations for growing new businesses, filling vacant spaces, and creating new jobs and vibrancy. Our expert panel will discuss how different cities and institutions are driving innovation, launching and running successful incubator spaces, and working with private and public partners to cultivate the right environment for new businesses to develop, grow and thrive.

Shop Small: Supporting Independent Businesses in Your Community

Supporting local, small businesses is important to the regional economy. In this session, you’ll hear from three communities who utilized Small Business Saturday, an annual U.S. small business holiday shopping tradition created by American Express in 2010, to help initiate year-round Shop Small movements in their districts. Learn how to find local partners, leverage social media and activate your downtown to make a big impact on your small business community.

If You Build It, They Won’t Necessarily Come: Re-Shaping The Narrative of a Place

After years of work, your place is improving: business is good and streets are clean. But old reputations die hard, and problems remain framed a certain way. What if we want people to see places, problems and possibilities differently? Hear diverse places share how they used public space management, programming and public-private partnerships to change the narrative, and offer for discussion and commentary the perception or problem you want to change.

Culture is Key

From urban adventure games and the world’s largest steampunk festival to some of the best Christmas markets in Europe, cities in the UK are actively developing cultural and events programmes that nurture local distinctiveness and attract people and trade. Learn how they engage with partners and develop a cultural strategy that is engaging and sustainable without spending millions.

Mapping Authenticity: Contemporary Mapping

Maps are the primary way that we orient ourselves to places. But they aren’t neutral: by highlighting some features while obscuring others, they are powerful tools for making meaning. Today, civic data and mobile technologies give us unprecedented control over visualizing place — and new ways for telling authentic, place-based stories.

12 Steps to Sponsorship Success

This presentation teaches the proper sales method for garnering the most sponsorships in any economy and how to position your sponsorship so that people want to buy it. You will be given the 12 steps needed to ensure sponsorship success from initial concept, to taking inventory, to establishing media partners, to determining your best partners, the sales process, making the sale, and post event follow up to ensure renewal.

Setting the Future of Retail Downtown

This session will demonstrate importance and necessity for business improvement organizations to provide ongoing support to the retail sector. A case study will be presented from Iowa City detailing two very different two programs: infrastructure and marketing.

Teaming Up To Clean Up

Teaming Up To Clean Up showcases partnerships with local stakeholders to clean and beautify their cities. Best practices include businesses and communities working together to improve storefronts, and reduce graffiti and litter while focusing on cigarette litter, recycling, and needle waste. Case studies in this presentation show how organizations can achieve best practices in maintaining cleanliness and building vibrancy in urban settings.

Become a Local Partner with Google

The mission of Google’s Get Your Business Online program is to help every business be found by every customer looking for them online. Learn how you can partner with Google to help the small businesses you work with in your community, using resources, trainings, gear and one-on-one help from the Google team, all completely free of cost.