[OMS_MANAGERS] Downtown Street Fair - Engaging Businesses

[David Snider]

Hi Darin --

Actually, it *can* make sense for some of your service businesses to stay
open late and draw people into their office.   I always used to relay to
Sandy business owners that the purpose of our "First Friday" event was
retail awareness, not to ring the cash registers.  There are many people
out there who shop at whatever strip mall is closest to their home or
online, and although they may have lived in K Falls for years, they really
have no idea what is downtown.  My retailers here are constantly telling me
stories about customers coming in to their store saying "I've lived in
Sandy for X years and I never knew this store was here!"

These events can be huge windfalls for service type businesses if they work
it right -- something appealing like wine/beer tasting or live music to
draw people into the store,  a good 90 second elevator speech about their
business, giving away branded merchandise so the name of their company goes
home with people, and heavy promotion on social media is what I would
recommend.  You can also partner service businesses with other businesses
that have good promotional skills like a bar or a brewery - we had pretty
good success with this as well.

The stores that approached our Third Thursday-type event with future rather
than current sales in mind saw a good return on their relatively small
investment of time and money in our program.

*Things that bring people in:* live music, wine tasting, beer tasting, free
appetizers, Popsicles, seeing their friends and neighbors in a store, we
had a vet clinic that did a pet photo contest that was super popular
*Things that really worked as branded give-aways in Sandy:*  glow sticks,
slap bracelets, frisbees, we have an automotive shop that gave out Matchbox
cars with their business card attached, GOOD coupons (2 for 1 meal at a
restaurant = GOOD; 1/2 off an appetizer with the purchase of 2 meals = BAD)

Good luck!

* -- David C. Snider*
*Economic Development Manager*
*City of Sandy*
*39250 Pioneer Boulevard*
*Sandy, OR  97055*
*(503) 489-2159*
*dsnider at ci.sandy.or.us <dsnider at ci.sandy.or.us>*



On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 12:16 PM W Darin Rutledge, Executive Director <
darin at downtownklamathfalls.org> wrote:

> Good afternoon all! I hope you had a terrific Independence Day!
>
> We are getting ready for our second “Third Thursday” event, and I was
> hoping to get your feedback on a particular challenge. One of the critiques
> we received about the June event was related to how few of the downtown
> businesses were actually open during the event. For context, Third Thursday
> is a “street fair” type event – we block off 8 blocks of Main St. for
> vendors, live music on two stages, food trucks, etc. We estimated around
> 4,000 attendees at the June event. Really hard to estimate, but I’d be
> willing to bet more than half of those don’t regularly spend time
> downtown.
>
>
>
> I am hoping to reach out to our downtown businesses in an appeal to them
> to keep their doors open late to take advantage of these crowds. A list of
> benefits will be pretty easy to put together, along with some suggestions
> for how the business can “participate” in Third Thursday. I plan to target
> the retail businesses. Restaurants, for the most part are already open, and
> it doesn’t really make sense for service-related businesses (insurance
> sales, attorneys, etc.) to remain open.
>
>
>
> So, I’m asking for any golden nuggets you have for encouraging businesses
> to remain open and at least connect with attendees, many of whom would like
> a coupon, a smile, a glass of lemonade … something that might bring them
> back downtown.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> *W. Darin Rutledge*
>
> Executive Director
>
> Klamath Falls Downtown Association
>
> darin at downtownklamathfalls.org
>
> 541.539.6212
>
>
>
> *[image: cid:image001.jpg at 01D3D7ED.7D730FB0]*
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