[OMS_MANAGERS] Downtown Street Fair - Engaging Businesses

[Brad James]

Ditto to everything David said.

I also find it helps to quantify everything. This is essentially free
marketing to 4,000 people. For comparison - sending a mailer to the
doorstep of 4,000 residents costs ($XX fill in for you local rates, usually
around $1k). Instead you are bringing 4,000 people to their doorstep - for
free!

Also - ask the businesses who did participate about their sales during the
event, compared to during the day. I've done events where the majority of
businesses did more sales during 3 "late" hours than all day during regular
hours.

Its hard to argue with numbers and money.

Brad

On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 1:24 PM, David Snider <dsnider at ci.sandy.or.us> wrote:

> 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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-- 

*Brad James*  |  Executive Director

McMinnville Downtown Association

503-883-8502 (cell)
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