Selling Downtown

By Jorge Casuso

October 17 -- Faced with stiff competition from venues armed with big marketing dollars, Downtown officials have carved out a plan that cashes in on ingenuity and branding to lure visitors from as far away as China and as nearby as around the corner.

The plan includes everything from art banners seen by strollers and a web site visited by prospective globe trekkers, to cable television spots that reach locals and special events that make a visit to the popular strip a memorable experience, Bayside officials said.

With competing venues like The Grove and Century City giving the Third Street Promenade a run for its money, drawing new customers and luring repeat visitors is critical if Downtown Santa Monica is to remain a major shopping and entertainment destination, officials said.

“There’s a lot of competition out there,” said Bayside Board member Barbara Bryan, one of three members of the board’s marketing committee. “It’s a matter of jogging people’s memories. It’s tough out there. There are a lot of wonderful places to go.”

“The public has a short memory, so you have to keep reminding them of how great you are,” said Bayside Board Chair Bill Tucker, who owns property on the Promenade.

" Your marketing has to be at the cutting edge, or you get lost in the shuffle.
“You have to be reinventing your marketing plan,” he said. “You want to come up with new ideas.”

Bayside marketing manager Marivi Valcourt and the Bayside’s marketing committee have been working to come up with new ideas to complement the tried-and-true methods of reaching out across the region and around the globe.

“It’s important to keep a balance between the residents and the tourists,” Valcourt said. “Even though we have very limited resources, we can’t put all of our money into attracting one group.”

“We try to keep it new and fresh,” said Bryan, who owns Interactive Café on Broadway. “We try to think of new ways to reach everybody. We have to be creative.”

But Bayside marketing officials can’t, and don’t, do it alone, Valcourt said. Downtown businesses have proposed unique marketing ideas of their own, and Bayside officials want to keep those ideas coming.

“We want businesses to get involved and to communicate what they would like to do to enhance their customers’ experience,” Valcourt said. “We want them to come pitch their ideas, attend marketing meetings or call us to discuss something in person. It’s important for the area to continue to blossom, and Bayside will support the businesses’ marketing efforts as best we can.”

One of the ideas that bore fruit was planted by the Apple computer store on the Promenade. The management wanted to stage concerts Thursday nights to feature up-and-coming artists on iTunes.

“Bayside listened to their idea, thought it was great and helped answer any questions that they had about execution,” Valcourt said.

“The in-store concerts bring visitors, because Apple directly e- blasts their LA area customer list,” Valcourt said. “A lot of people who’ve never experienced the Promenade, came down specifically for the concerts. Because we’re not a mall, the Apple store here has a unique opportunity.”

This year, the Promenade also showcased the first new banners to span the walk street in 17 years. A year in the making, the paintings on mesh by artist Lita Albuquerque contain a hidden puzzle designed to work with "the notion of promenade, a kind of easy walking back and forth," the artist explained.

“I wanted to align the idea of strolling with a visual sequence that people would ‘read’ as they walk along the Promenade – a sort of story that could be picked up and ‘read’ anytime during the sequence.”

The banners garnered media attention and made a stroll down the popular street a “cosmic” mind-bending experience.

And as it does every year for the holidays, Bayside officials will roll out Winterlit starting Friday, November 24. The celebration – which begins with shoppers’ specials that include free gift wrapping and gifts with purchase – features festive carolers, enchanting holiday decorations and sparkling lights. Each holiday tree on the Promenade will be decked out in bright green with retro light bulbs and accompanied by a scene with curious woodland creatures.

This year’s Winterlit also features a top model search, with the winners of the modeling contest showing off their runway skills in two holiday fashion shows on the Promenade. Families can enjoy a breakfast with Santa Claus at Santa Monica Place and visit interactive booths that will line the street with arts & crafts, entertainment and readings.

While banners and events, such as Winterlit, are viewed by visitors already enjoying the Promenade, the Internet is being used by Bayside marketers to reach a regional, and global market.

Nearly 20,000 unique visitors clicked on downtownsm.com last month, bringing the total number of unique visits this year to some 160,000, according to the web stats. While on the website, virtual visitors chose to view more than 111,000 pages last month, (averaging four unique page views per visitor) totaling more than 800,000 page views so far this year.

If the lion’s share of virtual visitors clicked on from somewhere in the U.S., many visited from other countries, especially the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Great Britain and Japan. Many of the visitors are directed to the Bayside web site from Citysearch.com, the local Convention and Visitors Bureau web site (santamonica.com) and the City’s web site (santa-monica.org).

“We naturally place first on the web searches,” Valcourt said.

The Bayside also is using the net to reach visitors who are already Downtown. Those surfing their computers on the Promenade using free city wi-fi get a customized Bayside splash page that features information the viewer can use to navigate around the area.

“It provides local merchants with a venue to showcase services available and gets people easily to things while they’re in close proximity,” said Jory Wolf, the City’s chief information officer. In addition, Wolf said, viewers using city wi-fi in other hot spots across Santa Monica can quickly view available parking spaces in the Downtown structures.

Bayside marketing officials also are turning to cable television to attract Westsiders and Santa Monica residents to the heart of the city. Working with Big Honkin Ideas, a Santa Monica-based production company, Bayside made its first television commercial.

“It was important to get someone local to create the spot in order to capture and deliver our message to the viewing audience,” Valcourt said.

In addition, the marketing committee has come up with the Bayside Minute, thematic spots aired on CityTV that have featured everything from outdoor dining venues to businesses that cater to weddings.

“Some of the stores or restaurants have seen a sales increase,” Valcourt said. “It’s been a good program. We’ll continue based on feedback and budget.”

While the local cable programming reaches the Santa Monica market, closed circuit television in hotels caters to the domestic and international visitors staying in the LA area.

“Now through 2007, our television feature will be running in more than 30,000 hotel rooms throughout Los Angeles,” Valcourt said. “That’s a lot of eyeballs.”

In addition to television and the Internet, the Bayside is continuing to use traditional print to reach out to those already in and around Santa Monica.

Santa Monica’s Guide to Downtown, a new publication that features entertainment and lifestyle, will be distributed as a special quarterly insert in The Santa Monica Mirror, the only local paper with home distribution in the city and neighboring communities. Another 40,000 copies of the guide are distributed to local stores, hotels and visitor centers.

A more targeted marketing approach is the Bayside Beat, the monthly newsletter published by the Bayside District to keep Downtown businesses, workers and residents up to date on the latest news and features impacting the area.

The five-year-old newsletter has grown in circulation from 2,000 to 2,800 subscribers who have the newsletter mailed to them free every month. “The readership is growing as residents move into new buildings,” Valcourt said.

And in an effort to keep business in the district, the Bayside has been offering a Downtown employee discount program that features between 60 and 70 businesses giving those working in the area a price break.

“The restaurants do really well,” Valcourt said. “And retail and services, report sales too. It’s a free program for the participant and generates great word-of-mouth.”

Unlike private shopping malls with large marketing budgets, Bayside officials have limited resources and must rely on creativity to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market, marketing officials said.

Private venues such as The Grove and Century City not only levy marketing fees on the merchants, they reap big bucks from corporate advertisers that is pumped back into their marketing efforts. And unlike a public strip like the Promenade, private malls have more control over marketing.

“Clearly, single ownership major shopping destinations have significantly bigger budgets and more leeway on how they spend their money,” said Robert O. York, a consultant to the Bayside District. “There’s a lot of different opportunities that present themselves when you’re a privately owned entity.”

The Grove, for example, often cashes in on major events sponsored by large advertisers, York said. It also mounts a Christmas event televised on a local network.

But Santa Monica’s Downtown has a marketing edge of its own, Bayside officials said. The popularity of the Promenade and Downtown has made it a frequent location for movies and television shows, such as George Clooney’s Oceans 13 and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In addition, news crews often comb the crowds for interview subjects.

“We have unrestricted access, because it’s a public space,” York said. “It’s easy to set up a news van and interview someone on the Promenade.

“We get exposure,” he said. “Others get to tailor more what image comes out. But it’s good exposure, there’s no way about it.”

Downtown Santa Monica also has two key features you can’t buy – its unique ambiance and the Pacific.

“You have to emphasize what’s special and unique,” said York. “You have to keep it in people’s thinking.”

“Nobody can beat the beach. The Pacific is hard to trump,” Bryan said. “We want to say, ‘Remember what a good time you had. We want you to come back.’”