Content Development
Business improvement districts and downtowns need content for their websites, blogs, brochures, ads, case studies, sector propositions, and social channels. But it can’t just be any old content, it needs to be content that is mission-focused, highlights specific assets, and most of all, targeted towards a specific audience.
Business Corridor Events
Events bring people together. They put feet on the ground in your community. They also provide fantastic opportunities for earned media. EMI will help your organization plan events around topics that will engage, inspire, and promote your downtown or specific features of your downtown. With your specific goals in mind, EMI will help you plan every facet of the event whether its a walking tour, Restaurant Week, familiarization tour, or other tourism, small business promotion or investment related event . Events might be for talent attraction, small business support, tourism or more.
Public Relations
Earned media is one of the most powerful tools for an organization – both to highlight their own work, and highlight their community. Pursuing earned media gives communities the opportunity to shape the stories about them. It is proactive, it is effective, it is important, and we are passionate about helping you get it. EMI Strategy has the relationships and tenacity to secure earned media placements online, and in traditional papers newspapers, magazines.
Big Thinking
EMI will spend a part of time on any engagement on big thinking – what activity, would really put your community on the map for your target audience. Let’s do this.
Business improvement districts and downtowns need content for their websites, blogs, brochures, ads, case studies, sector propositions, and social channels. But it can’t just be any old content, it needs to be content that is mission-focused, highlights specific assets, and most of all, targeted towards a specific audience.
Business Corridor Events
Events bring people together. They put feet on the ground in your community. They also provide fantastic opportunities for earned media. EMI will help your organization plan events around topics that will engage, inspire, and promote your downtown or specific features of your downtown. With your specific goals in mind, EMI will help you plan every facet of the event whether its a walking tour, Restaurant Week, familiarization tour, or other tourism, small business promotion or investment related event . Events might be for talent attraction, small business support, tourism or more.
Public Relations
Earned media is one of the most powerful tools for an organization – both to highlight their own work, and highlight their community. Pursuing earned media gives communities the opportunity to shape the stories about them. It is proactive, it is effective, it is important, and we are passionate about helping you get it. EMI Strategy has the relationships and tenacity to secure earned media placements online, and in traditional papers newspapers, magazines.
Big Thinking
EMI will spend a part of time on any engagement on big thinking – what activity, would really put your community on the map for your target audience. Let’s do this.
Case Studies
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Food Tours of Bloomfield Center (Bloomfield, New Jersey)
EMI Strategy was hired in Spring 2019 to create a series of events to highlight the burgeoning, diverse restaurant scene in Bloomfield Center; Bloomfield, New Jersey’s dense downtown district. EMI organized and hosted alongside the Director of the Bloomfield Center Alliance three sold out food tours – one in the summer and two in the fall that brought new customers, revenues, and attention to small business in Bloomfield. The last Food Tour was organized to bring individuals attending a local conference around the Downtown, and outside of the venue. Approximately 90 people total participated across the three tours, and they visited, tasted food, and connected with the restaurant owners at 10+ distinct venues. Food ranged from Italian, to Jamaican, to Cuban, to classic burgers and shakes. Individuals attending were nearly half from Bloomfield, with the other half from neighboring cities and suburbs like Montclair, Jersey City, and Newark. EMI built a concentrated PR strategy to accompany the food tours which led to articles in regional papers like North Jersey.com and NJ Monthly as well as a television segment on Fios1 reporting from the Food Tour. A survey conducted after each tour found that nearly half attendees had never eaten in Bloomfield before, but 100% planned to return to some of the businesses on our route. |
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Downtown Millburn Shop Hop (Millburn, New Jersey)
EMI Strategy was hired in winter of 2017 to create an experience in Downtown Millburn on Shop Small Saturday to encourage people to shop local on this day and bring new people to Millburn to learn about the shopping available. EMI Strategy organized two distinct routes to 12+ stores – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Shoppers met with store owners, were given special deals, and were met with food and drinks at a restaurant along the way. The first shopper to reach $100 in purchases won a gift card for future use in Downtown. A concerted PR strategy brought a television news crew to document the tour as well as articles in a number of local publications. A post event survey found 90% of respondents purchased something the day of, and 100% planned to return to a shop visited along the route at a later date. |
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Battle & Brews History Walk + Pub Crawl (Bound Brook, New Jersey)
EMI Strategy has been hired four years in a row by the Borough of Bound Brook to develop an experience to highlight the history and current vibrancy of Bound Brook’s downtown. We invented the name, Battle & Brews, tagline ‘Come for the Battle, Stay for the Brews’ and concept of a historic walking tour and pub crawl. Each year, the event has doubled in size, with nearly 80 people attending in 2018. EMI Strategy leads the tour in partnership with Bound Brook Revitalization Partnership, arranges guest speakers, appetizer specials at the restaurants, and the tour route and script. It’s been an incredible way to connect people to Bound Brook’s Revolutionary War history, and the diverse, mostly Latin American cuisine, bars, and dance venues along the Main Street. Concerted PR by EMI, and by now very well- developed relationships with reporters has led to annual detailed articles by CentralJersey.com and in the blog, NJ Isn’t Boring. The event was also named a Somerset County Top 10 Thing-To-Do. |
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Downtown Marketing Plan (Navasota, Texas)
EMI Strategy was brought to the small city of Navasota, Texas on a U.S. Economic Development Authority grant managed by the International Economic Development Council to support its downtown recover in the aftermath of several hurricanes in 2018. EMI Strategy was asked to develop a Downtown Marketing Plan that identified assets and opportunities for Navasota’s downtown. After a visit to the city in June 2019, we created a Plan that identified 6 distinct assets and issued 4 detailed recommendations for how leveraging each. For instance, recommendation to obtain more earned media contained information on specific reporters and travel bloggers to reach out to for earned media and examples of story pitches. |
