Telegraph Improvement District
About the Client
In accordance with California’s Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994, property owners in the Telegraph Avenue neighborhood in Berkeley, California voted to create the Telegraph Business Improvement District (TBID) in 1998. TBID, which receives funding from local property owners, sponsors beautification projects in the Telegraph Avenue area and is responsible for carrying out marketing programs to increase retail sales.
Strategy
Adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley, the Telegraph Avenue area is one of the most colorful neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has several small, non-chain store shops and restaurants and many know it as one of the best locations in the Bay Area to buy music and books and to eat reasonably-priced ethnic food.
In spite of unique retail and restaurant offerings, neighborhood merchants have struggled. Many people avoid the neighborhood because they perceive that it lacks parking and is overrun with students and street people. While the street remains popular with the UC Berkeley community, some merchants claim the more affluent students and university workers avoid the neighborhood in favor of regional shopping malls.
Galvin Communications was hired in May 2003 to increase positive press for the neighborhood and highlight the elements that make it a unique shopping destination.
Results
In a six-month engagement in 2003 we generated eighteen stories about neighborhood merchants and restaurants that appeared in papers throughout the Bay Area, including: Alameda Times-Star, Fremont Argus, Hayward Daily Review, Oakland Tribune, San Mateo County Times, San Ramon Valley Herald, East Bay Express, Berkeley Voice, Berkeley Daily Planet, and Contra Costa Times. Additionally, we organized the neighborhood’s first historic walk that generated favorable publicity and an excellent turnout.
Based on the success of our efforts, the TBID Board of Directors renewed its contract with Galvin Communications and in 2004 we built buzz for the stretch of Telegraph Avenue between Dwight and Parker as a great destination for “foodies” seeking excellent ethnic cuisine at reasonable prices. We landed press coverage for five restaurants in nine different publications and one television segment on KPIX (CBS). These media hits made a measurable business impact on the area’s restaurants.
We also sought out some of the area’s unique niche merchants (Lhasa Karnak Herb Company, 510 Skateboarding, Moe’s Books, University Press Books, Gilt, etc.) and landed local publicity for their businesses. The merchants saw increases in sales and used the publicity for in-store displays and as copy on their websites.