Telegraph Business 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 its funding from local property owners, sponsors street cleaning and beautification projects in the Telegraph Avenue area. Additionally, TBID is responsible for carrying out marketing programs to increase retail sales.
The Telegraph Avenue area, which is adjacent to the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the most colorful neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area and has been the epicenter of student protest since the Vietnam War. The main commercial thoroughfare, Telegraph Avenue and about ten streets that cut across it, has many small, non-chain store shops and restaurants. Many know it as one of the best locations in the Bay Area to buy music (Rasputin Records, Amoeba Music, etc.) and books (Cody’s, Moe’s, University Press Books, Shakespeare Book Company, etc.). Additionally, the neighborhood features some outstanding, reasonably-priced ethnic restaurants.
Strategy
In spite of unique retail and restaurant offerings, neighborhood merchants have struggled over the past decade. Many East Bay residents 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 that are cleaner and offer chain store options.
When Galvin Communications was hired to initiate a PR campaign in May 2003, our objective was to increase positive press for the neighborhood highlighting 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 the Alameda Times-Star, Fremont Argus, Hayward Daily Review, Oakland Tribune, San Mateo County Times, San Ramon Valley Herald, East Bay Express, the Berkeley Voice, Berkeley Daily Planet, and Contra Costa Times. Additionally, we organized the neighborhood’s first historic walk that generated great publicity and an excellent turnout. Based on the success of our efforts, the TBID Board of Directors voted to renew its contract with Galvin Communications in 2004.
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 significant press coverage for five restaurants in the neighborhood in nine different publications and one television segment on KPIX (CBS). These media hits made a measurable business impact on the area’s restaurants (see the case studies for Unicorn and Saigon City). 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.). Many of these merchants saw increases in sales based on the publicity that they received, and some of them are wisely using the publicity for in-store displays and as copy on their websites.