Appleton Downtown Inc

Our efforts in district marketing are focused on showcasing the downtown as a destination for business, arts and leisure. Advertising ranges from image marketing to event marketing that draws thousands of visitors to our downtown. We use a variety of avenues including radio, digital billboard ads, print ads, tv ads, kiosk and window displays, and social media. Our social media advertising includes email, eblast, a web page with 195k total active users, facebook with 26,511 likes, and instagram with 8,995 followers. We produce an annual downtown guide and distributed 15,000 of them to visitors and local residence, expense of $8420. Weekly communication to the businesses and general public keeps everyone informed on issues and happenings in the district, we switched to constant contact this year $1344 for the subscription. An image marketing campaign was launched investing a total of: $55,150 invested. We contracted with coalsce marketing and invested $21,100 to have our website rebuilt. A total of $59,042 was invested in content development and graphic design. The downtown guide and small business saturday program attract cooperative investment of $25,700 from downtown businesses and sponsors. $104,690 of our marketing and printing expenses are covered by bid funding.

We support programs for the recruitment, improvement and retention of 206 property members in downtown appleton. Bid building improvement funds are designed to improve physical appearance. In 2024 the bid distributed $49,079 for building and signage improvement grants and $10,650 in new business support grants from the business improvement district. Support for business recruitment through our searchable online property tool helps connect building owners with potential tenants or buyers. We also provide a resident and employee welcome packet program. All programs are bid supported. We continue to partner with the city of appleton to execute the downtown plan chapter 14 of the city's comprehensive plan.

Our partnership with riverview gardens care program continued to provide general cleaning services to the downtown district. In 2024, the program provided 656 hours of sidewalk cleaning service, with 131 bags of trash collected. We contracted with pfefferle management for 370 hours of additional cleaning services including graffiti removal. We also provide the flowers for the sidewalk planters, and lights in houdini plaza. The program is bid supported.

In partnership with valley transit we support the downtown trolley in downtown and the riverfront. In 2024 we were awarded a grant from the convention and visitors bureau to fund our portion of the trolley. Additional expenditure was for the public brochure.