Broken Arrow marketing campaign to include Tulsans
BY ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
12/12/12 at 4:37 AM
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BROKEN ARROW - The marketing campaign to bill downtown Broken Arrow as an arts and entertainment destination will focus on educating outside residents about the area, the campaign's developer said Tuesday.
A recent focus group session revealed that Tulsa residents can lack even basic information about their city's largest suburb, said Lisa Frein, the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce's downtown development director.
One of the 14 participants in the session said he did not know the distance between Tulsa and downtown Broken Arrow, she said.
"People need to be educated about how far Broken Arrow is from Tulsa," she said.
"You take little nuggets like that from the focus group sessions and you apply them to a greater marketing strategy."
Frein is developing a metrowide campaign that will advertise downtown Broken Arrow under its recently adopted nickname: the Rose District.
She told the city's Downtown Advisory Board on Tuesday that the campaign should be ready to launch at the same time as a planned overhaul of Main Street this spring.
That project - reducing the street from four lanes to three, widening sidewalks and incorporating roses - will work in concert with the marketing campaign to solidify the area as a destination, she said.
Through advertising, websites, social media and news media, the chamber will offer information such as where to exit on the highway and where to go for lunch, she said.
It will also work to associate downtown with the rose image.
Recent focus group sessions with Broken Arrow and Tulsa residents were the first step in developing the campaign.
The chamber now looks to collect information from area residents through an online survey, which should be ready to launch soon, Frein said.
The survey will continue examining what people think about downtown, as well as what they like to do on weekends, what they want from an arts and entertainment district and what makes them visit such districts.
Although it will target Broken Arrow residents because they might be more apt to visit downtown, Tulsa residents' opinions will be important, Frein said.
"Tulsa has so many arts and entertainment districts already so we want to see what they associate" with those districts, she said.
Once the marketing campaign is ready, "I don't think there's any reason we can't attract Tulsa residents to downtown Broken Arrow," she added.
Original Print Headline: BA campaign to include nonresidents
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Associated Images:
Lisa Frein: "I don't think there's any reason we can't attract Tulsa residents to downtown Broken Arrow," the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce's downtown development director said
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