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A BIG AGENDA

SITUATION

To become a healthy economic feeder to the rest of the city, Downtown Memphis needed more investment, more residents, more businesses, more office workers, and more activity to drive those people to Downtown.  In addition, we needed more people to come Downtown to have fun, eat, drink, shop and spend to support businesses.  Our metric for success was two-pronged: 1) are property values increasing, and 2) are more people coming downtown to work, live and play.
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SOLUTION
It was clear that the goals were directed at two distinct audiences: 1) the business community, which included investors, developers and businesses that could help transform blighted and vacant property into active use, and 2) Downtown users, which included tourists, residents, diners, shoppers,  and people wanting to enjoy Downtown amenities.  At the time, Downtown Memphis had one marketing strategy geared towards both markets, so neither had a clear message or call to action.  

To create more awareness among civic, business and ambassadors for Downtown, the DMC website served as the cornerstone for communications with available property listings, development opportunities, initiatives to improve Downtown, business guides and more.

Videos

several communications tools were created in-house, including The State of Downtown, 100 Reasons to Celebrate Downtown, DMC's Annual Report

"Leslie Gower gets it done."
- Paul Morris , Former President & CEO
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"Her ability to think strategically, communicate clearly, motivate others, and apply her considerable creativity to achieve practical outcomes put Leslie in a special category of contributors to our program."
- Jeff Sanford, Former President & CEO