Business Improvement District (BID) Board — Agenda packet

Business Improvement District (BID) Board AGENDA City Hall, 101 S. Second Street, Black River Falls, WI Thursday, October 16, 2025 – 5:30pm Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86132312761?pwd=6bbpqIWn3CjTN9XrF6uHdLhRam5Nfm.1 OR Dial: 1 312 626 6799 Meeting ID: 861 3231 2761 Passcode: downtown 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Request for $1,000 for Downtown Trick or Treating Candy – Action 4. Request for up to $1,320 for Small Business Saturday – Action 5. Consider creative designs for I-94 billboard – Discussion & Possible Action 6. Adjourn Posted: October 14, 2025 Downtown Trick or TreaƟng 2023 - $800 2024 - $925 (Pumpkin $250 Guess the Weight Prizes $225 Candy $500) 2025 - REQUESTING $1,000 Our pumpkin cracked this year so no guess the weight this year. Candy prices are a lot higher, we do tell businesses to buy extra as well. We’d like a $1,000 budget for candy for businesses to hand out. Last year we had 27 businesses parƟcipate and the most kids we’ve had since we started this. We hope to get more this year and with this proposed budget we could give each business 2 bags of candy to hand out Small Business Saturday $1,200 2023 - $1,080 2024 - $1,200 2025 - REQUESTING UP TO $1,320 Last year we would have been over budget, but 2 businesses would not take payment, they donated the $30 giŌ cards. This year, we counted 44 businesses, at $30 each would be the requested amount. We might be lower than that, but I’d rather have enough approved if all 44 retail businesses parƟcipate this year. I will send a list of all businesses once they all get back to me, but we would not go over that amount Christkindl - can sponsors write the checks to the City of Black River Falls again this year? *Chamber has agreed to write all the checks for Downtown Trick or TreaƟng, Small Business Saturday and Christkindl, so the city would just have to write 2 checks to the Chamber* Brad Chown From: Sent: To: Subject: Hey Brad, Matt Gardner <mjgardner@lamar.com> Friday, October 10, 2025 11:36 AM Brad Chown Feedback From Last Night's Meeting Good morning! I sat back and listened to the discussion that your board had last night and I had some follow up thoughts to it that I thought I'd share through email. I have concerns about using a drone photo of the entirety of your downtown area on a billboard. Typically I would recommend against wide, sweeping landscape photos on a billboard. Billboards are very good at taking simple concepts and making them understandable for a mass audience, or taking small things and making them big. Let's say you're a jewelry store advertising on billboards — are you going to put up a photo of an entire display case on your billboard ad? No, you're probably going to put a necklace or a diamond ring on a board. If I own a bar & grill off the interstate that serves great burgers but also has a really slick bar and cool ambiance inside, am I going to advertise my burgers or a wide shot of the inside of my bar on a billboard? If I'm doing billboard advertising right, I'm choosing the burger. It's a much easier thing for an audience to understand, relate to and act upon than a photo of how cool my bar looks. Last night's discussion reminded me of the discussions I've had with Richland Center Tourism over the years about effective designs. Here are two designs they ran with us in 2021: 1 191E1ITMII TIN Alll ook , . *-k.• • ,. • y4. • • RKMAIIIKURN TOURISM ire ID# 889615002h Area Sae: 14T X 48'0 Substrate: H, :es Vass, r tee flex Plane ,r3r La Grasse W1 QThrAtiff• Pom MO•Crn, Ap , 12 202$ Artwork I...Nit,' ar” taorcattl at • 7 1• 454.e- • • • iPsueow•`•— • V I4 RICHLAND (ENTER TOURISM d • f RICHLAND CENTER TOURISM ti -srer When I look at those three designs, I feel like there's too much to look at in the background images to figure out what's going on with the image while also trying to read all of the text in the ad. That's the 2 drawback with a wide, landscape shot. It takes too long for drivers to understand what they're looking at that they can't read all of the text on the board. Also, we want to create an ad that evokes some type of emotion with viewers. To me, a drone shot of downtown Black River Falls doesn't evoke any emotion. Here's what Richland Center Tourism started to switch their ads to over the past two years: ..S,IMPLE e 00 SERENIT 00 • UNIQUE EXPERIENCES... YOU'LL FIND IT HERE. Richland TOU R I S M YOU'LL FIND IT HERE. Richland .d.1111.\ TOU R I S M YOU'LL FIND IT HERE. WIMENh Richlind TOU R I S M 3 • • r .01 • . •••••• art YOU'LL FIND IT HERE. v olellow" rocipo Richland TOU R I SM The change in font style makes a huge difference, but focusing on people and things that evoke a feeling are also some of the biggest changes they made. A few questions I had thought of last night were these: Why should people want to come to downtown Black River Falls? Are people coming there to go look at the dam? Are they coming there to gaze at the street lamps and flower baskets (they are beautiful flower baskets by the way)? I would assume that most people would be attracted to your downtown for the businesses and the cozy, historic feeling that it gives off, right? I know it's a fine line that you guys have to walk because you're advertising the downtown area as a whole versus specific businesses. However, I have to think there's a way we can do this simply and effectively. I'm not sure what images that would involve at the moment. I hope my email helps because I want this ad to be awesome for you guys. I sell boards in 15 different counties through western Wisconsin and northeast Iowa, and Black River Falls has one of the best downtown areas out of any smaller city in that area. I hope we can accurately represent what makes it special on a billboard. If you have any follow up thoughts or questions, feel free to email me back. 4 fIZMIZEZOMatthew Gardner 1 Account Executive Lamar Advertising Company of La Crosse M: 414-939-3701 / O: 608-433-2306 / F: 608-782-1944 1329 Interchange Place, La Crosse, WI 54603 https://www.lamar.com/lacrosse 5