Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership
Established in 2000, Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership is non-profit and encompasses eight downtown districts. They provide operational services covering security, street cleanliness and maintenance alongside a hospitality programme providing help and advice to visitors, an advocacy programme to give the businesses a voice; and marketing – including managing boards of directors and business meetings.
The Challenge
Downtown Oklahoma City was awarded a grant for Kerr Park within the city and tasked with activating the area. However, they had no method of tracking success before and after, especially in terms of visitors. Through connections at International Downtown Association (IDA) and recommendations from CEO, Jane Jenkins, Downtown Oklahoma City was introduced to MRI Software and identified as a best fit for the partnership.
The Solution
Downtown Oklahoma City uses MRI OnLocation for footfall analytics to monitor 24 hour foot traffic and data analytics. The data which supports them the most is the year on year metrics. Downtown Oklahoma City are able to measure how many people came to any event and compare last year versus this year. It highlights that what they are doing is working and this can be shared with other businesses, retailers, and property owners within the district adding value to the services provided by the Downtown.
The Results
Downtown Oklahoma City has an MRI OnLocation pedestrian counter located in Bricktown (along with many others), which is the major entertainment district in the state of Oklahoma. That counter allows them to track how successful an event is year on year. It also allows them to provide information to retailers so they can be more successful in knowing when to plan for more staffing, when to have bigger promotions, or how many people are going to be in the district that day. To have that technology in the biggest retail district is vital for ensuring the success of the downtown.
Supporting Downtown OKC throughout the pandemic and beyond
MRI OnLocation information has been important throughout the pandemic as it allowed Downtown Oklahoma City to track 2020 and 2019 versus this year, 2021. Having the 2019 data already built into the reporting helped ease tensions with retailers and businesses within the district, and allowed everyone to think strategically as they emerged out of the pandemic. During such an uncertain time, MRI helped Downtown Oklahoma City and the businesses within make better decisions.
Having the ability to share weekly and monthly PDF reports with retailers, property owners, business alliance and most importantly, the developers, adds extra value and allows for better decision making. MRI OnLocation’s Analyzer is also an additional support for Downtown Oklahoma City as it provides real-time data and insights at the click of a button, allowing them to be responsive and proactive to their stakeholders requirements.
Pre-pandemic, Downtown Oklahoma City held twenty-five special events every year, and the addition of MRI OnLocation cameras provided visibility on event popularity for these non-ticketed events, which were otherwise unknown. Insight into these events helped to refine the event offering to the most popular events and locations within the district.
In the future Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership is looking to add more counters as part of the wider development projects and use hard data provided by MRI OnLocation to show investors the benefits of including additional footfall counters.
