It’s our way of giving back, saying thanks, and getting all of our biznatch besties together in one place. Since the 2016 IDA Annual Conference, we’ve been hosting our unofficial, unsanctioned IDA parties with our partners from Starkey Strategies and Geocentric — and this year’s fiesta in DC will be our biggest and brightest yet!
We’re celebrating Bright Brothers’ 10th Anniversary, and we invite you to drink, nosh and network in style! The party is FREE to attend, but we do need to manage headcount, so RSVP today. Come celebrate the best industry in the nation’s capital with us on Thursday, September 25th at La Cosecha — a distinctive food hall with a decidedly Latin flair! Register now!
Design competitions are nothing new. Eiffel Tower, much? But this type of crowdsourced, community engagement just inspired one of the coolest placemaking installations we’ve seen in a long time. Enter the Market Street Reimagined Ideas Competition hosted by the Urban Land Institute, the Civic Joy Fund, and SFCA Mayor Daniel Laurie. Your opinions about Laurie aside, the competition speaks to us on several levels:
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It crowdsourced some really amazing, inventive, and creative approaches to activating the main artery through Downtown San Francisco
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It brought together top thinkers, industry leaders, and luminaries to formulate extraordinary methods for solving a problem
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ULI, one of the competition hosts, has a vetted problem-solving offering through Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs) that we are very familiar with. Our co-founder, Josh Yeager, just completed a two-year stint as committee co-chair for the ULI PHL regional council on TAPs, so we know firsthand how getting the best minds together in a room can bring groundswell change
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You only know what you know. By asking the community at large to problem-solve collectively, the City of San Francisco gained numerous insights and answers to common placemaking and public realm challenges, and the best ideas bubbled to the top!
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Submissions were judged by a jury of world-class brain trust of planners, designers, and placemakers
Peruse the full gallery of submissions for additional ideas and inspo, but we must give props to SITELAB urban studio for their winning submission — the 4-Mile Bench! We know SITELAB from their brilliant work on the Downtown San Francisco Partnership’s PRAP, and this commendable collective has once again proven their merit and gravitas when it comes to making places pop. We applaud their work enthusiastically — well done, SITELAB!
Photo credit: Adobe Stock
… that it’s not just you? Your search traffic has indeed plummeted, and it’s probably no fault of your own. With the advent of AI, and in particular, following the introduction of Google’s AI Overviews, many websites are seeing a precipitous plunge in traffic today. We identified this issue months ago and feel rather validated to learn that after Google rolled out the AI Overview feature universally in March, there’s been a 32% drop in click the rate (CTR) for the previously held, coveted #1 position — and that new analysis finds Google’s top organic CTR dropped from 28% to 19% following the expansion of AI Overviews. But fret not. This is just yet another switch-up that keeps content marketers on their toes, and we were pleased to see that the recommendations from Search Engine Journal mirror many of our own for our consulting clients. So what can you do to counter the effects of so much lost traffic? Consider:
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Expand your content presence across other platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit, since ”discovery-driven” algos assist in your overall messaging, and users consume content through channels that operate independently of conventional search engines.
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Prioritize authoritative, top-of-funnel content creation focused on building brand recognition and awareness, understanding that while direct click metrics may decrease, this approach strengthens long-term brand equity and market positioning.
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Lastly, monitor comprehensive engagement metrics that extend beyond click-through rates, including on-site conversion tracking, growth in branded search queries, and measurement of assisted conversions that contribute to the customer journey.
This isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last time that SEOs and content marketing folks will be forced to pivot. Take stock in where you do excel, and as always, meet people where they’re at. Meaning, if your target Personas are all over TikTok and Instagram, then prioritize your content offerings there, over the ever-elusive game of attraction through traditional search.
Photo credit: Envato By Rawpixel
When we think of holidays, naturally many people imagine Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s… etc., or perhaps Halloween, Spring Break, or red, white & blue barbeques with hot dogs, apple pie and ambrosia salad. But for the marketing folks in your world, there’s a full calendar of social media holidays celebrating things like National Cheese Day or World Tourism Day that can serve as excellent points of engagement with your fans and followers. For our clients, we recommend an Editorial Calendar that is customized to your own business and organizational objectives, and this roundup from Shopify highlights some noteworthy milestones on the wheel of the year you may want to consider. If this seems too spare, peep this basic yet functional resource for more groovy dates to celebrate in your socials, website, and newsletters. Happy Holidays!
Photo credit: Adobe Stock
We love a good geo round-up, and if you regularly scroll down to Focus on Local, you’ll note that we’ve highlighted things like “The Best Hole In The Wall Restaurant in Every State” or “The Scariest Places in North America” — but in this edition, we have something a little more risqué than your typical top 50 round-up. The clever content marketers at ONE Condoms recently published the results of a survey that indicate some kinky capers and personal predilections for you to ponder. Wanna know which is the horniest or the sloppiest state in the union? Click here to see the results, but make sure your boss is okay with NSFW contentbefore ya go down this (latex-covered?) rabbit hole!
Photo credit: Envato By seventyfourimages
“We want this bench to be a place for everyone—it’s not about restricting how people use it,” Crescimano says. “The reality of homelessness is complex and ever-present, and instead of designing from a place of exclusion, we’re hoping to expand the idea of who our streets can serve. We started our practice in San Francisco, and that spirit of openness is what we’ve always loved about the city.” — Laura Crescimano, cofounder and principal, SITELAB urban studio
