OUR PARTNERS

As President of Starkey Strategies, a boutique strategic business consulting firm, Jenny Starkey focuses on community building through strategic communications, community relations, public relations, outreach and engagement and internal and external affairs. Jenny has been providing strategic vision and planning efforts for nonprofits, governmental entities, business improvement districts and corporations for over 15 years. Jenny’s experience is based on her deep constituent insights and relationship building talents reflected in her innovations, the ability to drive change, unify team efforts, act as liaison between community and government and lead ambitious programs and initiatives.

Civica is a preferred partner of Bright Brothers Strategy Group. The unique data polling and analysis service offered by Civica Involve are part and parcel to Bright Brother’s data collection and the inputs we employ as a standard component of our Persona development process. Civica Involve was founded by an experienced team of research and customer experience professionals who shared a common belief – feedback should be simple, fun, rewarding, continuous and smart. To date, Civica Involve has been adopted worldwide and is used by the likes of the SoMa West district, Fisherman’s Wharf and PIER 39 in San Francisco, NYC’s famed Times Square Alliance, Downtown Baltimore, City of San Francisco, San Mateo County, City of Sydney and many others.

Data drives everything we do, and as big data geeks, we knew we needed the outstanding services and deep dashboarding of Civica Involve as part of our Persona development process, so we partnered up. Leveraging the insights of Civica Involve’s incomparable intel for consumer intercept surveys, brand lift and perception surveys and rich data narratives – to date, hundreds of thousands of data points have been collected, analyzed and translated into actionable strategies for Bright Brothers’ clients.

Geocentric’s state-of-the-art websites powered by the Citylight® CMS Software, featuring dynamic maps and data visualization are the proven gold-standard in the urban place management world, and used by the vast majority of Bright Brothers’ place management clients. Geocentric was established in 2005 with the vision of enabling clients in economic development and destination marketing to self-publish and self-manage high quality interactive content, especially geographic content on their websites. Their easy-to-use Citylight® CMS Software puts clients in control of location-driven web directories, sophisticated event calendars, custom branded interactive maps, and full place marketing websites.

Geocentric has worked with over 50 Downtown Placemaking Organizations, large and small, including; Downtown Raleigh Alliance and First Friday Raleigh, Downtown Atlanta, San Diego’s Little Italy, Nashville Downtown Partnership, Midtown Atlanta, Cherry Creek North BID, Boulder Downtown Partnership, Downtown Tempe Authority, Downtown Norfolk Council, LA Fashion District BID and Downtown LA.

Their mobile-responsive, destination marketing websites perform fantastically, and no two Geocentric websites look the same because no two destinations are the same. Plus, the team over there are so easy to work with and collaborate on marketing projects for our clients, which makes Geocentric a Bright Brothers’ preferred partner of choice.

With a background in urban planning, 10+ years working as a contract designer and a special focus on strategic visual communication, Derek has a multidisciplinary approach to design. His work with city builders has led to strengthening the brands of multiple BIDs, modernizing their methods of public outreach and transforming their approach to economic forecasting. His expertise in visual communication has bolstered engagement and comprehension between urban progressive organizations and their public audience. Through the art of data storytelling and infographics, he has successfully positioned his clients as thought leaders and influencers of urban progress in their communities.

Derek’s eye-catching work has been employed by the likes of Downtown Denver Partnership, Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District, Metro Denver Development Corporation, Walk Denver, Shared-Use Mobility Center, Regional Transportation District (RTD), Denver Arts and Venues, Downtown Colorado, Inc., Denver Startup Week, Mapquest, Visa, CapitalOne, Vail Resorts and more. Derek partners with Bright Brothers to bring next-level visual design to the table for select UPMO & DMO clients.

As long term members of the International Downtown Association (IDA), Bright Brothers has a special relationship with IDA. We’re consistently tapped as talent to speak at their conferences.  We work with their members. We participate in committees. We even worked with IDA on Persona Development and developed an Assets Strategy in advance of their new website build.

“Persona-based marketing is an absolute for any modern marketer.” — Allison Shashok, IDA

For years now, Bright Brothers Strategy Group has been a staple at the IDA Annual Conference and regional summits. We’ve presented at IDA annual conferences in Atlanta 2016, Winnipeg 2017, San Antonio 2018, Baltimore 2019. We’ve brought our placemaking prowess and powerful POSTR process to the annual BIABC conference in British Columbia for Canadian members of that gorgeous western province in 2017, and again in 2019 when our co-founder Josh Yeager gave the keynote. Since 2018, Josh has been involved with the IDA Top Issues Council on Placemaking & Place Branding; co-authoring a published paper on placemaking best practices.  Josh was on the organizing committee for the first ever IDA Placemaking & Place Branding Summit in Huntsville, AL in 2019, and again picked up the charge for the 2020 conference in Dallas, TX.

Bringing world-class strategic thinking to the BID world is part & parcel to what we do, and we feel like this quote from IDA Director of Membership & Marketing, Allison Shashok really sums things up, “We hired Bright Brothers to help us with Persona Development in advance of our new site build. The experience and deliverables were invaluable in defining the tone, copy, voice and needs & wants of our target audiences. Persona-based marketing is an absolute for any modern marketer.”

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) like a tourism bureau or a convention and visitors bureau provide calculable impact for the regions and communities they serve. It’s estimated by the U.S. Travel Association, that in 2018 travelers spent $1.1 billion generating $2.5 trillion in economic output, supporting $15.7 million American jobs. Without this, each U.S. household would have to pay an additional $1,340 in taxes without the tax revenue generated by travel and tourism. How’s that grab ya?

A major influence on our economy, top-notch tourism bureaux are leading the way with direct economic impact, captivating campaigns highlighting public art, murals and more.  Bright Brothers works with several of them, and nearly a decade ago, Bright Brothers co-founder Josh Yeager spoke at the (then named) WACVB Conference, and he returns in 2020 to present on micro placemaking activations for individual businesses within a destination.  The relationship and interplay between a tourism bureau and a BID are often fruitful, productive, mutually-supportive and definitely revenue generating. Bright Brothers is proud to partner with destination marketing organizations of all kinds, sizes and purview, and we’re proud to call DMA West a partner as well.