Danville touts major holiday marketing reach, reports downtown revitalization gains

Danville's communications and economic development team presented metrics they say show rising engagement for town promotions and downtown activities.

"Our target was pretty simple: get people to Danville for the holidays," Communications and Economic Development Manager Jen Starnes told the council. Starnes highlighted a redesigned activity guide, stronger email metrics (8,477 unique subscribers), and a holiday campaign that generated 1,172,121 impressions and a 10.66% click‑through rate in the town's search‑engine marketing buy.

Starnes said the marketing team combined paid search and social media with in‑person events—lighting downtown’s old oak tree, music in the plaza and a pop‑up gift market—to encourage visits. She described the campaign as hyperlocal with targeted outreach to potential day‑trippers beyond the immediate area.

Starnes also credited staff and partners for programmatic increases: Merchant at the Market participation jumped by roughly 135% from the previous year, and Discover Danville web traffic recorded 8,348 page views. She announced that the town has an affiliate membership with California Main Street and a community membership with Main Street America to support downtown revitalization and training.

Council members praised the data and the team’s institutionalized marketing processes. Starnes cautioned that final economic impact will be clearer when Q4 sales tax reports are available, and noted that some event plans were curtailed by weather.

The report concluded with a request to continue coordination with the Chamber of Commerce and to refine event timing based on business feedback.