Northlake officials report results from gift-card pilot; staff recommend stronger promotion next year

Lauren (speaker 3) presented results from Northlake's recent gift‑card pilot tied to Boone Stadium and local businesses. According to her briefing, cards were mailed to 6,394 addresses and 876 cards were returned/collected. Lauren said businesses reported increased customer traffic and noted that the most popular participating restaurants were Amano, Wingstop and Burgers and Curries; the highest participating residential communities named were Pecan Square and The Ridge.

Lauren relayed feedback from businesses that some residents believed the mailed cards were not genuine and discarded them. She recommended better outreach and promotion next year — including text notifications through the town utility system or sending cards in sealed envelopes — and suggested a follow‑up business survey rather than in‑person roundtables because some owners are difficult to schedule.

Lauren reported financial figures in the briefing: she cited a program budget of $150,000 and stated that "leftover from that is $120,100." The transcript also contains a line that appears to report total card costs as "$21,900," but the numerical details are inconsistent in the record and staff said they were still working on final printing and postage figures.

Council members asked whether data were available on how many customers were new versus repeat; Lauren said no specific tracking was available and that such information would need to come from participating businesses.

Officials characterized the pilot as a first effort with useful lessons and said staff will explore ways to improve outreach and measurement for subsequent runs of the program.