Mesquite, TX – November 5, 2021 – Downtown Mesquite earned the prominent Texas Downtown Association (TDA) Best Digital Promotion award for its Small Business Saturday digital marketing project. The award was presented at the President’s Awards Gala on Thursday, Nov. 4 during the TDA’s annual downtown revitalization conference in Denton.

Plans for Downtown Mesquite’s traditional Small Business Saturday promotion in November 2020 had to be adjusted and tailored to the conditions of the pandemic, which limited in-person visits and crowded gatherings. To get the word out about various downtown businesses and what they offered to shoppers, Downtown Mesquite volunteers partnered with Mesquite Independent School District videography classes to produce videos highlighting each business. Students conducted interviews, filmed and packaged each video.

“We loved how the videos turned out,” said Mesquite Downtown Development Advisory Board Chair and video anchor Lisa Harr. “But even we were surprised at how far-reaching the impact of the videos would be in terms of sales, metroplex media attention and awareness in general.”

In addition, Downtown Mesquite also won a People’s Choice award for the video project. The online vote was conducted on the TDA website during October.

This is the third year in a row for the Downtown Mesquite program to be honored at the President’s Awards event. During the conference, Mesquite has also been featured at three different workshop sessions with Haar, Downtown Development Manager Beverly Abell and Assistant City Engineer Wes McClure participating in panels. In addition, Abell was elected to serve a second term as a member of the TDA Board of Directors. She served as president of the board in 2009.