Fredericksburg VA Main Street (FVMS) won the 2020 Main Street Idea Pitch competition, receiving a $5,000 award to help make their Scan & LOVE project a success! Alongside four other finalists, April Peterson, FVMS Board President, presented the organization’s idea focused on activating storefronts through storytelling. Judged by a panel of revitalization professionals and the public, FVMS successfully crafted an innovative and inspiring project idea that connects to the community’s vision for downtown Fredericksburg and helps to create a vibrant, people-centered place to live, work and invest!

Fredericksburg’s Scan & LOVE project seeks to provide downtown businesses with branded posters (posted in their storefront window) that feature a special QR code. Each business owner will meet with a videographer to produce a two minute video that showcases a personal story about themselves, their business, safe shopping information and/or interesting facts about their building. The video will be linked to the QR code and uploaded to the FVMS YouTube page, and FVMS remains confident that local consumers and visitors walking downtown will engage a well-branded campaign and become excited to learn more about businesses in downtown Fredericksburg. Through the Scan & LOVE project, an emotional connection will be established between the business and the public that creates an increased desire to “open the door” and discover what’s inside!

“Our role as Main Street leaders is to drive customers and guests downtown, bring them to the stoop of our businesses and then let our owners and teams take the lead.” – April Peterson, FVMS Board President

FVMS will partner alongside two downtown businesses to successfully execute the organization’s Scan & LOVE campaign, producing 35 videos that create a digitally immersive experience that truly brings storefronts to life. Undoubtedly, the project will increase viewership on the FVMS YouTube page, increase sales for participating businesses and greatly expand the number of new customers “found” for each downtown business. We strongly recommend heading to downtown Fredericksburg to learn more about all the extraordinary stories the community has to tell!

The 2020 Main Street Idea Pitch recording will be placed under the “Training Resources” tab on the VMS blog / website.