Case Study: Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. achieves data-driven community engagement and increased public satisfaction with HappyOrNot Smiley Terminals

Increasing Community Engagement in Downtown Santa Monica

Downtown Santa Monica, Inc., a private 501(c)(3) that manages services and activations in the Third Street Promenade area, needed a way to turn anecdotal community feedback into reliable, quantitative insight to increase engagement and support budgets and planning. To address this challenge they turned to HappyOrNot and its Smiley Terminal solution.

HappyOrNot deployed Smiley Terminals in staffed restrooms and at activations to capture real-time sentiment and provide analytics; those insights produced benchmarks (The Experiment on the Promenade 83% overall satisfaction, park restrooms 81%, ice-skating rink 77%) and informed better parklet placement, concession layouts and event planning. HappyOrNot’s data has helped DTSM justify budgets, influence sponsors and vendors, and build reports and a roadmap to guide future redevelopment and city decision-making.

Downtown Santa Monica, Inc.

Nick Efron

Public Space Manager