Brookfield trustees are supportive of a potential promotional package deal with Brookfield Zoo Chicago.
Libby Popovic, Brookfield’s director of community development, presented the package to the village board on Jan. 26. Costing the village $5,000, the deal would provide a value of $7,500, Popovic said, allowing the village to host events at Brookfield Zoo facilities and provide complimentary tickets on top of promotional opportunities for businesses in town or the village itself.
“We’re trying to support business engagement, recognizing different businesses, cross-promoting and using the zoo in a different capacity,” Popovic said. “We can use some of their facilities to bring more people there versus having things here at Village Hall. We’re leveraging the existing regional asset that we have there.”
As part of the deal, Brookfield will host its Brookfield Shops graduation for the 2025 cohort vendors at the zoo on Feb. 6 with room for up to 100 people. On March 6, Brookfield will host its State of the Village address with room for up to 200 people.
The event will “showcase what the village has done, is doing and will be doing,” Popovic said.
Each room rental is worth about $2,000, she said.
The zoo will also provide 50 free general admission tickets, normally $29.95 each, and 25 free parking passes, normally $20 each, adding up to a total value of $1,997.50.
The deal will include an “on-site table activation” for one weekend day this spring, allowing business or village representatives to promote their organizations at the zoo directly.
It will also feature promotion of Brookfield and its businesses in Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s digital newsletter with about 300,000 subscribers, which will “[give] us exposure to markets and channels that we’ve never used before,” Village Manager Tim Wiberg said.
Trustee Kyle Whitehead said he would like to hear from businesses in town about how they think the partnership could benefit them.
“I know we’ve tried various initiatives over the years in terms of promoting the downtown to visitors at the zoo,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s business owners being present at the zoo, interacting directly with customers, but I’d be curious with how some of our businesses feel like they can be directly involved.”
Popovic said village staff have been in contact with the Brookfield Chamber of Commerce to determine how to best leverage the deal in support of businesses.
Brookfield is getting such a deal, she added, due to zoo officials’ belief in the value of a partnership with the village.
“For them it draws in other people that might not be going to the zoo regularly,” Popovic said. “They have sponsorships and partnerships with other communities and other businesses as well. They’ve tailored this one because their other sponsorships and partnerships were a little outside of what we could afford, so they really tailored this to work both ways.”
Village trustees reached a consensus to support the initiative at their meeting.
“I think this is wonderful to see,” said Trustee Nicole Gilhooley. “We’ve been talking about this type of relationship and taking it in a different direction for a long time. It’s good to see it come to fruition.”
