Hi all... I am just curious as to any "shop local" promotions that you have ran that have been successful. We do these types of promotions with our local Chamber of Commerce. Looking for something for spring but am open to options
Look forward to reading your resonses. Thanks!
anyone???? LOL
This could work anytime but we did it a couple of years ago at the end of Jan., 1st of February to help the stores clear out their winter and holiday merchandise. A lot of our Mom and Pop stores are clustered on "Main Streets" in our 3 surrounding towns so we created "Blue Ribbon Bargain Days". Sell as many stores as you can...stipulation is they must have at least 1 item 50% off...they get store specific ads and we aired promos for "be sure to get your shoppin' shoes on for Saturday, january 28th for "Blue Ribbon Bargain Days" in downtown....blah, blah. Look for the big blue ribbon at participating stores with merchandise up to 50% off.
Make the big bows for them to put on their doors or windows....encourage them to also hand out "bounce back coupons" to get the shoppers to come back another time. Participants must understand that this can be successful if they really put out the bargains...not 10% off but real bargains. We did find some non-participating stores who put up their own blue ribbons...shame on them...but the only way to get around that might be to do blue ribbons with your station logo in some form. Good Luck!. You could make it a "Spring Sweep Blue Ribbon Bargain Days"...stores can introduce spring and summer merchandise and also clear out the final cold weather merchandise.
hey we do hometown spotlights take the station and do live remotes promoting the town let the mayor, schools brag about their town or students/citizens. sell bragging rights to area merchants
Jessica, I just ran across this article that tells how a local political candidate decided to limit his shopping just to local businesses for one month and how it turned out to be a fun and rewarding challenge; click here to read. It seems to me that a "shop local for a month" challenge could be a neat promotion co-sponsored by a radio station and the Chamber of Commerce, with people presenting their receipts as proof of local shopping and then being eligible for a grand prize and/or smaller individual prizes supplied by local merchants.
May be a little late in the game depending on your location...
From June through September is when the smaller communities in north central MN make hay, tourism is the main industry.
I put together "Town groups." With anywhere from 13 to 25 businesses in a "town group," there are "pods" of ads with 4 businesses in one ad, each with a positioning statement or offer for the month. (I change copy if needed only one time at the beginning of each month, or it can get pretty hairy for production to keep re-doing if businesses changed their line at will)
I start the ad with the theme for that town; "All Aboard to Pine River..." (a historic train town), or whatever phrase is used for a positioning line by their Chamber. End of ad is call to action with the theme again.
These are :30 ads, so each advertiser gets about 1 "line."
So, say you have 15 businesses at $100 each - that's $1500 a month for four months, (and once you get it started, pretty easy maintenance). Say your spot rate is a $30 combo rate for two stations.
That's 50 ads on each station each month. Because you have 4 pods of ads (4 businesses in each), each business will be included in 24-25 ads per month, or a $4.00 spot rate. Rate is attractive, but thevalid plus is they are part of a continuing campaign with consistent sounding ads over four months.
Our stations have three town groups that have been running every summer for many years. And it works.
