Gloucester Joins National Initiative to Love Local on 14th February
Gloucester Business Improvement District in collaboration with ShopAppy.com is encouraging people to support their local businesses on the 14th of February for ‘Love Local Day’ – Love Local Day is one of the first events for a national campaign encouraging people to support local. This year more than ever local businesses have pioneered through the lockdowns to reach out to their communities and offer locals a lifeline with home deliveries and online events to tackle the lockdown blues.
Love Local Day will be centred on sharing the love of all things local. On 14th February, one Gloucester business will receive a gift as a token of appreciation from the community. To decide which business should receive the gift, locals are being invited to nominate their favourite local business online by 11th February 2021. Nominations can be made on www.ShopAppy.com/love-local-day-2021 and the nomination deadline is 11th February 2021.
In addition, a £50 Gloucester Gift Card is up for grabs for customers who share a picture of their favourite local Gloucester spot on social media using hashtags #Gloucester #LoveLocalDay on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook so get snapping to be in with a chance of winning the prize.
Emily Gibbon, Gloucester BID manager, “We are delighted to be joining in the 2021 Support Local campaign as it will give us all a chance to show our love for our many local businesses that provide convenience and services locally for us all to enjoy.”
Dr Jackie Mulligan, Founder of ShopAppy who is leading the national Love Local Day campaign adds “It has been a challenging last decade none more so than this last year for our town centres and high streets, but we know there is tremendous love for local businesses in our communities. So we need to champion localism. This is the first in a series of activities being planned to encourage people to support local – and will highlight the importance and positive impact these businesses have in the life of our communities and commercial hearts and how critical they will be to our social and economic recovery.”
What is Love Local Day?
Love Local Day started in 2019 and grew in 2020 trending against Valentine’s Day on twitter and enabling many non-ShopAppy towns to get on board. In 2021, it is even more important to share the love. Love Local Day is the first in a series of activities and events planned to help local businesses and communities in these challenging times. ShopAppy wants to help the UK to celebrate our local high streets, markets and dedicated businesses who work hard to source and supply convenience with fresh produce, gifts and services on our doorstep and have worked harder than ever before for their communities in the last ten months – so we want to spread the love to them more than ever this Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day is traditionally a time when we look for that unique card, gift, or somewhere to go on a date and often the local places we have nearby can give us all the advice, inspiration and solutions we need. Valentine’s Day is a retail highpoint, growing steadily each year and reaching a staggering £1bn last year in the UK – so it’s a good opportunity to help ensure that spending stays local. So whether you love the romance of it all or not, the 14th February provides a great opportunity to remind consumers to appreciate their local businesses and to use them.
You can access assets to use to drive your own Love Local Day campaign here.
How can you join in?
– Helping raise awareness by sharing the local love on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Look out for our competition on Facebook to win £50 ShopAppy Vouchers – all you have to do is share a picture of your favourite local spot. A winner will be chosen at random on #lovelocalday 14th February. If you haven’t got ShopAppy, create another prize incentive for your area and encourage use of the hashtag and your own area place name.
– Create a story in the local media – you will find an example news release to use. It couldn’t be easier to attract attention as our retail and high streets are top of the news agenda – this will create some positive attention on what you have locally and will help to encourage local spending and footfall when it is safer to shop.
– Telling your favourite shop or business how much you love them. It is amazing how unloved our local businesses can often feel. The power is in your hands to change that. Just nominate your favourite business and encourage your neighbours and community to do the same – We will select the winning nomination and send them a special gift! It takes 2 minutes to create a bit of happiness, so just nominate here
– Supporting local for your loved one this Valentine’s Day You can make your high street or market the first stop when choosing a unique Valentine’s card or gift. You can order a meal from your local restaurant or book a treat or local event for when lockdown eases so you both have something to look forward to! Gifts with more thought are locally bought.
– Spread the love. If you appreciate your local shops and businesses get on social media and tell all your friends to love local on 14th February by using #LoveLocalDay and the name of your town/city too. But most of all, spend with local businesses near you – that will make the biggest difference to them on this special day and every day.
#LoveLocalDay #SupportLocal #ShopAppy #ShopAppiness
