Awareness Campaign
Choose Local First
Supporting businesses and communities across Northwestern Ontario.
Choose Local First was a campaign funded by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, and spearheaded by the Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce to strengthen the local economy in the Kenora, Dryden, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, and Fort Frances communities and to encourage area residents and visitors to choose local first as COVID-19 restrictions began to ease.
The Problem
Local businesses in these areas faced many challenges and hardships due to the lockdowns and restrictions caused by COVID-19. From the beginning, we knew the value and potential Choose Local First would have for local businesses & communities during this time. The question was – how do we generate enough awareness to create a long-lasting impact in participating communities across Northwestern Ontario, and how could we pass the torch back to the Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce when it was all said and done to ensure continued growth moving forward.
The Approach
By creating key messages and strategies around generating awareness with Shoppers, Businesses, and Communities – we felt strongly that we would be able to accomplish the goals as set out by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and the Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce.
Another focus of this campaign was page growth. Being a new campaign, we knew that we would have to put a lot of care and attention into growing Choose Local First’s social media presence by consistently nurturing new followers.
The Solution
By incentivizing, engaging, and educating Shoppers, Businesses, and Communities about how they can participate in the Choose Local First campaign and why it’s important, we were able to reach over 64,000 people within Northwestern Ontario in just over two months.
This involved creating targeted ads utilizing different content themes and strategies to encourage engagement and participation in as many unique ways that we can. This included contesting, audience Q&A, polling, education, and more.
When you choose local, your dollar goes further than you realize! 80 cents of each dollar spent locally stays in your community.
By creating unique call to actions and pull strategies that encourage members of the community to participate, we were able to accomplish the goals and initiatives of Choose Local First.
Social Media Benchmarks for Success
Throughout the campaign, we kept a close eye on relevant statistics that would help us pivot our strategies accordingly so that we were always adapting with new information. When it was all said and done, we were extremely happy to see our success metrics rise above and beyond our expectations!
Total Reach
64,998
Average: 866 Per Day
Impressions
637,880
Average: 10,631 Per Day
Video Plays
28,287
Average: 377 Per Day
Total Engagement
35,696
Average: 475 Per Day
Post Reactions
3,850
Average: 51 Per Day
Net Followers
741
Average: 12.35 Per Day
The importance of brand consistency.
No matter what medium you use, creating brand consistency is so important to the success of any campaign. We always embrace this challenge, and with Choose Local First – it was no different.