Newmarket's award-winning Shop Local campaign saw a 'whopping' $70,000 spent at local stores, chamber says

Yorkregion.com
June 17, 2022

Newmarket’s Chamber of Commerce is one of two in York Region to receive a provincial award.

The organization took home top honours in the best shop local campaign, handed out by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber and the town kicked off the Love Local campaign -- the largest such initiative in Newmarket's history -- in early November with a holiday/winter focus.

Bus wraps, digital signs, local media buys and social media promotion encouraged shoppers to spend their dollars at local stores.

The popular "Choose Newmarket" contest returned, this time generating roughly 600 entries -- twice the number received in 2020.

“It amounted to a whopping $70,000 in spending at local businesses over the contest period,” chamber president Chris Emanuel said.

One of the biggest showstoppers of the campaign is the Newmarket Love Local sign.

Designed to encourage the Instagram crowd to spread the shop local message online, the sign most recently appeared at the Newmarket Love Local Home Show and Festival.

“This campaign has been a game-changer and it’s just the beginning,” Emanuel said.

Meanwhile, the Stouffville Chamber of Commerce was given the best regional shop local campaign award for spearheading York Region’s It’s All Here campaign.

That project brought together the region’s nine chambers and boards of trade with the collaboration of numerous stakeholders, including the York Region Arts Council.

The campaign featured the launch of the experienceyorkregion.com website and promoted the places, events and people that make York Region a great place to visit.

“This program enabled the nine York Region chambers and boards of trade to collaborate once again on a joint initiative that showcased all the great things to see and do, as well as where to shop and dine,” said Stouffville chamber executive director, Karen Wootton, said.

“The York Region It’s All Here campaign further magnified the many shop local programs happening across the region and illustrated that whatever you need, it is likely in York Region.

The Stouffville chamber also ran its own successful local campaign, which included a holiday gift guide, two contests, Wintersong Music Festival and content for the newly launched of DiscoverStouffville.ca.