2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenge & Objective
Small businesses - accounting for 97.9% of Canadian businesses- have faced horrific financial impacts due to COVID-19, 50% are truly worried that they may have to close permanently.

Within this grim reality, small businesses in Toronto deemed “non-essential” had a second lockdown beginning Nov. 23 and Canadians already planning to spend nearly 20% less this holiday season, independent businesses were left scrambling to survive.

The Roncesvalles BIA objective: Drive Torontonians awareness to shop local from Roncesvalles this holiday season.

Insight & Strategy

Conceptually, Canadians want to support small businesses. 95% believe that supporting them is key to keeping our economy healthy and 82% are worried that their favourite local businesses will close dow4.

If Canadians are strongly on board with the ‘shop local’ movement, why are local businesses suffering? Experts have noted that getting people to choose to shop locally over scoring deals and the lure of convenience from online giants is a tough sell. The team needed to make Torontonians feel personally responsible for the fate of (their) small businesses.

Amazon has seen sales increase nearly 40% and big box stores are up 6-24%. With as many as 225,000 small businesses potentially forced to close in Canada because of COVID-19 the team needed to shock people by forcing them to experience the harsh reality that could befall Roncesvalles. They needed to show them what the future could look like.

Execution

On Nov. 24, the second day of the new lockdown, “Roncy” residents woke up to more than 50 store/business windows covered in craft paper, with “For Lease” signs. This arresting display forced shoppers to viscerally experience the reality of the pandemic.

At noon, in a coordinated event, the store owners ripped off the paper to reveal the core campaign message underneath: to resist the lure of Amazon and support independent retailers. We also had federal and provincial members of Parliament attend and speak to the media.

Instagram, including IG stories, was the primary social media channel used to drive awareness and spark conversations.

Results
The reaction from the press was incredible. While a few media outlets were invited to the 12pm event, by 1pm every news agency in the city covered the story and turned it into a National Story. This media impact kept going for 72 hours, with more news teams arriving to cover the event.

A total of 44 press outlets ran stories, leading to nearly 255 million impressions. While approximately 20% of the media coverage was organized, the rest happened organically due to the power of the event’s impact.

Engagement on social media showed dramatic increases as well. The BIA’s Instagram account had a +900% increase in post engagements and a nearly +800% increase in growth rate. Each post generated at least +500% the average historical engagement (A.H.E), with the strongest post achieving +1600% A.H.E.

Credits

Matt Litzinger, President & Chief Creative Officer, The Local Collective
Pepe Bratanov, Creative Director, The Local Collective
Kaitlin Doherty, Managing Director The Local Collective
Lauren Brown, Solutions and Operations Director, The Local Collective
Michael Ash, Integrated Strategy Director, The Local Collective
Amanda McMillan Brand Director, The Local Collective
Omar Morson, Designer, The Local Collective