Case Study

6P Marketing / Manitoba Chambers of Commerce

Kickstarting an economic rebound for small businesses

As local businesses struggled with the impact of a second pandemic year, the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce (MCC) sought to encourage local support for the province’s 10,000 businesses in the fall leading up to the critical holiday season.

6P Marketing developed a strategy to activate all 65 local Chambers across Manitoba, delivering a campaign to change buying habits among consumers and business leaders. The #BuyLocalMB initiative was created to rally support for local businesses across the province.

As the communications partner of choice for 6P Marketing, Solv Communications was tasked to bring the province-wide campaign to life.

In This Video

Robert Mensies – Director of Client Strategy – 6P Marketing

The Challenge

Local businesses are the engine of our economy. For every 100 dollars spent at a local business, 68 dollars stay in the community.
Emerging from the pandemic, they looked to kickstart an economic rebound by rallying consumers to support local businesses leading up to and during the busy holiday season.
#BuyLocalMB had a goal to reach a province-wide audience and the partnership between Solv Communications, 6P Marketing and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce lead to this launch.

The Solution

Manitobans purchased from local businesses, tagged the business on social media with #BuyLocalMB, and thus created awareness. MCC reposted these posts and further promotion ensued. As an incentive, local boosters who used the hashtag were entered to win one of ten $100 Visa prepaid gift cards.

The campaign excelled at earned media coverage–including province-wide newspapers, radio, television, magazine, and online channels–that successfully promoted Manitobans to support local businesses during the holiday season.

The Solv Communications team hosted a media event to launch the campaign at Toad Hall Toys, Manitoba’s largest and oldest independent toy retailer. Every media outlet attended and further promoted our message province-wide.

Results & impact

The #BuyLocalMB initiative and PR campaign leveraged local media, influencers, social media, and online marketing to garner over 1,800 mentions on social media and over 12,500 visits to a landing page.