TAKE THE 20% SHOP LOCAL PLEDGE FOR A CHANCE TO WIN GREAT PRIZES!

This holiday season, the members and supporters of Locally Owned Tallahassee are asking you to take the Shop Local Pledge by committing to spend at least 20% of your holiday budget with independent local businesses!

And we are drawing great prizes from locally owned businesses for those who sign the pledge!

Simply click “Join” on this Facebook event page to sign the pledge, and you will be entered to win!

Click HERE.

We also ask that you help spread the word by posting comments about how you will be spending locally, and hopefully post some photos of what you get and tell us where you got them. And please help us spread the word by inviting your friends. 

SOME PRIZES INCLUDE:

A $100 HOLIDAY COOKING GIFT BASKET FROM NEW LEAF MARKET
A $35 SET OF EARRINGS FROM QUARTER MOON IMPORTS
A $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO THE OTHER SIDE VINTAGE
A GIFT CERTIFICATE FROM QUARTER MOON IMPORTS

And more!

WANT TO OFFER A PRIZE?
Just contact us at LocallyOwnedTallahassee@Gmail.com to let us know, and post it on the Facebook page!

DRAWING DETAILS
We will be drawing the winners on Saturday, December 22. All those who sign the pledge will be assigned a number, and the winners will be drawn using Random.org. Winners will be contacted via their Facebook account, and will be given a time period within which to claim their prizes.

HEAR ABOUT LOCAL AND GREEN SHOPPING ON WFSU'S "PERSPECTIVES" SHOW

Locally Owned Tallahassee was part of an all-star panel for WFSU's "Perspective's" show, hosted by Tom Flanigan, on Thursday, December 13. Click below to hear more about the local and green shopping movements in Tallahassee, and why they are important to Tallhassee's vitality.

HEAR ABOUT OUR NEW MASCOT ON WFSU:

HEAR US ADVOCATE FOR LOCAL BIZ:

(Was broadcast statewide through local NPR affiliate WFSU-88.9fm)

SHOP LOCAL HOLIDAY WEEKEND RECAP!

Locally Owned Tallahassee's inaugural Shop Local Holiday Weekend (which was Dec 7-9) was a great success! 

We've heard feedback from shop owners and community managers across the city that traffic was up at local businesses, and that people were buying! We have also heard from a handful of owners that they met new customers, and that folks were mentioning Shop Local Holiday Weekend as the reason they were there. (One owner told us a customer was on their way to Target when they remembered it was Shop Local Weekend!)

And now, we continue our advocacy by encouraging local shopping for the rest of the holiday season and every day of the year. 

Here is a little bit on how we executed this campaign, and how we got local shopping into the minds of residents amidst the onslaught of corporate holiday advertising. (We estimate that the campaign reached approximately 70,000 residents through news and social media coverage, with repeated exposures for many.)        

BUILDING A NETWORK OF SUPPORT
To maximize the reach and impact of this special weekend, we worked with many other organizations that are advocating for greater support of local business. These included:

- The City of Tallahassee's Local Business Saturday (a great program started by Mayor John Marks)
- Leon County Government
- The All Saints District
- The Market District Merchant's Association
- The Midtown Merchant's Association
- Railroad Square Art Park
- Tallahassee Food Truck Association
- The Chamber of Commerce
- New Leaf Market
- and many others. 

These groups helped with the ground game by spreading word of the weekend to their respective audiences. and by lending their support publicly. And we can use this network in the future for citywide campaigns.

EARNING MEDIA
The development of our new mascot was timed to coincide with the beginning of the two week promotional period for the holiday weekend, and on Tuesday, Nov. 27,  we hosted a press conference at the Shops at Lake Ella to reveal the mascot and announce the holiday shopping weekend.

At this press conference, proclamations declaring the holiday weekend were also presented by Mayor John Marks on behalf of the City, and Commission Chairman Nick Maddox on behalf of the County. City Commissioners Nancy Miller and Andrew Gillum, and County Commissioners Lindley and Desloge were also on the dais, along with leaders of all of the community organizations listed above. 

This press conference earned us some excellent media coverage, including notices in advance of the press conference on WFSU and WCTV, and strong coverage of the event from The Democrat in print and online (the story occupied almost the entire cover page of the TLH Extra section the following day), WCTV news, and WFSU. (We were also featured in several holiday spending reports on WFSU during this period, speaking on behalf of local business owners.) The Democrat also published a reminder for its readers just before the weekend.

Capital City Villager also sponsored a full page advertisement, and included regular coverage of the campaign and its progress. 

And in addition to all of those who helped make this event a success, we would also like to extend our very special thanks to Harvest Printers, for donating the enlarged poster for the press conference. 

SOCIAL MEDIA
From the press conference and news coverage, it was on to the ground game with an aggressive social media campaign that generated thousands of exposures for our Locally Owned and Villager pages alone, not including exposures that were reached through dozens of shares, and posts from supporting organizations. Many local merchants offered special discounts and incentives for the weekend as well.

Thank you for your continued support, for  supporting your neighbor-business owners, and for caring about your Tallahassee! 

ABOUT US

Locally Owned Tallahassee [LOT] is an organization of locally owned and operated independent businesses that have joined together to promote the benefits of shopping locally.

LOT was created to ensure the success of Tallahassee's local independent businesses so that we can continue to contribute to Tallahassee's rich character and vibrant quality of life. By preserving what is unique about our city, we can avoid becoming "Anywhere, USA."

Buy local whenever possible. Every time you spend a dollar at local, independent businesses you not only impact the cultural vitality of our community, but you also help build a stronger local economy.

LOCAL BUSINESS SATURDAYS

Local Business Saturday' is an economic development initiative created by Tallahassee Mayor John Marks in collaboration with local business leaders, the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, Locally Owned Tallahassee and Market District Tallahassee. Help us rebuild our economy by shopping locally the second Saturday of each month in 2012.

Studies have shown that for every $100 spent at a local business, an average of $68 remains in the local economy. And for every year over the past decade, 60% to 80% of all new jobs were created by small businesses.

The second Saturday of a local each month will be a 'Local Business Saturday', where residents are encouraged to purchase at least one product or service frombusiness. To provide an added incentive for customers, businesses are encouraged to offer special sales or promotions on 'Local Business Saturday'.

With customers and businesses working together to promote local shopping, we can revitalize Tallahassee's economy and pull ourselves out of the recession.