Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Small Business Saturday: From Nothing to a Nationally Renowned Day


One of my best friends from college helps to lead the Small Business Saturday program pioneered by American Express. After witnessing her in action, I can certainly appreciate how much work and planning goes into the seemingly organic drive to support small businesses the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This past Small Business Saturday exceeded expectations with consumers spending around $5.5 billion compared to the $5.3 billion estimated total. Furthermore, American Express confirmed the consumer turnout among AmEx cardholders at small businesses rose by nearly 21 percent versus last year’s event. (Source: PRWeb)
Several elements of digital marketing (among others) helped to make SBS a huge success:


-      Strategic partnerships: While the initiative was largely about American Expres, even more so, it was about the businesses themselves. AmEx also partnered with FedEs and Facebook to promote SBS.
-        Integrated marketing campaign: Radio, TV, social media, national, local. AmEx worked hard to ensure that they were strategically timed and positioned across multiple media channels. Furthermore, information was complete and perfectly branded on the SBS website, which linked to other social media sites. (I know from vacationing with the SBS manager, who was working very hard during our trip to ensure the site was immacuately ready for launch).
-        Empower customers to communicate in digital media: AmEx let loose of the reins and encouraged their small business partners to communicate about the event as well. This not only scales the efforts, but also makes the messages more credible for local shopppers AND co-ops small businesses into the real energy behind the day.

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