City Centre Businesses Encouraging Us All To Smile

Over a decade ago the Gisborne Retailers Association launched the original much loved, often remembered and highly successful “Smile” campaign – “Smile You’re in Gisborne”. Heart of Gisborne Manager, Kerry Donovan says “we are very proud to unveil a reinvigorated, multifaceted campaign that not only salutes the original but the hard work of a group of business people who donated so much time and expertise to support and develop our city centre business community – many of whom are still in business today”.

Ms Donovan says the decision to reintroduce the “Smile” campaign gives the often negative Shop Local message real soul. “When we looked at similar Shop Local campaign around the world, many dealt in cold hard facts and tried to make people feel guilty for not supporting their local business community. We wanted ours to be different”.

Heart of Gisborne’s “Smile” campaign she says is “three parts education, one part fun”. There will be an emphasis on explaining in simple terms the positive impact we can have on our community by supporting our local business community, but it’s all couched in optimism and sunny smiles.

Ms Donovan says, “The overarching message is a simple one – Smile, it’s great when you shop in Gisborne. What we hope to communicate is that we all have a choice where we shop or do business, but every time we do it locally we keep our community smiling - smiling because we can employ more local people, support more local organisations and clubs, reinvest more back into our community, and better protect the character of our awesome city”.

When we purchase local products and services and support local businesses we create a vibrant and sustainable environment for business. When businesses thrive they attract more business, creating pockets of complimentary shops. Before you know it we have a bunch of thriving businesses creating choice and diversity”.

We also develop and maintain community character. Think of your favourite store or café… chance are it’s in the city centre. Yet we often forget these local places rely on our patronage to survive. For our business owners Gisborne is home, and they have a personal interest in the long term health of our community. They want to keep it smiling as much as we do”.

Does this mean we expect the community to spend all of their money locally? That’s not what this is about. Sometimes the bargains are just too good to resist out of town, some things aren’t able to be purchased here and sometimes you just seem to have more time when you’re on holiday. However we hope the message will get through that it is always worth making a little extra effort to shop locally. If you can’t find a product locally, just ask, most businesses will happily find it. For them, it’s all about service – with a smile”.

• Smile Flyers
  
• Your Choice Posters
  
• Smile Campaign POS Shelf Wobbler
  
• Smile Campaign Display Adverts