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Board of Trade boosts local business to stay #SurreyStrong

Local gift shop uses the campaign tools to thrive
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#SurreyStrong initiative provides resources that have helped small businesses gain exposure with a wider audience.

Think of your favourite local gift shop, the shoe store down the street or the gardener who makes your yard beautiful… what would your neighbourhood look like without them?

The Surrey Board of Trade wants to keep that question top of mind with #SurreyStrong, a campaign bridging consumer research, a marketing toolkit and video vignettes showcasing businesses throughout Surrey.

The initiative aims to boost local spending to help businesses like Surrey’s Thrive Greenery and Gifts come out of the pandemic stronger than ever.

“We opened in September 2020 during COVID,” says Thrive’s Tammy Gran. “It was an interesting time to start but we were very blessed and the local community has supported us greatly. A good thing that came out of COVID is showing people the importance of supporting small, local businesses.”

Gran says #SurreyStrong campaign is bringing visibility to local business. With Thrive Greenery featured on the platform, “it brought us to an audience that we were not reaching yet.”

#SurreyStrong provides a powerful toolkit for small businesses.
#SurreyStrong provides a powerful toolkit for small businesses.

The #SurreyStrong campaign includes:

  • A Surrey shopper survey to understand local shopping patterns and how local businesses can better serve consumers.
  • Focus groups of local business representatives to better understand the challenges of local retailers.
  • A digital toolkit for businesses to both expand their reach and draw attention to their local business, and align themselves with the #SurreyStrong campaign.
  • A video series of stories featuring local business owners.
  • A media campaign to promote the #SurreyStrong initiative.
  • A giveaway to encourage shoppers to visit local businesses.
  • A wrap-up event in June to celebrate the successes of our local businesses.

The digital toolkits, made to include the whole community, are available in Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as English.

“The Surrey strong social media kit has been a very helpful resource,” Gran says. “The power of social media is amazing. As a small business this is our main marketing tool and it’s been so effective.”

The campaign also gathers data to help local businesses to better understand what customers want, what’s important to them, and how businesses can use that information to enhance their businesses.

“The Surrey Board of Trade is instrumental in uniting Surrey as one business community,” says Anita Huberman, Surrey Board of Trade President and CEO. “We want to promote local businesses so that residents can support their local businesses.”

“Our mission in this is to draw businesses to Surrey. It’s an opportunity city as well as a liveable, sustainable city, and we want businesses to stay here,” Huberman says.

Find more details on how #SurreyStrong is working to create “ONE SURREY” on Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.