Category Archives: video

Online videos help to promote Nelson businesses

Fifteen local businesses are now promoting themselves through short high-definition videos on a dedicated “Nelson Shops & Events” YouTube channel, with more being added all the time.

The featured businesses range from florists to cycle shops, hardware stores to hairdressers, butchers to bookshops and counselling services to cake bakers. The two things they have in common are their presence in Nelson’s thriving business community and their enthusiasm for embracing social media to showcase what they do.

The Nelson Shops & Events channel has been set up as part of a four-month campaign to promote Nelson town centre and its array of independent shops and businesses. It is spearheaded by Nelson Town Team, which appointed Burnley-based Scott Dawson Advertising to manage the campaign.

Other elements include a co-ordinated social media campaign, promoting Nelson through popular social networking sites Facebook (www.facebook.com/nelsonshops) and Twitter (twitter.com/nelson_portas).

Lara Oddie is vice-chair of Nelson Town Team and owner of one of the local businesses featured on the YouTube channel, Oddie’s family bakers and cake makers.

“Having the video on YouTube is a new way for us to let people know what we do and about the range of goods and services we offer,” said Lara.

“It was very straightforward to make the video, working with Scott Dawson, and good fun too. I’m very pleased with the results.”

The four-month campaign will culminate in a special event, the Nelson Food and Drink Festival, on Saturday September 19th. Featuring a host of local producers and food businesses, alongside a Continental Market and live cookery demonstrations by celebrity chef Richard Fox, the festival also has its own evolving website at www.nelsonfoodfestival.co.uk

Banners promoting the festival will go up in the town centre for the weeks running up to it and a festival brochure highlighting all the attractions will be distributed to 25,000 local homes.

To view the promotional videos simply search under “Nelson Shops & Events” on YouTube. Other local shops and businesses wanting to get involved in the promotional campaign or the Food Festival can contact Sue Lawson at Scott Dawson on 01282 423846 (email: sue@scottdawson.co.uk) to discuss the various options.

How to market your local market…

Lancashire town pioneers a 21st century approach to promoting the much-loved traditional market

A traditional and award-winning market at the heart of a Lancashire town is embracing new ways to promote itself, while preserving that all-important personal touch.

Accrington Market Kirsty Lauder personal shopperOpened in 1869, Accrington’s Victoria Market Hall is one of the finest buildings in the town centre, home to more than 60 kiosks under its dramatically high ceiling, and with more in outdoor pavilions alongside the Market Hall.

A £2m. revamp of the historic Grade II-listed building was completed in 2010, quickly followed by it winning the coveted Britain’s Best Indoor Market Award in early 2011.

But it is people who make a market – the friendly traders, their stalls stacked high with quality fresh local produce at value-for-money prices, and their loyal customers, shunning the supermarket shelves in favour of a familiar face and caring personal service.

Accrington could boast plenty of both, and yet the younger generation were not prevalent among the bustling market’s regulars. Whether it was down to their busy working lives, the culture of out-of-town superstore shopping, or just not knowing all the market had to offer, there was, literally, a gap in the market.

What it came down to was “marketing the market” to a wider and largely untapped audience, and making its services more accessible to those with 21st century pressures on their time. Enter locally-based marketing specialists Scott Dawson Advertising, bringing a fresh and up-to-the-minute approach to promoting one of Accrington’s oldest attractions.Accrington Market online launch

It joined forces with Hyndburn Borough Council in a bold and innovative bid to combine the traditional market experience with the latest promotional tools. The result has been a pioneering pilot project – and a template that could be rolled out to other markets across the UK.

Now Accrington Market has its own website (www.accringtonmarketonline.co.uk); its own dedicated YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/accringtonmarket); its own Facebook page (www.facebook.com/accringtonshops); even its own Twitter feed (twitter.com/AccringtonShops).

As well as promoting the market and its various traders, the website allows customers to shop online, choosing a range of products available from its stalls, and even to benefit from a personal shopper, Kirsty Lauder. Options include a “click and collect” service, with Kirsty compiling customers’ orders ready  for pre-arranged pickup, or even free delivery within a three-mile radius in a liveried Accrington Markets refrigerated van

Kirsty (23), who works from the Market Hall, is often seen buzzing around the stalls filling customers’ orders taken online, by email or phone.

“It’s my job to oversee customers’ orders from start to finish, from the moment they come in until they end up in the customer’s hands,” said Kirsty.

“Whether customers call in to quickly collect their order at a time convenient to them, or arrange to have one of our drivers drop it off at their home or business, I can look after that. And if there’s something special that customers can’t see on the website, chances are I can hunt it out from one of the stalls if they contact me.”

There are even special online discounts for customers using the website, with a range of money-saving eCoupons which can be cashed in at the PayPal checkout.

It’s all a long way from the days when the only marketing a stallholder could rely on was his own voice bellowing “Get yer strawberries… a pound a punnet!”

Accrington Market Kirsty and vanNine months on from its official launch by Jesse McClure, star of the hit Dave TV show Storage Hunters, the online market is growing steadily, with neighbouring local authorities showing a keen interest.

Murray Dawson, MD of Scott Dawson Advertising, has kept a close eye on the pilot project, his team continually refining, improving and refreshing the model. Murray said:  “Hyndburn Council were very bold and forward thinking in adopting this approach and together we got to work developing a digital and practical solution that builds on all of the fantastic traits of our much-loved market, as well as making them available for the first time to an online audience.”

Cllr Clare Cleary, Hyndburn Council’s Cabinet Member for Markets, added: “We have a fabulous market housed in a refurbished market hall offering great local produce and goods from friendly stallholders.

“We knew that shopping habits are changing rapidly with more use of online facilities and were keen to capture this to allow more people to experience the fantastic good and services Accrington Market has to offer. We are glad we’ve taken this new approach and proud that we’ve moved with the times to make the market more accessible using the latest technology, whilst still offering the same friendly service and warm Lancashire welcome for market customers.”

 

 

SDA shoots Jack Straw MP’s visit to Intack Primary School

Jack Straw MP recently visited Intack Primary School in Blackburn – East Lancashire to officially open their new extended provision of classrooms and community areas and SDA was on hand to video the day:

Call Andy Tyrer on 01282 426846 or email andy@scottdawson.co.uk to set up a meeting or get a quick video quote.