Preston BID’s Jubilee Spending Spree will run over the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, with £28,000 of Preston Gift Cards distributed between Thursday 2nd June and Sunday 5th June. Special agents will be out across the city paying for customers’ shopping, food, drinks, beauty services and more, up to the value of £70.
Mark Whittle, Director of Membership and BID Manager said:
“2022 marks two decades since Preston was granted city status by Her Majesty The Queen and with the Jubilee in the calendar, our aim was to create a campaign to mark both occasions that would drive trade and footfall into the city centre. For an event like the Jubilee, we would ordinarily have held a large scale public event, with both a daytime event for families and a night time event to boost the night time economy, but for 2022 we wanted to do something inside of our businesses.
“We discussed lots of ideas like having musicians in our venues. The one idea that resonated with everyone though was a thank you campaign where the money that would usually have been invested into a city event was used to benefit businesses and customers, putting money into tills and giving back to customers that have supported Preston.
“Initially, we came up with the idea of using the Preston Gift Card in a treasure hunt, where people could find the gift card and use them with registered businesses. However, we realised that this could mean that some businesses might miss out on having cards redeemed with them. To make sure that every single business that participates in the Preston Gift Card saw the benefit of the campaign, we decided that we would manage that process and spread the benefit out across the city, and across sectors, in a Jubilee Spending Spree.
“It’s a simple concept. Following the lighting of the beacon at The Harris, our team of special agents will be out in the city at registered Preston Gift Card businesses, paying customers’ bills up to the value of £70. We have allocated 200 gift cards to the night time economy and 200 to the daytime economy, and the budget will be spread out across the Jubilee weekend. And as we’ve picked up their bill, the customer might buy something else from that business, or spend that extra £70 they now have in their pocket elsewhere in the city.
“The Jubilee Spending Spree is a feel-good campaign that celebrates the fact that we’re all together again. It thanks customers for supporting businesses through the pandemic, and shopping local. We launched the Preston Gift Card during the lockdown, and the campaign is a good way for us to remind people that the Preston Gift Card is a local currency that locks in trade to the city.
“The team will be out at different times of day and evening, with a schedule to ensure that all businesses benefit. We can drive footfall to night time economy businesses when they need it, by visiting them earlier in the evening. For businesses where a bill might not reach £70, say a coffee shop, that £70 might be spread across a number of transactions.
“Another benefit of the campaign is that it also gave us a reason to go back out to businesses and tell them that there would be £28,000 circulating in the local economy, and they could take their share of that by registering to accept the gift card. By building the number of businesses who accept the Preston Gift Card, we can create a more appealing gift card for customers. We’ve also been making sure that all businesses have window stickers to say they accept the gift card.
“It’s vital that we make the campaign, and the gift card itself, as easy as possible for businesses and customers. Everyone is busy and if we can make it really clear what the gift card is, and how easy it is to accept and spend it, the greater the adoption will be. One of the ways we’ll do this is by profiling businesses in the lead up to the campaign, showing customers where the Preston Gift Card can be spent. To be in with a chance of having their bill paid for, they just have to be in a registered gift card business during the Jubilee weekend.
“The marketing budget for the campaign is minimal. We’ve invested in a videographer to go out and about during the campaign, photography for the Jubilee weekend, social media including Facebook and Instagram marketing and two paid sponsorships with local media. We also have some ‘I got my stuff paid for’ cards to drive social media engagement. There has been widespread coverage of the campaign locally too.
“The three overall aims of the campaign are to give back to businesses, to benefit customers and to raise awareness of the Preston Gift Card overall, and we’re sure it’s going to achieve all three.”