The Goal

Promote Granville Island not only as a market, but a one-stop shop for holiday shopping.

The Challenge

We had to shift public perception from the Island simply being seen as a mecca of great food, original artwork, and a tourist destination to a the place for holiday shoppers to find truly unique and fashionable handmade gifts.

The Solution

In addition to the traditional methods of direct mail, newspaper, and online advertising, we turned to Twitter and launched the “Personal Shopping Tweet Team” using social media to create a two-way brand experience.

A small team of personal shoppers scoured the Island during the holiday season snapping photos of great gift ideas while capturing the holiday spirit of Granville Island. People flooded the team with tweets asking for gift ideas for family members, co-workers, and friends.

With a timely soft launch just before the American “Black Friday” the media coverage for the campaign blew up before our official start date. We worked with Immedia PR to distribute press releases to all major news outlets, primarily in BC but also across Canada. The results were immediate, stories about the “Personal Shopping Tweet Team” were covered everywhere, from being broadcast provincially on CBC news to endorsements from local lifestyle blogs.