East Suffolk Council was awarded funding through the Welcome Back Fund to support the safe return to high streets from the pandemic. The council sought an agency to create a social media campaign to encourage those that live, work and visit East Suffolk to shop, dine and enjoy town centres during the build-up to Christmas.
Satsuma was awarded the work with the following key deliverables:
We started with the creation of overarching campaign focused on 12 key locations.
Think Local was given the hashtag #ThinkLocalEastSuffolk to be used on every post to help us monitor engagement and our team visited all 12 towns and villages collating a database of 500 pictures with corresponding case studies.
We sourced stories and met local shopkeepers that had survived and thrived despite the pandemic.
The most innovative element of the project was the targeted Christmas shopping campaign which was positioned around a rewrite of the Christmas classic The 12 days of Christmas and highlighted each of the 12 towns and villages.
From Five Felixstowe Sprouts to Seven Sax Sausages and Six Beers from Southwold to Ten Framlingham Flowers we covered every area as creatively as possible.
A Shopping Trip to Bungay replaced the Partridge in a Pear Tree and we made sure the lyrics championed different independent shops across the region.
Think Local posts went out daily on social media Press releases on the launch of Think Local and on the Christmas song “A Christmas Carol with a Twist” were both picked up by the East Anglian Daily Times, Suffolk News, Suffolk Live, Vision magazine, the Felixstowe Flyer, Vanilla magazine, Ipswich Star, Lowestoft Journal securing 16 press clippings. We also secured an interview on BBC Radio Suffolk with singer Millie Wood.
“Satsuma provided excellent project management, creative brand development, stunning photography and high-quality product and asset development. We couldn’t be happier with their work. They have been truly creative and thought ‘outside of box’ at all times.”
Kay Bonning-Schmitt
Economic Development – Project Officer, East Suffolk Council
