Stronger Together campaign launched to back local businesses
People are being encouraged to support local businesses during the coronavirus outbreak.
A new campaign – Stronger Together – has been launched encouraging people, including businesses to buy local and support local businesses. To get the campaign running, people are being encouraged to create and share a short ten-second video clip about a local business they love.
Exeter City Council is backing the campaign and has linked up with a number of organisations and businesses to form the Stronger Exeter taskforce. The campaign comes as the government announced that shops and stores could open up again from 15 June.
Stronger Together includes representatives from Exeter Chamber of Commerce, InExeter, Tech South West, the FSB, the Heart of the South West Skills Partnership, Exeter City Council and local independent media organisations Radio Exe and Grow.
It will focus on supporting businesses in the Greater Exeter area including East Devon and Teignbridge.
While the UK is still in ‘lockdown’, the taskforce will be driving support for local businesses, focusing on how people can support them remotely.
Clodagh Murphy, board director of Exeter Chamber, said: “The crisis has left no city unaffected and it’s only by coming together that we are going to move forward from this. Exeter and its surrounding area is strong and we will bounce back but we need to work as a team to make this happen.”
Cllr David Harvey, Lead Councillor for Environment and City Management, said: “These are difficult times for everyone and every business in the Greater Exeter area will have been affected by this crisis.
“This campaign is about getting everyone to pull together and support local businesses and buy local wherever possible.”
People are being encouraged to share the campaign videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ye0H_AoSvc&t=4s
using the hashtags #WeAreStronger #Supportlocal and #buylocal and then record their own ten-second clip.
People – individuals and local businesses - are being asked to talk in the video clip about a local business they like and support in their area and then spread the word on social media.
The video needs to be filmed responsibly, preferably at home, in the garden or during your daily exercise, respecting social distancing guidelines.
Clips need to be filmed in landscape (phone held horizontally) and with limited background noise.
An example of the script might be: “My name is Simon Smith and I buy my groceries from our local corner shop in Stoke Canon. We are Stronger Together!”
