Join Us in Celebrating Buy Local Week

Are you a locally owned business looking to tell your story through an innovative advertising initiative that speaks to just the kind of customers and collaborators you are seeking?

Are you a customer of local businesses that you love and want to tell everyone about?

Then read on and learn how The Tyee is partnering with LOCO BC and Vancity to strengthen the ties that bind our local economy.

Imagine: if we shifted just 10 per cent of our household spending to local businesses, we could create $6 billion in local economic activity in B.C. That's not chump change. Or look at it another way: buying local can keep up to four times the money in the economy compared to shopping at chains.

Now -- right in time for the Province of B.C.'s and City of Vancouver's joint proclamations of Buy Local Week -- we take our long-held belief in the importance of local into an innovative advertising partnership with LOCO BC and Vancity.

What is the Live Local, Buy Local advertising program?

It's a year-long commitment to profiling independently-owned Lower Mainland businesses through special ads and regular contests for local goodies.

And it's part of a larger effort by both LOCO BC and Vancity to tell the stories of local businesses and their community impacts, and to connect like-minded businesses in ways that help strengthen the whole sector.

We're excited about it.

So is LOCO BC founder Amy Robinson: "This partnership will help to grow a diverse network of independent businesses, and we look forward to bringing them together to collaborate, learn from each other, save money, and increase revenues. And helping advertise their stories to The Tyee's engaged readership is part of strengthening consumer support for the buy local movement."

We're proud to have Vancity as a partner in this effort as well. It's weird to say you love your bank, but heck, we do!

Says Andy Broderick, Vancity's VP Community Investment: "We're delighted to continue our partnership with LOCO, and start one with The Tyee, beginning with the Live Local, Buy Local campaign this December and continuing into 2013. At Vancity we look for ways to use all our resources, people and capital to strengthen member wealth and well-being. By supporting the Buy Local campaign we're asking people to invest in local businesses. That's good for our local economy and good for our local community. It helps our members and communities thrive and prosper."

How does the Live Local, Buy Local ad program work?

First, sign up by clicking here to become a LOCO BC member (we did it ourselves last year).

Once you're a member, you're eligible to have your business (or social enterprise) featured in one of their monthly ads on The Tyee. And you'll be considered for inclusion in one of their quarterly interactive video ads.

LOCO BC will also be working with their members on regular giveaway contests. So Tyee readers, keep an eye on our Facebook page and Twitter posts to hear about those.

And as a final bonus, your LOCO BC membership gets you a 25 per cent discount on Tyee ad rates when you book your own stand-alone campaigns.

Interested already? Give me a shout and we'll get the ball rolling (604-689-7489 or email.)

Favourite local business? We want to hear from you

Here's another way we are marking Buy Local Week. Tell us about the Vancouver-area independent business that you love and want everyone else to know about so that it thrives. The one that makes you feel great every time you step in. The one that gives your dog water, remembers your kids' names, and provides you with unique goods and services you just aren't going to find anywhere else.

Have at 'er on our Facebook page or via Twitter using the hashtag #buyLOCO. Tens of thousands of people who follow Tyee's Twitter feed or check our Facebook page will be in the know. In the days ahead we'll compile some of your love notes into a piece for all to read. And we'll pick a winner or two for some mystery prizes from local businesses… stay tuned.

Oh, and by the way, as a locally-owned independent business itself The Tyee has long championed the virtues of local, from our 2005 launch of the 100-Mile Diet series, to our 2011 national award-winning series Growing the Local Bounty. Find all of that and more great journalism about what's happening in B.C.'s local economies by clicking on The Tyee's new Local Economy topic. You just might want to bookmark it!