Lymm Life has come up with a bargain package to compliment our campaign to re-ignite Lymm village trade. Gary’s proposal is outlined below.
A brief synopsis,
Lymm Life would produce a four page centre supplement, part funded by existing advertising and part funded by the Traders group to put out the message regarding the new car parking situation.
Page one would be based on the shopping made easier poster - but enhanced with full colour and additional design work.
Centre spread would be like May Queen centre spread but with a feature on the new car parking surrounded by individual traders adverts who have decided to support the feature.
Page four would be based on news/offers write ups e.t.c from those businesses who have contributed to the fighting fund. 100-150 word count and image if available.
These would have to be with us by the weekend to make our August edition. Lymm Life would print an additional 1,000 copies making a total print run of 6,000. 4,000 would be hand delivered to homes in the outlying areas of the village and all the "new builds" of recent years with 2,000 being distributed from our usual outlets, providing saturation coverage.
This could be done for just £500 plus VAT from the fighting fund. It may make sense to bill a VAT reg business so that element can be claimed back with the said business taking the £500 value from the fighting fund.
We could then consider replicating the feature in our Stockton Heath, Warrington, Culcheth editions over the coming months to provide wider coverage.
I would seek additional funding from our existing advertisers to help cover the additional expense and I would also make an approach to the Parish/borough councils to see if they could make a financial contribution to back the village.
The aim would be to keep the cost to the fighting fund down to £500 per magazine - providing excellent value - as a four page supplement would normally cost at least £1,000 in our village editions and £1,500 in the Warrington edition which has a much bigger print run.
I have agreed to go ahead with the above as it is a superb offer, the majority of the initial £500 would be for the door to door distribution alone. We would then continue the campaign over the following three month period appearing in the Stockton Heath, Warrington and Culcheth issues, obviously these would not be distributed door to door, but would target a much wider demographic.
This campaign would last until November issue giving an excellent opportunity to raise customer awareness before the crucial Christmas trading period. Now the painful bit, money! Because of the superb offer Lymm Life have come up with we initially will be looking for a contribution of £30 from each business to go into the 'pot', and then £30 for each of the following 2 months. For the last month we will see what is left in the fighting fund and then collect the balance required to cover the final issue.
The more businesses that contribute the less it will cost us all. We are only looking at £7.50 per week per business for 4 months. It is then up to each individual business to decide whether to run an additional advert to promote their specific outlet.
I am really pleased the initial impact the Shoppers Car Park has had, but with this campaign we should see an increase in footfall resulting in an increase in traffic using the parking facility. If we could monitor Pepper Street, occasionally have a walk round and let me know if it reaches saturation point, I will be doing the same, then we can keep the Parish council informed. Hopefully the short stay will prevent the facility from becoming 'car bound'.
Finally could you let Gary at Lymm Life have any interesting facts or unique selling points about your business that may be included within his editorial (not guaranteed as space will be at a premium) email him at garys@warrington-worldwide.co.uk before Sunday.
We will be calling round next week to collect the fighting fund. This has all been possible because Lymm Traders are working together.
Regards
Philip