A nationwide “Summer of Love” campaign has been launched across Johnston Press titles in a bid to boost local businesses and encourage them to advertise.
The regional publisher has launched the joint editorial and advertising initiative to urge local businesses to advertise in its titles across the UK and to also encourage readers to support local companies.
The major project which aims to “harness the feel good factor of summer” runs throughout June and titles have been highlighting how backing local businesses, rather than just shopping at major supermarkets, helps boost the local economy.
As part of the campaign, the publisher is using the Twitter hashtag #summeroflove and highlighting their new-look newspapers and websites, which are continuing to be rolled out across the company.
Chief executive Ashley Highfield tweeted at the start of the campaign: “OK everyone at Johnston Press, lets own the #summeroflove hash tag!!! @sheffieldstar and @d_times already off the blocks…”
In a story about the launch, Derbyshire Times editor James Mitchinson wrote: “The idea of Shop Local is to encourage people to shop within their local community and give their local high street a boost by shopping close to home rather than going further afield.
“We are also encouraging businesses to use all aspects of our unrivalled reach – we’re so much more than just a newspaper, and we’re reaching more people than ever before – that can only be good for business.
“Both the newspaper and website have been redesigned, offering a fresh, quality platform for advertisers to promote their businesses and for people willing to spend locally to find what they want.”
Gillian Gray, Lancashire Evening Post editor, wrote: “It makes sense for all of us to support local firms who will put money back into the local economy – so if we all work together we can really make a difference.
“We want readers to spend their money locally, visiting our local tourist attractions and eating out at local pubs and restaurants.
“We want to help businesses on our doorsteps kick-start their summer by helping them to find new customers.”
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Grossly overworked, horrendously underpaid, stress levels at an all-time high, staff morale at a record low, no real sign of things getting better for us. Yes of course it’s the summer of love.
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The hypocrisy of it all!
JP encourages its readers to support the local economy when, over the past few years, it took work away from the local economy by moving printing etc of its papers to places miles away from the local communities. Nothing surprises me about this firm. Time will tell.
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That CND logo will go down a bomb (geddit?) with the many thousands of navy people in JP’s southern Portsmouth heartland. I’m sure all the businesses that rely on the nuclear subs and warships will want to associate themselves with that. Likewise the various Scottish communities that have have military connections and all the UK papers with air bases and military barracks. I’m all for banning the bomb but I’m not sure the CND campaign sits well with JP’s business ambitions. Have they thought this through?
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Not sure what the management are smoking but it’s obviously seriously good s***.
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Very, very tacky campaign to squeeze a few quid out of local advertisers. And given all the articles on here about outsourcing to India, closing town centre offices and central subbing/print, somewhat hypocritical.
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I agree ex-reader. I (and ex-colleagues I know) no longer spend in the local community in an effort to make my meagre JP redundancy last as long as possible. JP says it now offers “a fresh, quality platform for advertisers”, but the designs are created in India, and I don’t see freshness or quality in those. I saw ‘polo’s’ and ‘pull over’s’ in a clothing ad last week, for example. If that standard is as good as it’s going to get when visuals/ads are created for local business, the reps are going to find it difficult to hit their targets, and even more difficult to get the advertiser to waste their budget again. (Though they’ll probably be pleased with their Free For Error). Admit it JP, local designers should be producing creative local advertising. I’m sure the salespeople would have more confidence in going out to sell it.
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JP Cost Cut Victim……couldn’t agree more!!!
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Nice cut and paste job for the ‘logo’! http://www.kitsilano.ca/2008/07/31/west-4ths-summer-of-love/
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@JP Cost Cut Victim, regarding that “fresh, quality platform for advertisers”, on my patch there was a shocking example recently of JP’s desire to “help businesses on our doorsteps”.
Pictures for an advertorial intended to celebrate businesses in a quiet village were taken at 7am – not the busiest time of day. And the copy, a brief history of the village, was cut and pasted from Wikipedia – a lift spotted by the customer’s teenage daughter. He was not impressed.
If that’s the way JP intends to support local businesses I guess this will prove to be less its summer of love, and more like the company’s Altamont.
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What summer?
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Pitiful.
Seriously is this the best JP can do?? It is so crass and tacky and pointless.
I am so glad I am out of that place.
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Wow, You Rs, great spot on the logo. That’s quite remarkable.
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yep – loads of logos to choose from – I preferred this one…
http://www.summeroflove.org/main.html
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Wow indeed You Rs – well spotted. At least that logo, even if originally taken from a stock site, is appropriate for all things 60s. How does it relate to local businesses? A decent designer would have come up with something relevant at least.
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The point being, for a ‘national’ campaign driving readers and advertisers to ‘new-look newspapers and websites’, you would have thought JP could have designed an original logo…
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