#whereyoushopmatters 1

Agency: The Guardian Labs and Starcom

"Christmas is a time for giving, but nowadays it’s about more than rampant consumerism. Visa know #whereyoushopmatters - last Christmas they gave a platform to 100+ merchants nationwide, turning local business owners into stars. In 2019 they wanted to make an even bigger difference.

You can create significant change by inspiring millions of people to take one small action.

4m Guardian readers believe that shopping locally is important. They follow the struggles of the high street closely - our “retail industry” keyword gets 5m views a week. But it’s easy to read about shuttered shops and empty premises and feel bad about it. The problem we had to solve was to turn that sentiment into action and get them to support their local retailer.

On Thursday 21 November, we turned the Guardian into a local media platform - showing our readers where and how to act to support their local shops. Visa bought every single ad slot on the website, the app, the newspaper, our videos and our podcasts and handed them over to a local business. The Guardian made their ads and showed them to millions of our readers - a seasonal boost they could only have dreamt of."