For Wake County Businesses: A Chance to Honor Local First Responders

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on August 16, 2011

Thank you to Tina for sending this information to my attention!

Greater Raleigh Chamber Announces Friends of First Responders Program

Local Businesses Asked to Participate on Sept. 16

RALEIGH—On Sept. 16, the Greater Raleigh Chamber will honor first responders throughout Wake County by hosting the fourth annual First Responders Appreciation Breakfast.

With more than 2,000 first responders serving our community, it is impossible to recognize them all, so the Chamber is reaching out to you. We are asking local businesses to join us in thanking these men and women for the dedication, bravery, and commitment to our community that they show every day by participating as one of our “Friends of First Responders.”

Participation is easy—simply offer a discount or free item to any first responder in uniform or with identification on Sept. 16. For example: $1 off a meal, free sandwich, free soda, etc.—the discount is completely up to you. In return, we’ll recognize your business on the Chamber website—www.raleighchamber.org/firstresponders—and in radio and TV ads (pending).

Please join us in recognizing Wake County Emergency Medical Services, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, the Raleigh-Wake County Emergency Communications Center, the City of Raleigh Fire Department, the City of Raleigh Police Department, the North Carolina Highway Patrol – Troop C, District III, and all first responders on Sept. 16. To sign up or find out more, call 919.664.7090 or email mkernan@raleighchamber.org.

About the Greater Raleigh Chamber
The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce is the Triangle’s largest nonprofit business membership organization made up of more than 2,400 member firms representing two-thirds of the private sector employment in Wake County. The Chamber has represented the interests of the local business community since 1888.

For more information about this special event, contact Mary Kernan at the Raleigh Chamber (phone: 919.664.7090, email: mkernan@raleighchamber.org).

I’ve had the pleasure of working with many businesses who regularly provide discounts to identified or in-uniform service members and first responders. My advice to them when I received this information was to contact Mary and make sure that they provide her with the details of those existing offers so that they can be included in the information that the Chamber is going to publish online.

Cheers!
-Lisa

Come Join Us Today at a Few Shop Local Raleigh Events!

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on April 28, 2011


This month marks the two year anniversary of the launch of Shop Local Raleigh by the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association – happy birthday, SLR! Join us in celebrating today with two great local events:

Networking Event at Joint Venture Jewelry in Cary
From 4:00pm until 6:00pm, come and enjoy networking, great discussion, and a beverage with other SLR members, volunteers, and local business owners. (Don’t forget those business cards!)

Anniversary Party at Natty Greene’s in Raleigh
Shop Local Raleigh turned “2” on April 15th and to celebrate, we have partnered with NCSU marketing students to plan an Anniversary Party at Natty Greene’s Brewing Co. On April 28th, starting at 7 pm, there will be giveaways, $3 pints of local beer and fun guaranteed for all.

To add to the festivities, we have shared some fun statistics regarding small businesses, public relations, and the return on investment of email marketing, for SLR to use at these events. Along with those “trivia facts”, we’ve also included a special offer for event attendees – so be sure to check out what’s “in store” and “on tap” at these great events tonight. We’ll be back with those special offers here later on the blog, but we didn’t want to spoil the fun by giving them away in advance!

Cheers!

Fairway Adds First Digital Billboard Just North of Raleigh

Lisa Jeffries Nobling on December 27, 2010

I just finished reading an interesting press release on dBusinessNews (Triangle) – The Triangle Region Receives its First Digital Billboard. This is something that I might need to make a drive out to Wake Forest to see!

The most compelling sales features of a digital billboard like this is that advertisers can change up their promotional offerings in a digital format, instead of waiting weeks or even months to change the billboard display. Restaurants can now target breakfast consumers in the early morning hours and run lunch-time, dinner, or late-night advertisements at relevant times of day, too.

Non-Profits Take Note!
“As a good corporate citizen, Fairway is utilizing its digital capabilities to help promote local non-profits by providing no cost advertising on the new digital display. Some of the public service announcements will benefit the following non-profits: The Salvation Army, N.C. GreenPower, Franklin County Humane Society and Meals on Wheels of Wake County.”

I checked out Fairway’s website and didn’t immediately notice any calls to join its non-profit program or to submit your organization for consideration, but it would only take a few minutes to email the organization or give them a call to inquire.

I’m sure the display won’t show video or other types of truly attention-commanding media, as driver safety is likely a major consideration when getting local approval for a billboard display of this nature, but simply having a different advertisement displayed each time a driver passes (or showing 3 or 4 while the driver is stopped at a red light), means lots of promotional opportunity within one finite amount of space.

I do have to wonder why Fairway chose to place their first billboard of this kind outside of Raleigh in a more suburban/rural location, but my first suspicion is that it may have to do with local zoning.

Have you seen the new billboard yet? Tell me about it in the comments!

PS – Merry belated Christmas! I hope the holiday weekend was good to you all! Tank and Delta are sitting home now in front of the window watching the snow from this past weekend’s North Carolina blizzard fall from the trees.

Cheers,
Lisa