Launched in the US in 2010, Small Business Saturday has been endorsed by Obama and public officials in all 50 states. The Senate passed a resolution to make it an “official day” in 2010. 75 corporations support the initiative including Facebook, Google and FedEx. Over 2.7 million people “like” Small Business Saturday on Facebook. An estimated 103 million Americans shopped small in 2011. Small Business Saturday is more than a day; it’s a movement. A local movement. A local movement created by American Express.
Small Business Saturday was launched by OPEN Forum, an award-winning online community created by American Express in 2007. OPEN Forum is designed to help small business owners grow their businesses by providing useful information and resources online. Three years after launching OPEN Forum, the OPEN team campaigned to create a specific day for the celebration and participation of small businesses across North America.
There needed to be fertile soil for this to happen. We took our learnings from the OPEN Forum to determine what’s on a small business owner’s mind and went from there.
This is advertising influencing culture. It’s also a case of marketers continually asking themselves how they can be more useful to their members and their members’ communities.
By the way, we run Really Useful Marketing Plan workshops for small businesses. More about our RUMPs.
