SmartBusiness is an award-winning business retention and expansion program that was developed to assist small, medium and large businesses from all over Greater Halifax the tools they need to ensure they succeed and prosper. SmartBusiness is part of the business retention unit at Greater Halifax Partnership (GHP).

In 2010, MT&L (now part of National) created a brilliant campaign called SmartCity Supplements. The campaign scope was careful not be feature vitamins (indicating a deficiency) but rather supplements (boosters). So we got to work ordering bottles (stuffed with candies) that were distributed to business-owners.

At GHP, my part my role as Internet Marketing Specialist was to manage the in-kind media budget and distribution of online and print advertising.  I was responsible for creating an ad schedule, working with graphic designers and meeting deadlines.

The SmartBusiness six-week campaign involved the following:

• Out of home (billboards, bus boards, transit shelters)
• Print (The Chronicle Herald, various business magazines)
• Radio (NewCap and Bell Media)
• Google Ads (sponsored ads, searches, A/B testing)
• Facebook (A/B testing)
• Dedicated webpage (tagged URL’s)
• Search Engine Optimization (keywords)
• SmartCityBlog (business-retention related posts)
• LinkedIn ads
• All NovaScotia.com (Big Box and Leaderboard)

 Effectiveness / Meeting Objectives:

• The intent of this advertisement campaign was to separate the messages and value proposition of the Partnership from that of other economic organizations in town, and give businesses a ‘real’ reason to engage with the SmartBusiness team.
• Our single minded proposition was: “The Greater Halifax Partnership works with me to make my business successful.”
• 24 million media impressions
• 15 businesses called seeking SmartBusiness assistance, which we considered
• successful
• 66% increase in website visits