Businesses and organizations across the Battlefords can use the site thingsthatareopen.com to advertise to the public they're still open. (submitted photo)

By Josh Ryan

Here's who's open

Online campaign launched to support local businesses

Apr 8, 2020 | 3:07 PM

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local businesses that are still open can share the news on a new website.

The Battlefords region joins 19 other communities across Western Canada using a new website called ‘thingsthatareopen.com‘. Launched by Edmonton-based digital agency Lift Interactive and the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group (JPBG), the online platform is designed to promote businesses and organizations who’ve adjusted operations to stay open during this period of social isolation.

“Anything that’s going to get information out there for people to look at is a good thing for sure,” Blend Restaurant and Bar Owner Robin Petersen said.

“I definitely think it’s a good idea and I think it’s something that we will get to for sure,” echoed Discovery Co-op General Manager Mike Nord. “Especially for those businesses that don’t have a website or those kinds of things that people are not normally going to.”

Businesses can register for free on the site’s directory, where names, categories, locations and hours of operations (if applicable) are among the potential listed items. Groups can also specify creative ways they’re serving their communities amidst government mandates regarding coronavirus.

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“As a digital agency, we know that businesses – large and small – are struggling to communicate their changing responses to this crisis,” Micah Slavens, principal of Lift Interactive Inc said. “Marketing budgets are tighter than ever. Our idea was to create a strong, unified message and a central source of information that would benefit the whole community and highlight the ways our clients and other businesses are pushing through this adversity.”

Lift is responsible for driving traffic to the site, while JPBG will provide media support and echo the campaign. Ongoing promotion and management of the campaign will have various levels of sponsored funding for the duration of closures and restrictions.

“This is a tough time for businesses, but we’re also finding that as a community, we’re coming together to show that we are adaptive and resilient,” JPBG president Rod Schween said.

Nord said this could impact how quickly small businesses recover.

“Our community needs to pull together and help those businesses, so they’re still around when this is done,” he said.

And with dozens of businesses in other regions already online, Petersen expects a rush to join in the Battlefords.

“If it’s getting our information out there, it would be silly not to,” Petersen said.

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports