The Greater Vancouver Chamber changed the name of its gift-certificate program from Grow the (360) to SPEND IT LOCAL to be inclusive of businesses with different telephone area codes.
Janet Kenefsky, vice president of membership and operations at the chamber, said the rebrand puts more focus on shopping and merchants than the 360 area code the program serves.
“It doesn’t resonate with everybody,” Kenefsky said.
The region is growing, she said, drawing in more professionals who are new to Vancouver.
“They’re coming over with their own cellphone numbers. They’re coming with their own area code,” Kenefsky said.
Plus, when Washington changed from seven-digit to 10-digit dialing in 2017, Southwest Washington added telephone numbers with the 564 prefix.
The Chamber’s gift-certificate program has grown rapidly since it began in 2019, Kenefsky said.
People can buy gift certificates that can be redeemed at more than 70 Vancouver businesses, including restaurants, jewelers and even car repair shops.
“We’ve been seeing both municipalities and local corporations switching to SPEND IT LOCAL for all of their purchasing and gifting and incentive rewards, which has been incredibly powerful for putting money and driving money into the local economy,” Kenefsky said.
The idea is to support local businesses, many of which pepper downtown, especially through big changes such as the renovation of downtown Vancouver’s Main Street.
In the past month, the Greater Vancouver Chamber created an opportunity for corporations to have their own accounts on SPEND IT LOCAL, so they can supply gift certificates with their own logos and messages.
“That’s been really powerful for Realtors, for example, who are purchasing the standard local certificates and gifting it to their clients who are moving into new homes and encouraging them to explore their local neighborhoods,” Kenefsky said.
The program has been especially popular for gift-giving during the holidays.
“A lot of mindsets are changing with gifting locally — that we could still love our national retailers and the support they give to our community and who they employ, but that we need to make sure that our first stop is our local businesses,” Kenefsky said.
She said the tagline of the program is “Good for you. Great for business.” She said she hopes the rebrand will help tie together the community and local businesses in people’s minds.
“We’ve had corporations coming out of the woodwork looking to purchase the SPEND IT LOCAL certificate, so it resonated,” she said. “I think that tells us we did the right thing.”
