Merchant Portal
The holidays are just around the corner! We are partnering with Findlay Market, the OTR Chamber, and Visit Cincy to capture any events and holiday specials you plan to offer this year. Scroll down to learn more about plans and promos and find tools that you can use this holiday season.
Interact with the elements below to learn more about plans and promos and find tools that you can use this holiday season.
If your business is planning holiday sales, promotions or events, please click here to complete a short survey, or send us the details via email (including photos!) so we can include them on our Holidays in the Queen City landing page that will re-launch in November. Please note, you may receive this survey multiple times as we are partnering with other local organizations to gather this information. However, you only need to complete it one time. Any information you submit will be shared between organizations.
If you haven’t started thinking about the holidays, now is a great time to start planning! Some things to consider:
- Make holiday schedules. In order to capitalize on the increase in retail shopping during the holidays, we recommend you expand operating hours during this season.
- Decorate! Add some extra flair to help your business stand out from the crowd during this busy season. We recommend decorating windows and refreshing displays to draw in visitors. For businesses based in OTR, the OTR Chamber is bringing back Holly Jolly Jamboree, Mistletoe Memories, and OTR AGLOW. Stay tuned for details!
- Review your website. Make sure it’s ready for a busy holiday season. This includes updating it with holiday hours and specials.
- Plan a new marketing campaign for the holiday season. Build your holiday marketing around what makes your business stand out from the crowd. In the coming weeks, we will share opportunities to participate in social media giveaways on our channels and will send assets for our Holidays in the Queen City campaign if you plan to participate.
Don’t forget to plan ahead for Small Business Saturday on November 30th!
12 Days of Giveaways: To promote downtown businesses during the holiday season, we’re hosting our popular 12 Days of Giveaways contest again this year! From December 2-17 (weekdays only), we will be giving away various prizes each day on the Downtown Cincinnati Instagram page. Last year's contest reached over 30,000 individuals, with more than 900 engagements on Instagram. We're hoping for a great selection of admission tickets, gift certificates to downtown restaurants and retailers, and other gifts from our downtown merchants, recognizing that some of these items might not be available for use until 2025. Participating businesses will be tagged on social media when we post their item(s) for the giveaway, so please send us links to your Instagram and Facebook accounts so we can include you in our posts.
If you are interested in participating in 12 Days of Giveaways please email Ashley Wilson at awilson@3cdc.org.
Sample Post:
Downtown Cincinnati's Traveling Elf: Returning for a third year is our Traveling Elf, a take on the popular Elf on the Shelf that appears in homes across the country each holiday season. The Elf will appear in photos on social media at various businesses throughout the downtown area. He will be strategically posed for photos in a way that hints at his location. Photos will be paired with a clue posted as the caption for the post. Followers are encouraged to respond with a guess as to which business the Elf is visiting. For each post, a winner will be randomly selected from those who correctly guess the elf’s location.
Businesses that are interested in participating in this fun, holiday game are asked to donate a gift card or other small item(s) from their business to serve as the prize for that day’s post. These posts will provide an opportunity to promote your business to over 16,000 followers, and offer a chance to engage with followers who comment on the post. The campaign is scheduled to start the weekend of Black Friday, continuing through Christmas in tandem with the 12 Day of Giveaways.
If you are interested in participating in 12 Days of Giveaways or the Traveling Elf please email Ashley Wilson at awilson@3cdc.org.
Sample Post:
We're all about spreading holiday cheer and making your season even brighter. As a special treat for our valued merchants, we are excited to offer access to a fantastic array of custom holiday graphics designed exclusively for you. Feel free to share the spirit of the season on your social media platforms and let your followers know that you are apart of the vibrant heart of our downtown community by using the hashtag #HolidaysInTheQueenCity. We encourage you to download and utilize the provided graphics and hashtag as often as possible.
Please check back, we will be adding more graphics in the coming weeks. If there is a graphic that you would like created that does not exist, please let us know. We are here to help!
If you need assistance utilizing the graphic assets or creating social media posts, please email Ashley Wilson at awilson@3cdc.org.
Welcome to the #HolidaysInTheQueenCity social media campaign! We're excited to partner with downtown Cincinnati's incredible retail and service merchants to make this holiday season unforgettable. We have provided a tip sheet that will guide you on how to maximize opportunities on social media, utilize our provided graphic assets, and encourage a sense of partnership to bring people downtown for the holidays.
Click here to access the Social Media Tip Sheet