Merchant Portal

It's November and 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.

Want to know what's happening throughout the urban core this holiday season?

Check out the presentation from our Holiday Retailer Meeting.

Survey

If your business is planning any holiday sales or hosting any special events, please click here to complete our short joint survey, or email us information (and photos!) so we can add them to our Holidays in the Queen City landing page that will re-launch in November. Please note, you may receive this survey more than once since we are partnering with other local organizations. You will only need to complete this survey one time and the answers will be shared between organizations.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Holiday Planning Tips

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 a little extra flair to help 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 OTR AGLOW, keep an eye out for details.
Check your website. Give your business website a once-over to make sure it’s ready for a busy holiday season. This includes updated holiday hours and specials.
Plan a new marketing campaign around the holidays. 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 around some assets for our Holidays in the Queen City campaign if you’d like to participate.

Don’t forget to plan for Small Business Saturday on November 25th!

12 Days of Giveaways

12 Days of Giveaways: To promote downtown businesses throughout the holiday season, we’re planning on running our popular "12 Days of Giveaways" holiday contest again this year. From December 7-22 (weekdays only), we will be giving away various prizes on the Downtown Cincinnati Instagram page each day. Last year's giveaway collectively 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 2024. We will tag each participating business on social media when we post their item(s) for the giveaway, so please send us links to your Instagram and Facebook accounts for us to include in our posts.

If you are interested in participating in "12 Days of Giveaways" please email Ashley Wilson at awilson@3cdc.org

Sample Post:

Traveling Holiday Elf

Downtown’s Traveling Holiday Elf: Returning for a second 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 at various businesses throughout downtown. For those participating, one of our staff members will come to your business to get a picture of the Elf in a spot that gives a hint at the location. That photo will be paired with a clue that we create with you, which will serve as the caption on the post. Downtown Cincinnati social media followers will be invited to respond with their guess at what business the Elf is visiting. For each post, a winner will be randomly selected from those who correctly guess the elf’s stop. We’ll be asking businesses that want to participate to donate a gift card or other small item from their business to serve as the prize for that day’s post. The traveling elf posts will provide an opportunity to highlight your business in a post to the Downtown Cincinnati audience, and offers a chance to engage with potential customers who comment. We plan to start the campaign the weekend of Black Friday and run it through Christmas in tandem with the 12 Day of Giveaways.

If you are interested in participating in "12 Days of Giveaways" or the “Traveling Holiday Elf” please email Ashley Wilson at awilson@3cdc.org.

Sample Post:

Downloadable Graphic Assets

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. If there is a graphic that you would like created that does not exist, please let us know. We are here to help!

Download the Graphics (Updated 11/27)

If you need assistance utilizing the graphic assets or creating social media posts, please email Ashley Wilson at awilson@3cdc.org.

Social Media Tip Sheet

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 your 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