LYLM Blog
Love Your Local Market is a year round celebration of Markets with a special emphasis over a fortnight in May.
To date the campaign has involved over 1000 markets, who have put on over 10,000 events in sixteen countries, creating jobs and opportunities for thousands of people.
In 2014 market operators participating in the campaign successfully launched over 100 youth markets in the UK and in May 2016 we shall be celebrating the backbone of British markets - the traders who operate, innovate, cook, prepare and create on them.
www.loveyourlocalmarket.org.uk
There are an army of you talented folks out there on the markets and we thought in the run-up to Love Your Local Market 2014 - which is this year between 14th – 28th May just in case you haven’t put it in your diaries yet – we would love to showcase the success stories that come from the UK Markets industry.
So please send us your stories…..why did you want to start your career in a market? What market or markets did you choose and why? What was your progression? Did you start of working for someone else, then start-up your own business? Do you sell online alongside your market business? We would like you to think about all these questions and more within four simple areas, and you don’t have to be a market trader anymore to tell us all about your business.
So in no more than 200 words per section can you tell us:
Who you are?
What your business is?
Where you trade ..…physically and virtually?
Why you have a passion for your business and where has that passion taken you to today?
We’re really looking forward to hearing all about your businesses and have dedicated a section of the new website to featuring them ….. and may even select some to feature in national press releases, with your permission.
Please send your answers to Love Your Local Market Manager Ellie Gill: ellie@loveyourlocalmarket.org.uk
Please complete Application Forms for the MOYAS by telling us all about which market you are nominating and why. Closing date for entries is the 31st December 2013.
It’s award season… so sit back, relax, have a mince pie & think back on all the great stuff that has been achieved on your market this year.
The Nabma Market of the Year Awards, or MOYAS as we like to call them here at Love Your Local Market HQ, have 10 categories including that of Best LYLM Event, Best Social Enterprise Market and Best Speciality Market which are new categories for this year.
You don’t have to be a Nabma member to join in, so make sure you fill out one of their Application Forms before the closing date at on 31st December to take part in the industry’s recognised top awards ceremony.
Winner of the MOYAS will be announced at the Nabma One Day Conference: Better Markets Revitalised High Streets being run in partnership with the Association of Town and City Management on January 30th at The Council House in Birmingham:
Early Bird Tickets Booking Form
Once you have the MOYAS application in the bag it will be time to turn your attention to the BBC Food and Farming Awards that includes amongst the 10 Categories; Best Food Market, Street Food, Food Producer, Drink Producer and Best Initiative in British Food.
Is your market leading the charge in the food industry, do you have an outstanding producer….or producers? Awards are a great way for raising the profile of a market and everyone wants to hear about markets and food these days, so get your thinking caps on and lets hear all about how great UK markets are.
We would love to hear from any markets that apply for any of these awards and shall be looking out for the hashtags #MOYAS #LYLM2014 #bbcfoodawards on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.
Good luck my lovelies!
The days left in the run-up to Christmas are a busy time for Market Development Officer, Esther Morrison over in Stockport, starting with her regular Foodie Friday’s set for 20th December in Stockport Market Place from 5-9. Entertainment is a key part of these evenings and Esther has booked live music from Stockport’s very own Blank Cheque (winners of this year’s Headlander open mike competition) and the Sunderland Street Skiffle Group.
Street Food available on the night will include:
Street Fodder – Malaysian @StreetFodder
Ostrich Direct – Exotic Burgers
Spud Stop @SpudStop
Craft beers & cocktails from Market Trader High Peak Beer
Kandoo Coffee
You can also shop till 7pm with the Stockport Market Traders and take part in the Winter Fireside Celebration at the Seven Miles Out Arts Centre which shall involve animal lanterns, fireside storytelling and forest skills. The newly opened Seven Miles Out Arts Centre is placed in the heart of Stockport’s Old Town, at 20 Market Place and are offering a free family event in ‘Angel Yard’, 20 Market Place. Local artists Sophie Tyrell, Jane Doyle and Emma Martin will be encouraging children to get involved in lantern art, woodland craft activities, cooking bread and listening to the story told by Minerva the Storyweaver around the campfire between 5-8pm.
Other events in the Christmas calendar are as follows:
Santa Comes to Stockport Market SATURDAY 21ST
As part of the Stockport Christmas Festival (run by Imagine FM)
The ONLY SANTA in STOCKPORT comes to Market Place on Saturday Dec 21st !
There will only be one Santa in Stockport Town Centre this Saturday!
Be at Stockport Market by 11am to see Santa approaching on his sleigh over Petersgate Bridge. Until 3pm, children will be able to chat to Santa and his helpers will be collecting for the Philippines’ Disaster Relief Fund
Our Marvellous Marquee will contain a hog roast and a wood-fired pizza oven to tickle your taste buds as well as a magician and some tasty treats for one and all. Plus the Manchester Bach Choir are singing.
It’s the last shopping Saturday before Christmas and all through the market you’ll find the best ideas for stocking fillers and that forgotten gift. Plus you can collect those Christmas joints and birds you ordered earlier in the month, select the perfect cheeseboard and bag the best fruit & veg! From onesies to custom-made diamond rings – you’ll find it all at Stockport Market
The Winter Fireside Celebration, Seven Miles Out Arts Centre - Day 2 between 3-7pm.
SUPER SUNDAY – last shopping Sunday before Xmas 22nd Dec
On Sunday there will be a full market with both halls and an outdoor market open
There will be a Christmas Teenage Market in the marquee and they are providing live entertainment from noon.
The Winter Fireside Celebration - Day 3 between 2-6pm.
Follow us on Twitter to find out more about the Christmas Markets and Stockport Festival 18-22 December @SMBC_Markets #foodiefriday
Minister for Markets Brandon Lewis MP took at stroll over to the Southbank Christmas Market this afternoon to check out all the great stalls on offer, as part of government support of the Love Your Local Market campaign, that now supports markets all year.
It was so lovely to get to Camden Lock Market early this morning and see the ‘bones’ of the place before the daily stream of visitors arrived. It is so unique a place and I was lucky enough this morning to be there to take part in their 'pop-up’ radio show as part of a Peoples Republic of Christmas campaign - 'an independent state for independents’, for which some fantastic visuals have been created around the market. A great example of branding your offer.
It was great fun being in the studio and answering questions based on the resurgence of interest in markets … to what makes Camden Lock unique. I was asked to bring along some music to play that resonated what markets mean, and todays choice was 'Lets Start" by Fela Kuti, as my love for markets started in Lagos, Nigeria as a child visiting Bar Beach Market. A real trip down memory lane.
And all finished off with some time to buy some unique gifts to put under the Christmas Tree and great coffee to wake me up at French and Grace.
I know, I know, I know…. Beth the Love Your Local Market social media manager and I keep going on about the Market of the Year Awards but they really are a very cool thing to get into.. and so easy too. The forms are not onerous - just 500 words or so about why your market rocks! Is it down to the the people that come, the traders, the products, the community atmosphere around it, the team that put it together, the awesome events attached to it? It can be any of those things and a thousand more… and we want to hear all about it. Past winners have been able to go home to their towns and cities and give their local media something to shout about and the title looks great on all your marketing material, so enter today and then get voting online for the all round winner…. but if you don’t enter in the first place you can’t be the overall winner, so get typing today - or do it in a couple of weeks time when your Christmas markets are over and you can take your time over a glass of sherry - but either way I would urge you to do it. Then Beth and I might stop bugging you too. Click here to take survey
The Camden Lock Market Independent State of Independents Night Markets have got all sorts going on.
I couldn’t believe it when I clapped eyes on the new Moor Market in Sheffield today… what an extraordinary achievement and a shining beacon of what markets could/should be like.
Hats off to Andy Ward for making it all happen… while I was there I even managed to talk to a few new traders. Here were there thoughts:
Lovely display from the bakers @7hillsbakery at the new
@TheMoorMarket (at The Moor Market)
Some Social Media Advice from the Love Your Local Market Social Media Manager - Beth Ward
We connected via #markethour on Twitter last week. You were mentioning how to monitor whether social media is any good for your market stall & I said that I’d be in touch. Well there are many ways of doing this including the following ideas. Obviously you can tweak them to being relevant to your product & stall:
Doing an offer which is only available via social media & saying the first 10 people who come to your stall get x (this way you can directly count footfall)
If your objective for using social media is to raise awareness of your stall & products you can use free sites such as www.twitonomy.com or www.tweetreach.com to see how many people have seen your tweets. You can also ask people to retweet (RT) your messages for you with the x no.winning a prize
You can use the hashtag #LYLM2013 or #LYLMXmas (our Love Your Local Market 2013 & Xmas hashtags) which are being promoted across Twitter. When people use them we normally RT what they are promoting (obviously if it is relevant)
Ask people who come & buy from your stall to take photos of what they’ve bought & add it onto their social media. Ask them to put out a recommendation/endorsement on social media
Run competitions on your social media to encourage people to come down to your stall
Interact with people via social media. Ask them questions of whether they’ve visited, what products they would like to see etc.
I hope this helps for starters. Don’t expect that social media will bring you thousands of people straight away. It is like any form of marketing people need to be made aware of you first. Make sure that you put your social media details on all of your leaflets, receipts, emails, on your stall, product labels etc. Anywhere where people will see it!
The KPR Midilink Market of the Year Awards are a fantastic way to generate buzz & interest about your market. Due to the growth in the industry in recent years & the huge number of you who took part in Love Your Local Market in May this year, three new categories have been added to include Speciality & Social Enterprise Markets with the additional category asking for entries for the Best Love Your Local Market Event.
The National Association of British Market Authorities (Nabma) who coordinate the event do not insist on membership as a pre-requisite to entering your market for the Awards & you can find out more about the other categories on their website: Market of the Year - Nabma
So many of you achieved such amazing results for LYLM in May and for those of you reading about Love Your Local Market for the first time here, the campaign is a fortnights celebration of UK Markets with the next event scheduled between 14-28th May 2014. 700 markets took part this year & here at LYLM HQ we are secretly hoping to smash that number in 2014. We are also committed to a focus on young traders next year, as well as the educational resource that markets provide, so if you’re doing anything like this on your market, we would love to hear from you & tell lots of other people too.
If you want to know more then sign up to the LYLM Newsletter where we will keep you up-to-date with the campaign & some best practice examples. We shall also be holding a series of regional LYLM Roadshows so look out for the dates & you could come along & find out all about LYLM first-hand.
In the meantime though…. those Awards! The entry form is really quick & easy. We just want to know a little bit about you & then ask for no more than 2000 characters on why your market should be chosen to win. We’re really looking forward to seeing all of your entries & then the fun begins as the voting for Best Love Your Local Market Event & Market of the year will be held online.
Thanks for reading,
Mrs Market
Please complete the ENTRY FORM & tell us which market you are nominating & why. Closing date for entries is the 31st December 2013.
I never get bored of this… & the fab folks at Warrington Market also explain Love Your Local Market so well in this video! Check it out - it’s brilliant!