“Barcelona's commerce sounds good”: a campaign is launched for promoting small shops in BCN

“Barcelona's commerce sounds good”. This is the slogan for the campaign launched today by Barcelona City Council to support and promote local commerce. This is an initiative that highlights the economic and social benefits that are represented by shopping in local establishments, in each neighbourhood, and with idea of creating a more responsible and sustainable consumption. It is the retailers themselves, with their individual stories, who are the true stars here. 

A city is made by its commerce and its neighbourhoods by its retail. Local commerce is considered the basis to the Barcelona model which, besides creating economic wealth through its own activity, is also an element of social cohesion. Shops and markets establish links with the community, as they create spaces for social relations.

The campaign takes account of all this and explains it from the perspective of shopkeepers and stall-holders during their daily work and relations with the public and their clients. What is more, to identify the pace that local commerce contributes, a rumba has been created, dedicated to small-commerce stories. A tribute to the retailers whose work helps to realise our wishes for the city. It also aims to deliver a message of normality after the first stage of the campaign, now in November, in the city’s central spaces - Ciutat Vella and Eixample-, after the terrorist attack of 17 August.

The stories that will be given out are linked to several values and experiences relating to commerce. So, for example, they will come from initiatives that retailers are taking part in, such as the “Radars” and “School paths” projects, where shopkeepers are building relations with elderly people and school children in their everyday activities, the next generation in this commercial sector, and based on the innovative ideas that are applied there, such as digitisation and use of new technologies.

A few brief videos include narratives of the experiences of the retailers from their establishments, through the sound of their own shops and a voice-over telling each story. The rumba’s music plays an important role here.

The campaign will appear in outdoor advertisements, the press, radio slots, social-network initiatives and events organised in neighbourhoods, where music, and specifically that of the rumba, will be played live by a group of musicians travelling all around the city. Bags have also been produced bearing the campaign's slogan, which establishments will be giving away to their customers who buy their products. “Barcelona's commerce sounds good” is being launched this November and will last a year.