Starting Black Friday

North Country Local is proud to announce that it will once again be hosting the Holiday Hunt this shopping season. Launching at 10am on Black Friday, the organization known regionally for its $50 small business giveaways on Facebook, will be launching a 3-week plus “Hunt” and selfie contest through their website at northcountrylocal.com/holidayhunt21. The team at NCL has partnered with several businesses in Littleton, Lancaster, Groveton, Gorham, St. J, and Bethlehem to create a fun filled way to visit Main Street locations throughout the region, and to get into the holiday spirit. Of course, encouraging citizens to shop locally is also a big part of their goal.

This is the fourth large-scale contest, the third of this year, that North Country Local has offered to its fan base. “It’s a great way to engage with the larger community, outside of our normal Facebook-focused giveaways. It encourages a deeper participation with the organization through our website, a key area we want to continue to highlight as we expand.” said Chad Fillion, Owner of North Country Local. “These contests allow us to perform double duty. Not only do we have the chance to advertise the businesses that partner with us and showcase their stores during the holiday shopping season, but we also offer to the larger community a look at what North Country Local is.”

What does NCL do?

North Country Local is best described as an organization that is dedicated to assisting local small businesses with marketing and advertising support and helping to expand their social media reach. They offer a chance to win a $50 gift certificate simply by answering a very simple question on their daily Facebook posts. On the other end, it also introduces local businesses owners to the North Country Local team, and their ability to assist main street businesses with continued growth in marketing and advertising. In many ways, and by design, North Country Local is the gateway to Phlume MEDIA’s extensive service offerings.

Fillion purchased the start-up in mid-2020 to exist as an extension of Phlume MEDIA; his boutique marketing agency based out of Lancaster. The agency serves small to medium sized businesses with web development, video production, social media management, and more. They offer live studio broadcasting of original shows and events, and feature remote broadcasting of music, special features, and high school sports through their PhlumeStream Entertainment Network.

With North Country Local, they introduce local, small businesses to a sizeable Facebook Community of 15,000+ followers that might otherwise pass these new locations over. When it comes to the larger contests hosted by NCL, it helps with the organization’s individual growth, credibility, and visibility within the community. It also offers a new and innovative way for small businesses to learn about the North Country Local services.

Summer Activity

This past summer, the staff at North Country Local coordinated a 21-location “Treasure Hunt” encouraging locals to get out and discover their region again, “post-pandemic”. The contest highlighted different locations throughout NH & VT for participants to enjoy. It had hikes, vistas, museums, historical locations, and more. The team released clues in the form of videos, photos or riddles and invited participants to solve the clues to locate the 21 places. Additionally, guest presenters were invited to “host” some of the videos. They invited a Librarian, a State Senator, local business owners, a New Hampshire Fish & Game Biologist and local residents all to join in. The team hand-selected nearly a dozen hosts to appear within their short video clues.

The team also expanded the NCL web site’s capabilities and launched a complete interactive contest portal for fans to track their progress, earn badges and points, and track places already visited. The site’s functionality, user portal, clue management system, database architecture and interactivity were all programmed internally. Though this contest’s prize has been awarded, the “Treasure Hunt” itself is still active on their web site.

Expanding on Summer

As for the upcoming Holiday Hunt, Fillion says the team has repurposed some of the interface from the Treasure Hunt, built in a few new features, and they will be ready to launch the Holiday Hunt on the 26th with the added fun and excitement. “The only way to see it all though is to log-in and participate” He adds.

“With our Holiday Hunt, and other contests like it, we’re able to really play in the sandbox. We can share a lot of what NCL or Phlume can do in the form of marketing & engagement. We are able to showcase some of our video production and web development skills easily. Not only is it a cool way to meet citizens on the street at the grassroots level, and introduce them to NCL, it’s also a great way to highlight all the interesting stuff we currently offer to businesses. It’s basically a showcase of all our services wrapped into a single campaign.” Fillion shared.

How to enter the Holiday Hunt

Fans and followers will need to look for the official “Tree” posters located in the participating businesses. Participating businesses will have an official Holiday Hunt 2021 decal on their windows or doors. However, a full list of businesses will also be available on the North Country Local web site. Once an individual finds a tree poster, they’ll snap a selfie with it, then upload it to the web portal to enter. Contestants may enter a single selfie for each participating business and enter as many times as there are venues participating.

On December 20th the NCL team will host a Facebook live-stream from the Phlume MEDIA studio in Lancaster. They will pick the winners of the 10 holiday gift baskets during the event. The contest is free to citizens 18 and over. For information, official rules, contest details and more, visit the official contest portal.