Amex Supports Shopping Day for Small Businesses with Promotions

Big brands and online sellers normally get a lot of attention in the early days of the holiday shopping season. But a group of municipal business and advocacy organizations have come together to declare Nov. 27 “Small Business Saturday”, in an effort to raise public awareness of local independent merchants. And American Express, whose OPEN division does a lot of business clearing payments for and issuing credit cards to those small businesses, is joining in with a pair of social promotions aimed both at the businesses themselves and the shoppers they hope to attract on that key post-Thanksgiving buying weekend.

Under the terms of the campaign aimed at merchants, the first 10,000 small businesses that sign on to support Small Business Saturday at the Amex OPEN Facebook page before November 18 will receive $100 worth of free, customizable Facebook display advertising that will run on the Facebook site in dedicated inventory starting Monday, Nov. 22, and will continue to run until the $100 value has been exhausted.

The ads offered in the campaign will be built from a basic template but will be customizable in both the business name and the ad copy, the latter up to 135 characters. Ads will have to pass the approval of both American Express and the usual review under Facebook’s advertising guidelines.

One further stipulation; Ads awarded under this campaign cannot publicize any type of offer, sale, sweepstakes, contest or other promotion. In other words, image/ awareness ads only, with links to Web sites or Facebook profile pages.

Business eligible for the Facebook ad giveaway will be those with annual revenue of $10 million or less. They must also have either a Web site or a Facebook profile page. Recipients will be kept to one ad per business, and multiple locations will count as a single business.

On the consumer-facing side, the first 100,000 Amex cardholders who register their cards at the Small Business Saturday Web site before Nov. 27 and then spend $25 or more at participating small business merchants on the day itself will receive a $25 credit on the statement for that registered card.

For purposes of the campaign, “participating merchants’ will be any small business that takes the Amex credit card. Purchases at franchises or large national chains on that day won’t earn the $25 credit.

Additionally, for every visitor who “likes’ the Small Business Saturday Facebook page, American Express will donate $1 to Girls inc., up to a $500,000 limit. Girls inc. is a non-profit organization that teaches self-esteem and entrepreneurial talent to some 900,000 young women in the U.S.

The Facebook page contains tools that should help spread the Small business Saturday message both online and off. Business owners have a place to publicize their stores through Facebook and Twitter updates, while customers are encouraged to “give a shout out’ for their favorite local merchant by posting the message “I shop small @ …” to their social profiles. Fans can follow the thread on Twitter at #SmallBusinessSaturday.

Merchants who visit the Facebook page can also download a Small business Saturday badge for their own profile pages and signs for in-store display, and can access tips on using social media to grow their businesses from the Amex OPEN content network.

In announcing Small Business Saturday at a press conference Monday with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, American Express Travel Services CEO Kenneth Chenault said the dedicated day would level the playing field for independent sellers who must contend with the large national retailers on Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving—and Cyber Monday, the first workday after the holiday that often sees a spike in e-commerce sales.

“This is the start of a movement,” Chenault said at that event, adding that his company intends to continue to promote the day as special to independent businesses no matter what its take-up this year. “This is no flash in the pan,” he said.

Previous campaigns from American Express OPEN have offered advertising help or inventory as prizes and enlisted patrons as part of the competition. The company’s “Shine a Light” Web campaign in 2009 asked customers to nominate and then vote for a local small business that was an inspiration to its community in. The winner, telecom provider Sacred Wind Communications of Albuquerque NM, won $100,000 in cash and marketing support from American Express, in addition to a $10,000 award for being one of three finalists.