A quartet of graphic panels produced to advertise the re-opening of the Heart of the Shires Shopping Village.
From the introductory ‘pause’, used in the build up to the re-opening, the graphic then changed – and changed again to suit the opening period. With the good news confirmed, the rainbow became brighter but the heart wasn’t completely healed with the restaurant, hairdressers and beauty salon unable to open fully yet. So this was represented in the three cracks on the heart. Hopefully there will be good news announced today for those three businesses.
Stats for one single post: Over 29,000 organic views on Facebook, 25,000 prior to the opening day. 170+ shares. 1 negative reaction to the post!
That’s a 99.997% positive reaction – we’ll settle for that.
Full text:
At the very start of the Corona Virus crisis, as we had to close our doors, we said our heart at Heart of the Shires, as a venue, was a little bit broken – and we altered our logo accordingly. We felt this way because our lovely retailers couldn’t open and you, our lovely visitors, couldn’t visit anymore. You couldn’t call in for that special outfit or accessory, you couldn’t see the fantastic range of kitchenware, buy something amazing for your home or garden, meet your friends, get your hair done or buy a quarter of lemon bonbons.
…and there were times over the past 12 weeks we all really needed some lemon bonbons!
It has been a challenging lockdown period for everyone – here at Heart of the Shires, whilst our doors were closed, we have been on social media and on our website looking out for and reporting the good news, the positives and championing many of the extraordinary things some extraordinary people have been doing, all over the world. We chased rainbows, we hunted bears and we even introduced you to Captain Tom Moore before any of the mainstream media found him. You told us you enjoyed the uplifting good news, we posted everyday, at a time good news was hard to find. We thank you for sharing some of your new-found free time with us.
So on the first weekend of Heart of the Shires opening our doors, we look forward to it immensely and we look forward to seeing you all again. Whilst our heart is beating stronger than ever it is not completely better. We have had to make changes to the site; from a one way route, 2 metre distances marked out and our toilets will be closed. A couple of our retailers are not able to fully open yet – Darlington’s, for instance, can’t open a full sit down experience; but a takeaway service will be available and apologies but your hair and fabulous good looks cannot be enhanced with Flutterbyes and Pour La Femme still waiting for a re-open date.
To heal our heart completely we really need your help. We’d love to see you this weekend, or next week, or next weekend – and then we’d love to see you again soon after! We’d like you to please be patient and understanding of the changes we have needed to implement on site but to still enjoy your visit. You can help by kindly writing online reviews about us. You can help by liking, commenting and sharing this post. Oh and to tell your friends and family how wonderful Heart of the Shires is and how incredible all the hard working, lovely retailers are.
As a nation of shopkeepers, it’s the first weekend since March for so many shops, so many livelihoods and the return of so many happy faces – both the retailers and the customers. We’d love you to come and support our independents. As our doors open this weekend, why not make changes yourself and back your local venues, like Heart of the Shires?
Thank you.
See you soon.
About The Author
